Are You In Control?

How much control do you have over your life? Think of all the things you don't control: You don't control your heartbeat, your eye blinks, your breathing, digestion, wound healing... and the list goes on.

So what do you control? Well, you might say, I control my actions. Do you? When you talk are you controlling the hand movements that go along with your words, even when you're on the phone and your listener can't see your hands? Why would you bother to accent and help explain with your hands? Or... do you control your movements when you walk? Do you give orders to which muscles and ligaments activate for you to take each step? Or does walking merely happen as you stroll along, talking to a friend, for instance?

Oh, but thoughts: "Yes, I control my thoughts." Really? Can you stop them when you want to? Do you turn them on when you wake up? Or do they just come? My thoughts just show up, don't yours? Have you ever noticed that sometimes you find yourself just humming a tune? Did you ask for it to show up or did it just appear out of nowhere? And come to think of it, do you decide to think about a certain thing? If so, what or who decided to decide that?

We don't control our birth. We don't control our death. We don't control the moment we fall asleep or wake up (unless by artificial means). When we look closely we might begin to see that we're not in control of our life. So who or what is?

Maybe it's the same force or power or intelligent energy that seems to express itself as the universe, the planets, and all the objects that appear in our world. Maybe we're simply another one of those objects. Maybe, like trees that grow new leaves in the spring without their approval or consent, we're simply being lived. If that might be true, how content do you think you'd be if you simply watched life unfold, without an opinion of how it should be. Is it possible that life isn't about "should"or "ought" but just about "what is"?

Posted via email from A Happy, Peaceful Life - Your Choice