QUOTE(Waterfall @ Jan 20 2011, 01:55 AM)
What the chaoates miss is the fact that it's always there. They talk about practicing different ways of looking at things but they don't, really; practice just reviews ideas already in your conscious mind.
Look at it this way. You're not like the driver of a car, with one decision maker controlling a mechanism; you're like the captain of an enormous ship, with thousands of crew you usually don't even realize are there. Most of the details of your actions and even your thoughts are supplied by that crew. The "me" you identify with gives orders and has veto power but doesn't usually perform the action or originate the thought. Kind of hard for most people to believe if you haven't experienced it, but it's real.
And our body is made up of systems and cells acting both discreetly and as a unit. I wonder at the subtle divisions of the spirit as well. This experience supports the emanationist cosmology, one becoming many, each degree operating "on it's own volition" but under the guidance and direction of the next highest degree on the ladder.
Peace