Here I am, sitting on my balcony on the Ruby Princess Cruise ship, docked in the beautiful port of Katakolon Greece. I’m sitting in the sun contemplating life, as I do…. And I get this blinding flash of questions, which prompted me to write this article. As I write it, I’m blown away because I don’t know if I will get the answers by the time I get to the end of it. I sure hope this rabbit hole leads to a rainbow…. For both our sake!!!
Ok…. Here goes:
Who does the driving? Does the body drive the mind and determine our actions etc (like hunger…. The body drives the desire to eat) or does the mind drive the body? Does the mind determine that it’s time to eat, and therefore habitually we eat?
I’ve used hunger as this example but lets look at love…. Does the body determine the feeling of love or does the mind drive love? Who is driving us? Is it the mind or is the body??
Well, I would naturally lean toward the mind being the driver, because I know, that the body does have cellular memory, but innately it is a neutral vehicle consisting of blood, bones, tissue etc. So, if this is true, and science tells us that it is…. Then it must be the mind right?
Ok, down the rabbit hole we go!
What is the mind? Possible answers could include:
Me, my personality, my beliefs and my attitudes and values ..
This leads to the next question:
Where did they come from and are they true? They are just perceptions based on past experiences and someone viewing the same experience would have a different perception about it…so our beliefs and values are unique to us, but certainly not a universal truth.
The next question is:
What is my personality? When we cut you open, we don’t find your personality. All we find is a neutral body…. We stitch you back up again, and bingo… you’re back again!!
1. Where did you go?
2. How come you have to be conscious in order to be inside the body and
3. How come we can’t actually find you?
4. How come you’re not physical, like your leg is physical?
5. If you’re not physical, what are you?
My brain….
This leads to the next question that your brain is just a grey ball of neurons, tissue and an incredibly mysterious network of electrical reactions which, when stimulated, will cause both physical and emotional responses….. When we are walking around each day, who is doing the stimulation? If you automatically
respond with “me, I am doing the stimulating”…. Go back to the first possible answer above!
So, it doesn’t matter which way you answer this question, there is a response which arises in a ‘rabbit in a headlight’ look that leads to no answer or possibly an answer that involves another Intelligence that is outside of the body, but expressed through the body.
Lets go down this rabbit hole for a second and flirt with its potential:
If there is a grander intelligence outside of the body, but expressed through the body, then this intelligence is doing the driving!!! Do you know what this means??
- The same intelligence that drives me, drives you. This means that we are not separate at all, in fact, quite the opposite! If that same intelligence that drives you, is driving me, then surely that intelligence has a purpose and drives us all toward that purpose…..
- What could that purpose be? What are we really here for? It can’t really be to make a difference and to contribute because I would imagine the grander intelligence has that under control…. But why do we all have this inner desire to help each other and make a difference then? Could this be a part of the educational reason we are here…. To discover that there is a grander intelligence that expresses through us, and when we discover this, we realize there is no need to try…. No need to compete, no need to struggle and paddle up-stream just to get ahead in life and perhaps we are just here to enjoy it….. to play instead? Could it be that simple??
- If the same intelligence that drives me, is driving you, it’s no wonder that we all have the same Ultimate desire to participate in the greater good of the world
- If everything we’ve ever done has been as a result of this grander intelligence, then I’ve never really been in control…. I’ve believed I have been in control and responsible, but the truth is quite the contrary!
- I have been running around believing that ‘if it’s going to be, it’s up to me’ but if it’s going to be, it’s up WE!! Me and the grander intelligence!! If this is true, who is the grander intelligence and I wanna know it…. Intimately!!! Where is it? How can I connect with it? Is it in me? Is that feeling of depth inside? My Soul? Is it that feeling of love?
- We are NOT alone!! We are not separate and in fact we live in an environment which is actually about inclusion, not exclusion but our belief that we are separate trying to make life work is an illusion and we have been fooling ourselves…… why? Why would we believe that we should be disconnected, when we really aren’t and never have been! How has this disconnection and separation served us? It hasn’t actually. It’s been our undoing all along throughout time…. When the opposite has been true all along. How come we didn’t see this before?
So, now, I’m thinking a little further….. How do we explain murderers, thieves, abuse etc? How do we explain the people who don’t care about the greater good?
Well, if we are to look at the body as an example of what could possibly be a snapshot of the Universal body…. Every cell in the body has a job. Every cell knows its job and no one cell is actually different in structure or make up to
another regardless of whether it’s a cell that makes up the skin or lungs or the legs…. Each cell is identical, yet they all have different jobs. They all work for the greater good of the body and will sacrifice themselves for the greater good if necessary. There are also cells in the body, which, when given destructive conditions, will begin to consume more than they need (just like our society) and we call these cancer cells. They are so destructive, they will in fact destroy everything in their path, consuming everything in their path, until they destroy themselves, by destroying their host. These cells are the ultimate kamikaze cells! Similarly, in society we have people, that given the right conditions, will turn on humanity until they ultimately destroy everything in their path until they destroy themselves and the host…… in other words, global demise (think terrorism now!).
However, like the human body, when we change the conditions of the body by participating with the grander intelligence in a profound way, meditating, eating real foods, cleaning up our anger, our perceptions and our beliefs about truth, we can potentially turn off the activity of this destructive force with success….. perhaps, we can do the same when it comes to humanity and society….. Perhaps if we were to realize that we are not doing the driving….we have the potential to WAKE UP to a new and enlightened way of living in this world and with a collective commitment to this clean up, we can turn these kamikaze people around, or off and begin to live in peace and harmony?
Is it possible that when we believe we are doing the driving, which results in our fear, anxiety, depression, sickness, dis-ease, we believe we are ultimately alone, separate and left alone to wonder this planet in search of purpose, money, success and freedom, yet never finding it….. only finding sporadic moments of love and laughter contrasted by longer periods of loss, fear, anxiety, striving and struggle? Clearly, this way of living and believing, is not working for us. In fact, it is creating that destructive environment where we are turning on ourselves, consuming more than we need because we believe we are in lack and ultimately leading to an existence of implosion and self destruction!
When we actually question the very nature of existence in terms of who is thinking you? Who is driving you and what makes us all the same….instead of what makes us different….. as we did at the beginning of this article we cannot avoid confronting the possibility of another intelligence participating in our lives yet we are ignoring it. We are not acknowledging it therefore, not understanding and relating to it, yet it is possible that this grander intelligence is the very source of our unity, harmony and greater good! There is another way of existing in this life that has been there all along. It is not new, it is not foreign to us, and it is no stranger. It has been closer to you than your own nose and you just didn’t see it because it’s always been there!!
Think about it. How do you know, who you are? Really. How do you know you exist? Really? How do you know what truth really is? If you hadn’t been taught by your family, school, university, and perceptions of your experiences, what would you believe truth to be?
My point here is that everything is made up! It’s been passed from generation to generation through story, education, conditioning and perceptions, but how do we know that any of it is actual truth? We don’t!! We only know what we know…. When we cross over into this line of questioning, we are moving into the realms
of what we don’t know, we don’t know but the magical part about this questioning is that no question has ever been asked, without the potential of answer existing somewhere!
No text book can answer this question, no study can reveal the truth about ‘who is doing the driving’….. only your internal experience will have you discover the awareness that exists in you and the more you’re willing to explore this question, the closer you will come to knowing the answer for yourself and I believe…. Knowing who you truly are, and that you are WAAAAAAY more than you have given yourself credit for!!
Is this the answer I was hoping for when I first started writing? I don’t know…. Somehow I feel incomplete yet I know this has opened a door that I’ve never walked through before. There is a different shade of light on the other side of this door which I am willing to enter because one thing I know for sure….. this world requires us to wake up and experience wholeness and harmony….. and the way we are interacting and have been for generations is leading us to one outcome…. Self destruction. If we are to act for the greater good of the whole, more and more of us need to clean up the environment in which we exist. I for one am willing to answer the calling….. how about you?
If we keep doing things the way we have been doing them, we will keep getting the results we’ve always had……. HOW IS THAT WORKING OUT??