The Cosmic Coin
In Advaita we are taught that there is no authorship … no do-er, as it were. Things happen, because other things happen, because there are an infinite number of reasons or possibilities that are all tied together with an invisible thread that there could not possibly be a single reason, a single person or a separate entity responsible as the author of any action.
So then, I am not the author. The author is Source. At an intellectual level I understand this and even at the emotional level I believe this to be true. However, it is also my experience that I AM Source. There is no separation between Source and that which I call me. So if it is true that I AM synonymous with Source, and Source is the author of the Totality, then in the global eye, it can be said that I AM Author. Yet this I as the Author is not acting from this body-mind manifestation in isolation. This I as Author is simultaneously manifesting every phenomenal action in the same instant.
Yet maybe the pointer is more subtle than that. Source created this organism, set the DNA in place and set it free. At the same time Source creates all of the circumstances that the organism will encounter, knowing how the DNA will respond to each seemingly separate event. It is the collection of these events and circumstances that further influence the actions of the organism. These events then, put in place by Source, are continuing to mold, shape and change the organism in each moment — giving the appearance of free will. You can see the confusion this may cause.
My actions then, are determined by my DNA (which was given to me by Source) and my past experiences (which were also provided to me by Source) there is absolutely No Individual Freedom of Choice around any issue. The reactions I have are based on two things that I as a separate entity have no control over whatsoever.
Perhaps this is still too abstract for the mind to grasp. Imagine if you will, a tiny mouse that has been “set free” in a large labyrinths on the day of its birth. The mouse knows nothing of an outer world. Its own experiences are that which occur inside of the maze. Day after day, the mouse gains knowledge about the maze — where it finds food and water and if the researcher was so inclined where it encounters negative stimuli. All of the actions of this mouse are based on the genetic predisposition plus the experiences it has had in its artificial environment. If we were to anthropomorphize, we might imagine that the mouse believes it is creating food and water by pressing on a bar three times. However from our vantage point we see that it is the Researcher who built the apparatus that is indeed in control of every food reward or punishment.
While this helps us to understand the concept of non-authorship, it certainly feels distasteful to the human ego. We would like to believe ourselves mightier than the mouse and the notion of God as a Scientist playing with us as a cold and uncaring creator is too harsh for our idealistic model of heaven and earth. Though for some I suppose this fits quite well with their own experiences and resentments of the Almighty.
Though the lab rat analogy helps to convey a piece of the struggle, it does not help us understand how the Researcher and the Rat are One — the I AMness. For this we could look at our model from a new dimension. What is it that animates the mouse and the scientist? Are they both not the product of the food they eat and the air they breathe? The nerve synapses that pass chemical messages between the cells in their bodies are these not cosmetically identical under the microscope? At the molecular level the atoms and sub atomic particals are indistinguishable. From this perspective we can discern no inside or outside, simply wavicals in motion and the space that surrounds and contains it all. At the macro level too, from the vantage point of a distant galaxy we can look down on our planet and see the intra connectedness of all living and non-living objects and entities. The difference between the Researcher and the Rat are negligible on the global scale. We are quite literally each cells in the blood stream of the living planet.
Once we grasp or even glimpse the notion that we as a separate entity do not exist the question of Authorship falls away on its own accord. From the macro and micro levels we know that we operate as One. Waveicals (form) moving within Space (formless). Sentient beings (manifest) created from Emptiness (unmanifest). I am not the Author is as true a statement as I and the Author are One. The Scientist Heads and Mouse Tails of the same cosmic coin.
