Who Owns Your Life?

Jimi Hendrix

Who owns your life? In the early seventies I ‘surrendered my life’ to an Indian Guru who rode around in a Rolls Royce and taught the knowledge of how to be free and liberated.

I remember meeting a fellow devotee in Manchester one evening. “Are you going to Satsang?” he asked.

There was a satsang or spiritual discourse meeting in the centre of town that was designed to attract new converts to the Guru’s way of life.

“No,” I replied, I’m going to the cinema to see a film starring Jimi Hendrix.”

My fellow devotee looked shocked. He accused me of neglecting my spiritual duty, of going against the Guru’s wishes that we attend satsang as often as we could. Despite his pleading I went to see the movie and thoroughly enjoyed it. Afterwards a felt a guilty.

In order to achieve the state of freedom and liberation I gave away the authority over my life to a Guru who basically taught the opposite of freedom:

• Meditate every day using techniques that concentrate the mind away from the free flowing of thoughts.

• Don’t indulge in the normal pleasures of life like going to the cinema or having a pint in the local pub. Meditate, go to satsang and perform service instead

• Give up meat and all intoxicants

• Surrender the reins of your life to me!

After a while I left this repressive lifestyle but continued to search for freedom. Part of what attracted me to non-duality teachers was that there appeared to be no authority or control by them. They talk about the non-dual perspective but do not impose their views on their listeners.

However, the human mind being what it is still wants some kind on authority. I was reminded of this recently when I talked to a lady about the non-dual teacher Tony Parsons. I said that I disagreed with him over some of the things that he said. I immediately detected some hostility in her, as if to question the great man was not a good thing to do. I realised that for her, Tony Parsons was an authority on non-duality and , like a lot of authority figures, should not be questioned as he knows best. I do not blame Tony Parsons for this. People often create their own authority figures without any pressure from a teacher.

Non-duality teachers often say that there is no difference between themselves and their listeners yet they sit separated, in front of their audience – a subtle gesture that says, well actually, I am the authority on this subject, the one who has got this. You have not got this and furthermore you are paying me good money to confirm once again that you have not got this.

What would happen if you surrendered all authority over your life – including your own authority? What would happen if you realised that nobody owns your life? Is there a you that can own your life? Is there such a thing as your life?

What would happen if you stopped listening to the authority of speakers on non-duality, including myself, and just let go of the notion that there is something to seek, something to find, something to understand? Perhaps then you would have the chance to see what is right in front of you and declare:

“Gosh, it was here all the time. “

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