Sunday, November 18, 2007

What is Freedom?

What is Freedom? We think of freedom as being able to exercise the right of free speech, the "pursuit of happiness".... we talk of freedom from pain, freedom to do what we want, financial freedom.... Every single aspect of this usual freedom is a desire to have things a certain way, a fear of not being able to do something.

The Freedom being pointed to here is a freedom from all of it, good or bad. It's a freedom from the very belief in a body or a person that can be free from any of these "external" things. It's a freedom that sees the very attempt of the body/person to be free as another false illusion.

Real freedom comes from seeing/knowing that the very body perceived is not what it appears to the analyzing mind. The "body" is a bundle of passing sensations, appearing in this empty awareness or knowingness.

No matter what is appearing to happen to this "body", it's still only more appearances and not what you are. You are the very silent knowing of the sensations LABELED body - no matter what the particular EXPERIENCE of that "body" might be.

So if that "body" is experiencing freedom from this or that, it matters not. The true freedom comes from seeing the body as just passing sensations and perceptions. And True Freedom is knowing it's not what you are - and in this there is an inherent and effortless ACCEPTANCE of whatever may arise for that "body", free or not.

1 comment:

KO said...

I'd like to know more about your ideas on freedom and where they come from. Can you contact me at karebear_oggy@hotmail.com? Thanks!