Attachment to my memories from the past and desires to be different in the future create the imaginary “I-ego,” which is locked in the cage of my mental addiction to thinking (time). The “I-ego” can’t change my addiction because neither is real. Still, there can be freedom from the unreal—my imaginary ego imprisoned in my addiction to time—in the present moment.
That freedom happens through the transcendence of awareness, becoming aware: the peaceful observation of meditation that can dissolve the endless chaotic illusions of my ego: thinking in time. When psychological time (thinking) stops, the silent understanding of my “feelings” arises in connection with the reality of life happening in the present moment, where the addicted, thinking ego (time) cannot exist.
If the “I-ego” is thinking or speaking, my mind is imprisoned in time;
Only through the silent awareness of a meditative mind does true intelligence of connection arise to yield the peaceful feelings of fulfillment in the complete spontaneous action of what is required in the present moment—the courage to let go of addictions—to be free of time.
Once I experience the light of awareness, I cannot unsee it.
I hit bottom in my addictions when the “I-ego” is exhausted, thinking stops dissolved into clarity of mind, the cage door is flung open into the light of awareness, and I experience freedom from psychological time as long as I can maintain awareness—staying aware in the present moment. Just like prisoners set free after years in a physical prison, I have to learn to live in connection with the real world again, free from time. I have to stay aware of my addictions to sensations, things, and thinking in time so as not to be reincarcerated in that cage of thoughts but remain free and connected to reality happening in the present moment.
With freedom from addictions comes a new purpose: to keep the light of awareness switched on! When I become aware of the limitless eternal beyond my cage of thoughts, I am on the path of understanding the truth of reality, which is freedom from fear of the unreal;
“Nothing real can be threatened.”[1]
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[1] A Course in Miracles (Huntington Station, NY: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975), introduction.
