"Co-Creation"

You hear this term a lot in spiritual circles. The inference is that the course of our lives is the result of a collaboration between us and the Divine. In other words, our effort, intentions, actions, thoughts and beliefs all contribute to a significant degree to what we experience during these lifetimes.

This sounds good. It really does. And, on the surface of things, it sure seems to be the case, doesn't it?

I mean, we've all heard about (and probably experienced) the "power of positive thinking." We've all had "answered prayers". We've all had hard work pay off. And we've probably all been dumbfounded by fantastic "coincidences" which leave us certain that the Divine knew exactly what "we" needed and provided it to "us" precisely when we needed it the most.

We have all experienced the flip side at least as frequently haven't we? We've all "tempted fate", "let opportunity pass us by", issued forth "self-fulfilling prophesies" and maybe even "dug our own graves" a time or two.

Things such as these all support the idea that there is a solid "me" who is, to greater or lesser degrees, functioning as a metaphysical co-pilot of sorts.

And for all I know, maybe this is the case. Maybe we are powerful "Co-Creators" of our own experience.

But one thing troubles me about this line of reasoning.

From where exactly do these intentions to co-create arise?

Before you answer, "From me, of course", think about it a second.

Who are you anyway? And for that matter, where are you? Behind your eye balls in the center of your skull? Is this right? Is there a little intention making apparatus in there? If so, is this you? How can you be sure?

The problem that arises is that there is no way for the ego structure to either confirm (or disprove for that matter) it's own reality. Every opinion it offers is, by definition, self-referential and thus immediately invalid.

Now there is nothing wrong with subjectivity. I am a big fan of it, in fact. But when it comes to ultimate answers, I know that "I"- "the Christian thing"- in its myriad of iterations- is fundamentally unreliable.

Asking an ego to assess it's own nature is like composing an essay exam for yourself, answering it and then giving yourself a grade. Doesn't seem kosher does it?

So where does this leave us? Should we just throw in the towel and stroll blithely down the primrose path?

No, that obviously won't do at all. Even if we are completely devoid any control whatsoever, our gut tells us that we must do something. We can't go out like that.

So where do we look?

Maybe the gut isn't such a bad place to start after all.

The intellect is well suited for executing practical matters such as teeth brushing, car driving, and atom-splitting. When it comes to explorations of our fundamental nature, however, we may be best served by passing the reigns over to our Intuition.

It seems to me that we are never going to think our way in to Heaven. But neither should we try to dispense with the faculties of thought such as discernment, which is invaluable on any spiritual path.

My point is just this- let's be careful about our assumptions- even the flowery, "positive" ones.

Does being a co-creator sound good? Heck yeah. Is it possible that this is the case? Sure. But we are going to have place aside all biases, preconceptions and wishful thinking if we are going to conduct a serious and objective investigation.

But isn't our Intuition subjective? Well, in the sense that it is "ours", yes. But our Intuition, though not always easy to perceive, is, in its purest sense, unencumbered by our past and unburdened by our conditioning. Which makes it a more appropriate and investigative instrument for explorations of this nature.

The irony of all of this, of course, is that Ultimate answers can only be known subjectively. If you've read as many spiritual books as I have you may come to the conclusions that other peoples' awakenings really are of little use to us in the long run, except perhaps to provide us encouragement along the way. The are no shortcuts and we have to make the journey ourselves. In this case, knowledge of new horizons and broader vistas is truly dead. Either we see it for ourselves or we don't. Anything else is just us sitting through someone else's spiritual slide show.

A teacher of mine put it this way- Awakening isn't up to us though we need to act like it is.

Discovering one's true nature is the most personal undertaking imaginable, the responsibility for which falls squarely on what in the end may turn out to be our non-existent shoulders.

Gassho