Puppet On The String

This came to my mind as I was taking my morning walk. Strange, many a time, the words pop out when I am doing my exercise. Upon googling, I came across this song by Elvis Presley. These are the first few lines of the song :-

Every time you look at me
I'm as helpless as can be
I become a puppet on a string
You can do 'most anything to me
All you do is touch my hand
And your wish is my command

It is so true that we are all so heavily conditioned by our six senses that we have become so auto pilot. It is as if we are puppets being pulled by some invisible forces which are actually controlling us. We think we are in control but what is churned out is actually the same old conditioning, the same old pattern and it’s all recycled stuff. This is how we live our lives day to day until there is some curiosity to step back and see what is actually happening.

This journey of wisdom that has been shared by our two wise teachers is leading us to find out the reality of who we really are. We think we are human beings in control of our six senses. We think we can think, say and do what we like. But on closer introspection and contemplation, the opposite is true. Since young we have been so conditioned by what we have been taught and what we have picked up from society. In short, we are a product of conditioning. We do not have control over what we think, say or do unless there is awareness and wisdom to break away from this perpetual cycle. Yet, wisdom is not something that we can do. It arises when there is maturity of seeing cause and effect and the mechanism of mind-bodily processes. Only when the understanding is so ripe that the causality can be cut off, again not by our wanting it to happen but a natural consequence of a ripening of wisdom. When the seeing or understanding is so complete through the direct knowing of it that the cut-off can happen. It’s not about removing anything, not even the defilements, but by a realization that is so deep that there is no chance of any ignorance or delusion to exist.

Until that happens, we can only work at the cause. It is back to the 3MJ which sounds so simple yet it can never be done. In the past, I used to read such spiritual quotes which sound very nice to read but cannot be fathomed by the mind. Now, with more understanding, there is an opening up of what it is actually all about. It cannot be done yet one must continue to walk the Way, not coming from a doing approach, but from a natural ripening of the little nuggets of wisdom as the mind gathers more right information supported by right attitude, consistency of awareness. Hence, it is not a doing but a natural flowering when the causes are understood through the simple yet not easy 3MJ. It is in seeing the defilements more and more whenever ignorance plays up and the meeting of them with the 3MJ that the ignorance is so-called chipped off, little by little. Slow but with patience, faith and consistency, the effect will unfold. Then, one may ask, `Why do some get it so fast? We never know the causes and conditions that support such a ripening. But, if we are serious and have faith in this Way, the inevitable will happen. When? Not for anyone to say for there is no one who has any say. When it happens, fake identity is totally gone. So, if spirituality is leading us to find out the cause, how sincere are we to take on the Way?

Until the big bang happens, we are all `puppets on a string’. We are governed so heavily by our conditioning that there is no free choice. Even science has proven it. Neuroscientists have conducted experiments that show the brain has come up with any decision 10 seconds before we are even aware of the so-called choice made. If that is the case, there is no free will but a play of conditioning that determines the choices we make. So, to break this conditioned mind state, how are we going to deprogram our minds? This field is too vast for us to capture but we do understand by now that views play an inherent factor to determining how we have been so heavily conditioned and this is turn gives rise to the layers and layers of views that we have accumulated. Hence, the views keep on piling up more and more. These views in turn add on to heavier conditioning. Hence, the only way to so-called getting out of this perpetual churning of views and conditioning is through meditation. Yet, if meditation is done ‘within the box’, we will still be puppets on a string, acting out inside instead of outside. It must be the right type of meditation to find out what actually is going on within us that makes us think and react the way we do. For that, I can truly appreciate what the teachers have been telling us. I saw how subtle defilements can be, tricking me to believe that I was doing it correctly. I can still see the subtle wanting to hang onto security and thinking that the I, me will be safe. When will the total surrendering of this ego to the uncertainty of conditions happen? I can only be certain of one thing. Only with the persistent gathering of right information and the willingness to walk this Way with awareness and wisdom, can nature yield the unknown. I can’t do it neither can I get it. It happens due to a natural effect when the causes cease due to the right practice and maturing of right conditions.

So, with more and more right information streaming in plus the curiosity to explore within my own mind, I am beginning to see some flashes of understanding that trigger short moments of realization that I can’t express. But, somehow the mind knows that there is some understanding to loosen the strong conditioning. It makes me feel good when defilements trick me into believing that I have got some sense of what it is when another tsunami hits again to knock more sense into me that `I can never get it.’ So, it is a willingness to keep on walking this beautiful journey of discovery until the string which is hooked onto this puppet called Chee be disconnected from the master mind above. It is the King called IGNORANCE. Yet, it is not bad. It is just doing its job and playing its function. So, is there anyone to blame? Of course, there is none but all an interplay of mind-bodily processes. But, intellectual understanding is not it. Only when the mind really gets it can this illusion dissolve. Until then, the so-called Chee can only strive on with diligence.

In grace,
Chee Guit Yeng
08 July 2021