Freedom is not remembering the meaning of the word. Words imprison me. I use words to create labels, from which I construct temporary thoughts made of ether that are the imaginary bars of the cage that imprisons me in my mind. I use labels to compare and brand every internal feeling or external object I experience, to be memorized and assembled as thoughts to survive my temporary existence. I am confused and conflicted, mentally suffering in a constant struggle to use words and labels to make things permanent; I imprison everything into a false sense of control to ensure my survival in a temporary world where life changes in every present moment.
My perception of the world is limited by labeling everything that is happening based on what I already know—looking at life, which is constantly changing, with a vision defined by my past, leaving little room for understanding the unbiased truth of what is always new and evolving around me or what is arising within me—now. My outlook on what is happening is distorted from behind the bars of judgmental thoughts, choosing between the duality of one label or its opposite, between good or bad, pain or pleasure, heaven or hell, creating the illusion of security, thinking about how to control or change the world from the safety of a jail cell, rather than getting my hands physically dirty or my feelings psychologically hurt by embracing reality—what is happening in the present moment.
I spend much of my energy remembering, self-criticizing, evaluating my past, and planning my future based on the past—in the illusion that thinking (my accumulated intellect: what I know) can change what is happening and control my life experiences for survival now. When the truth is that my thinking cannot control the source of what is naturally occurring and constantly changing. I waste more energy in my addiction to thinking, restricting energy flow through the maze of words, labels, and thoughts—the ether—that is my mind and reacting to life based on the past rather than in direct response to feeling unified with everyone and everything happening now; allowing Love to flow freely from my heart, in blissful innocence, genuinely experiencing life in the present moment.
Freedom is letting go of words that imprison, labels that compare, thoughts that distort, and the fear of losing what I know. The past disappears when I let go of what I know, and my temporary survival tool for making things permanent—the mind—quietly dissolves. Freedom is selflessness; when the self disappears, labeling, comparison, fear, and the other disappear, and all that remains is Love! The selfless mind is quiet when the self disappears, and meditation happens.
Freedom is the meditative state of staying aware of my thinking mind, knowing that every new experience life offers is not always rainbows and unicorns but that all life experiences are temporary and require a heartfelt understanding of what is happening—now. Freedom is not reacting to life in a repeated pattern from the past but responding based on the understanding that comes from being aware that I am part of what is happening but not in control of anything real. Nonjudgmental understanding allows me to flow freely with the rhythm of life in the present moment.
So, freedom is not the security of psychological or physical descriptions I wish to possess or achieve. It is not reacting to the ever-changing world from a prison of labels, trying to make the world permanent. Freedom is being comfortable with the insecurity of living in a direct, silent response with the temporary. Freedom is not thinking about being unrestricted in the future; freedom is feeling unrestricted—when the mind is no longer distorting and blocking the eternal energy flow of Love through me into the world—now!
VAB 10-01-24
©2024 stillawakening.com All Rights Reserved
