Picking and Choosing Ain't So Bad

So in Zen and Non-Dual circles I guess it is considered bad taste to "pick and choose." Like this in the Xin Xin Ming:

The Great Way is not extremely difficult
It only criticizes picking and choosing
But if you can neither hate nor love
This cave will certainly be unblemished and bright
But deviate the width of a hair
And heaven and earth are held apart
If you want it to appear before you
Do not be subservient or rebellious
To pit obedience and defiance against each other
Indeed causes the heart and mind to grow sick
Not understanding the profound purpose
The practitioner labors to silence thoughts
The Way is complete like vast emptiness
Without excess or lack
When you have a reason to accept or reject
There is no place for Suchness

(Interesting that the image of a cave is used.  They seem to be cropping up everywhere from Plato to Parmenides.  And I like them.  I wish I could sleep in them.  As long as they had a door with a lock on them:-).  But I guess where I live now is kinda-cave like for being on the 9th floor. )   

Anyway---my sense is that not picking and choosing can be just another way of picking and choosing.  And to support this, I rely on my favorite imaginary being, the Buddha himself.  When the Buddha was challenged by the so called demon Mara, he resisted her/it not by giving into or following her ministrations, but by pointing (in my view) and hence choosing the earth.  And of course there are many nuisances to this, but for my belief, he "picked and chose" the earth.  

What did he pick and choose from?  What were the alternatives?  Well ,he could have had the usual BS, wealth, fame, sex, power etc.  Or he could have chose confronting Mara and playing her game.  She was challenging him intellectually asking him to justify his authority.  In other words, she was tempting him with mind games.  He did not choose the mind.  The flickering candle.  Instead, he chose the earth.  The body.  The heart.

And each moment we face a similar choice.  We can pick and choose the body/heart/mind, or we can choose the life of the mind.

By the way, have a happy weekend everybody😄