Rejoice: There is No Choice

We all want to be brilliant, to use up every bit of talent hidden beneath our inner admonitions of failure, ineptitude, and worthlessness. Some people work so hard to rise above some societal stigma, that they wear themselves out trying to prove their innocence and value. Few escape the limits imposed on them from their families, schools, or churches. Given these parameters, it is amazing how many actually emerge to be brilliant, creative, and compassionate.

What is it that brings out our distinctive abilities, even when we are thwarted at every turn? A religious person might say it is God’s grace. A motivational speaker will tell us it results from motivation, a good attitude, excellence, and persistence. A psychologist might mention the support of family, loved ones, or a mentor. Every system has an explanation for that which really cannot be explained. When I lie in bed in the morning, I resist getting up. I stretch, read, meditate, but in some unchosen moment, I hop out of bed. I wonder, at those times, what it was that pried me out of bed in just that moment. Two moments before, I was tied to the bed, then suddenly I am up in a flash.

I want to explore something, and you might think me mad, yet I cannot leave this idea alone. The idea is not new, and it is most popular in the eastern culture. The theory is that our creator created everything in the world of form so we could experience limits as unique possibilities. God, or Source, was the same, bliss and consciousness, yet Source wanted to explore all variations of creation. This action of exploration is called Leela or divine play. This all sounds plausible, but the intriguing aspect is that it means that Source, or God, is not only the creator but is the creation itself. When easterners speak of Leela, they deviate a bit in their definition, but the part that interests me in all the definitions is that Leela is a play of consciousness, and consciousness is the source of all. This is where it gets interesting, though I am not sure the concept of Leela incorporates this aspect of consciousness. And I must add this: concepts are not reality. They are the vehicles we use to try to express something that cannot be fully expressed or understood. I can tell you all about a diamond, but until you see one, all the information I push toward you is relatively irrelevant. Back to this theory or concept, which you can laugh at, given I have just destroyed its efficacy. God/Source is the doer, of everything. We think we have free choice, but we are an instrument of the Unlimited, and there is no choice. Just as I hop out of bed without making a conscious decision, Spirit operates through us, not just making that one leap, but making every leap and every choice through us.

This might seem like a terrible idea to the independent thinker and to the culture that almost worships the idea of free choice. To put this bluntly, we have absolutely no choice. Source does everything through us, as a part of the unfolding of the infinite universe. Maybe that’s a clue that we are Source, living our life as a unique individual. Hum, the whole idea brings me to a weird kind of freedom. It means that I can chose anything I want, thinking it is I who is choosing, even though every thought I have is made through me, not by me. All this may or may not be true, but in sifting through myriads of experiences, philosophies, and teachings, I can see its merit. And in my brief moments of being fully awakened, it was true. I was never the me I thought I was, separate from the Source, and I never had any choice. If spirit is living through me, I can just enjoy the ride. The idea that there is a me, is a lovely, complicated, original creation of Source, but “that me” does not really exist. When something happens, I do not have to freak out. I can know it was what was supposed to be. I can change it if I want, while remembering that I am not really doing the changing. And if I want to freak out, that is okay too. This is not an excuse to go out and do crazy things, but if the me I think I am, does crazy things or make mistakes, those actions were always the movement of Consciousness.

I write about this for a couple of reasons. One is that it helps me parse out things, and the other is to see if there are others, meaning you who are reading this currently, who are on the same page. We live in a no fail universe, and though it may seem as if there are many injustices, ultimately there is a stream of bliss or consciousness that flows through everything. It is divine intentionality, and it is That which we should trust, because we are That. And that is about all I can say, except that the more I realize that there is no me, and that the me that I think I am has no choice, the EZier I find my life to be. And that’s all, folks.