Awakened Consciousness Not a Backseat Driver

Let's put it this way: the job of your consciousness--the consciousness that you are--is to sit back and enjoy the ride. Don't interfere, don't be a backseat driver. Just relax and watch the scenery.

Jiddu Krishnamurti put it a slightly different way, but he meant the same thing. In A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, Eckhart Tolle tells the story of Krishnamurti's revelation of his "secret." It was simple. He said, "I don't mind what happens."

Who is "I" in this statement? Krishnamurti's consciousness. Consciousness that does not mind what's going on is free to sit back relax--inner peace--without interfering with The Good that runs the universe, all that is, including us.

It doesn't interfere with the body's natural intelligence, which is at one with the Universal Impulse.

Research in the field of quantum physics appears to bear out this point of view. On his website, A Course in Consciousness, Dr. Stanley Sobottka, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Virginia, explains a famous experiment in which test subjects were asked to simply lift a finger whenever they chose to do so. At the same time, their brain activity was monitored.

After many iterations of this simple test with thousands of subjects, the data indicated a .3 second difference between the moment when the brain started to process the movement of the finger and the test subjects awareness of a desire to move the finger.

In other words, the test subjects would "decide" to move the finger .3 seconds after the brain had already initiated the impulse to the muscles of the finger. The brain had already "decided" on its own, with no help from the consciousness of the test subject!

Quite independent of any knowledge of this experiment, I had already observed the same phenomenon in myself. I first began to notice it upon first waking up in the morning. If I had no pressing obligation and I managed to keep my mind free of thought during that time, I could "watch" as my body got out of bed and went about its business, fully aware of what needed to be done, when I needed to be where and how quickly I needed to do things in order to stay on schedule.

My body didn't need any help from "me," that is, the consciousness that I am. I could simply enjoy the ride. Anything beyond that was interference, worry, anxiety.

Again, I witnessed the phenomenon in meditation. Almost daily I set aside a block of time to clear my mind of all thought and to allow my body to experience the joy that is its natural state without interruption. These sessions end on their own with no input from my consciousness. I am comfortably there, watching as my body moves into the next activity, fully cognizant of what needs to be done.

It needs no input from "me" because it is in touch with a more knowledgeable Source, the Impulse of the Universe.

This leads inevitably to thoughts of free will. We have free will to allow The Good to work through us or to fight it. Either way, it's going to have its way. One choice gives rise to anxiety and suffering. The other gives rise to peace and the joy of being that is our natural state.

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