Going Where “You” Will From an embryo, a human body, brain, sense organs (and so on) are formed; a baby is born, and the baby grows through infancy. Somewhere—throughout the process of conception through adolescence—we would say that this human organism acquires “will” (which we generally regard as autonomous, intentional choice and action). If we were to surmise that the bodily organism itself was a manifestation of the Void, or the “Ground,” then we would likely surmise that the organism’s subsequent “will” was also a manifestation of that self-same source. Many choose to refer to such a source in terms of “God.” In any case, to accommodate this latter form of terminology, we could say this: when will does become manifest, it is—from this perspective—not by our will (that is, the organism without will) that it becomes manifest, it is by God’s will. In this sense, it can be conceived that our will was God’s will, “always has been” God’s will. Obviously, personal will and “consciousness,” particularly “self” consciousness, are intertwined. And what can be said of the origination of will can be said of the origination of consciousness. And we would suppose, consciousness is intertwined with such manifestations as thought, imagination, belief, and memory. Typically, when conscious, we think and imagine; form beliefs; and we recall our images and beliefs through memory. It is such processes that appear to be at the base of our “will,” of our intentioned personal choice and actions. It seems, in general, that it is via this network of intertwined psychic phenomena—consciousness, thought, imagining,
266