The Story of the Scorpion and the Holy Man (Revised)

He who sees that all actions
are performed by nature alone
and thus that the self is not the doer -
that man sees truly.
(Lord Krishna, Bhagavad Gita)

There was once a holy man who sat at a river bank. A passer-by observed how he lifted a drowning scorpion out of water, but before he could place it safely onto the river bank, the scorpion stung him. In pain, the holy man instinctively dropped the scorpion back into the water only to rescue it again. The passer-by watched that strange occurrence in amazement for a while and then asked the holy man why he always rescues that scorpion if he knows that he will only get stung. The holy man shrugged his shoulders and replied, "It is the nature of the scorpion to sting and it is my nature to save creatures in distress."

We do what we do, because we do what we do. We may have fewer degrees of freedom in what we do, even though we think we do. Yet, we can realize that we are part of an unfolding movie plot. The Oracle said in the movie "The Matrix" to Neo:

"You didn't come here to make the choice, you've already made it.

You're here to try to understand why you made it."

So even if it is true that we are propelled by forces beyond our conscious control when we do what we do, we always have access to insight in the Holy Now. Insight propels us to the next spiritual level, so we have the ability to wake up within the movie. When you realize that the self is not the doer, the Self is in fact activated. Sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Let the movie unfold and don't worry, the story line will be a great one. Once the Self engages, love, creativity and peace are traveling with you.