Our January guest speaker in The Little School of Big Change Graduate Community was Gary Crowley.
Gary’s written several books. In one of them, From Here to Here, he talks about how awakening to enlightenment is the direct result of freedom from the illusion of the separate, volitional self.
In other words, there is no you making things happen. He says:
“There is no ‘me’ with conscious will that does anything! Human beings are nothing more than puppets whose strings are made invisible by the illusion of conscious will. Pretending the strings are not there causes suffering. Seeing the neurological strings begins the turning of awareness toward an awakening to enlightenment.”
The puppet strings are made invisible by believing we’re making things happen. But we know better, don’t we? If you are pulling the strings on life, why does that ability appear to break down so often? If you have a say in the way thought, feeling, and life show up, why aren’t you getting more of what you want?
Pretending the strings aren’t there causes suffering. But again, we’re pretending and we know it. Pretending hurts.
“Seeing the neurological strings begins the turning of awareness toward an awakening to enlightenment.” Neurology pulls the strings. Biology, conditioning, and DNA create the psychological and emotional predispositions that play out, and then a “me thought” says “I did that. I chose that. I’m doing it all.” Ha!
Being a puppet isn’t so bad because we aren’t just the puppet; we’re also the strings and the puppetmaster and the whole lot. We’re everything. There is only One.
There is no “you” on the hook for anything. No blame, no shame, no regret, no pressure. It couldn’t be any other way.
There’s just one life energy dancing as everything.