Something To Think About June 8, 2007
Posted by Geoffrey Wilson in : Personal Freedom , trackbackThough personal freedom is relative, at the end of the day, there are not too many people who would argue that passion, as well as finding meaning and purpose, are the defining qualities of successful living.
Of course, passion, meaning and purpose will vary tremendously from person to person. Whereas financial liberty is the hallmark of freedom for someone with an aim to ‘do as one pleases whenever one pleases’, a peaceful heart and mental serenity might well be the crowning achievements of another.
Regardless of the goal however, the one thing people have in common with or without conscious awareness of it, is the urge to truly love and in turn, be loved. In fact, this urge is arguably the single most powerful driving force behind our behaviour across the board and serves as the inspiration for many of the things we do and are involved with, from business to pleasure.
Strange as it may seem, many of us actually struggle to come to terms with the way we go about achieving this common but often ungraspable goal. Of course, there are many reasons for this.
One of them is that we get too caught up in the pursuit of our goals and consequently forget to nurture the important things. Another is that we simply get confused about the nature of passion, meaning and purpose and end up trying to satisfy each and every desire that springs to mind. Yet another is the habit of mulling ceaselessly over the past and projecting wild imaginings about the future.
Often never in the present long enough to smell the roses, we go around in circles looking to make amends for the mistakes of the past. Rarely do we realise that we’re likely to make the same mistakes in the future, unless safeguards are put into place that provide some substantial clarity – the anchor of sound decision-making.
In the context of what has already been mentioned then, I’ve put together my ‘hard-core’ checklist of spiritual qualities that support personal freedom. I say ‘hard-core’ because some of you may find these qualities either unrecognisable or unattainable. Perhaps some of them will even seem unrelated to you or your own personal mission. Regardless, I can only suggest that you take a look and keep an open mind. Over a long period of time, I’ve tested them all and have found them to be extremely useful guidelines.
1. Freedom from Exploitation
If you are exploitable, you will be suspicious of everyone and everything. Desire makes for greed and greed produces the exploiter who will most certainly become the exploited, sooner or later. Exploitation means that you will exploit someone or something to get what you want.
The wanting of anything makes you exploitable. Wanting means you are not content with ‘what is’. What price then, have you placed on your own head? With price comes the ending of self-respect. How can you then respect anything or anyone?
2. Freedom from Isolation and ‘Shut-Down’
If you are separate, you will shut down from everyone and everything. To separate means to cut off, isolate or alienate yourself from others. Usually this happens when you have been hurt, insulted or rejected. Closing off is a protective mechanism that prevents further insult to injury.
Being separate however, means that you won’t be able to trust anyone or anything. Cut off, shut down, self-protective and disconnected, the link to spirit is severed.
Being separate is the same as being unreceptive. This is a recipe for resistance and resistance means going against the flow of life. Resistance will guarantee pain. To resist in effect, means to not accept things as they are. Accepting things as they are, is what flow is all about.
Resistance then, is that peculiar brand of pride that suggests we know better. It also sustains control. We don’t like not being in control. This is why many find it difficult to link up with spirit. Some people even make excuses such as: “Better the devil you know!”
3. Freedom from Procrastination and Indecision
If you are a victim, you will always blame someone or something else for your circumstance. This is of course, the justification one gives for a lack of understanding.
Do not make the mistake of thinking you understand something deep within yourself, when in fact, you only understand it verbally or intellectually.
You will procrastinate and feign indecision to the extent that you believe your problem is not your’s to deal with – that it is not your challenge to face! This is the origin of the excuse.
Once you become aware of the law of cause and effect (karma), however, excuses come to an end. You will know that everything you do has a consequence. When you understand the relationship between cause and effect, you will know that you are living proof of your circumstance. For you will know that every cause produces a corresponding effect.
How could it not be so?
4. Freedom from Misfortune and Calamity
Misfortune is something that is earned and follows in the wake of the law of cause and effect. Blessings are likewise earned. To be prosperous then, is to be inwardly content and outwardly receptive. In this, there is no limit to spiritual growth and development.
If you are rebellious, you will always be arrogant and resent others. This will make you envious. You will not be able to get rid of anger and hatred. Jealousy is another obstacle that will always stand between you and the unfoldment of your True Self.
Put them altogether and we have the perfect recipe for disaster. You will not like being told what to do and so will develop a deep resentment of authority. And yet, only surrender to the highest is the ladder upon which one may climb out of the labyrinth.
To know that we exist because the Divine wills it, is truly the kind of grace only the sincere and humble are afforded the opportunity to discover and learn. Therefore obedience to spirit is the only real safeguard against calamity.
5. Freedom from Wanting
If you are prone to wishing and wanting more, you will be deceived by your desire and fail to realise that negativity rules your life. You will never be satisfied, or content.
You will make a habit of hoping that life gets better without understanding anything about what you are hoping for.
Hoping, wishing and wanting for someone or something, are all based on falsehood and can never lead to truth. The avoidance of ‘what is’ (that is to say, things as they actually are), getting caught up in hoping, wishing and wanting, is an immense obstacle.
It is like walking around with blinkers on. Avoiding ‘what is’, therefore, is merely being dishonest. Dishonesty is the precursor to insincerity.
6. Freedom from Attachment, Cynicism and Nostalgia
If you live in the past, you won’t be able to live in the present. Living in the past is a vote for nostalgia. Cynicism is a vote for negativity.
This is one of the biggest problems people face regardless of circumstance. Our culture runs on the principle of nostalgia. We are taught to remember the good ‘ole days!
The past is over. This is an indisputable fact. Why do we then deify that which is dead, buried and gone? That which you cling to, will cling to you. You can be sure of it.
7. Freedom from Dullness (Repetition)
If you are still playing the broken record that has become what you might call ‘your life’, the creative principle will remain hidden from you and nothing will ever be fresh. Creativity requires innocence and innocence means that you no longer have any investments in an outcome.
An investment is the motive you have for doing what you do. Because you want comfort and pleasure and will avoid pain at all costs, innocence will be compromised.
There are those who invest in ideals and there are those who invest in self-gratification.
Be careful if you invest in the ideal. You may mistake the ideal for truth and in so doing compromise your ability to see clearly. As for self-gratification, indulgence has a price.
8. Freedom from Ceaseless Striving
There is nothing that is not sacred. Only prejudice makes such a distinction. This includes the prejudice of insisting that YOU are mot sacred. Sacredness means the honouring of truth. Truth is sacred.
To tap into it, you have to look inwards. You will find it when you investigate. The investigation itself is very specific. To look inwards, means to explore the inner screen of your consciousness.
It is like going to the movies, where you watch the moving pictures on a screen. Going inwards includes watching the screen already built into your consciousness. If you can learn how to access this screen, a whole new world will open up for you.
What are you chasing after, then? Why are you so obsessed? Have you ever wondered why it is that you are here? Is it to really chase after things that cannot endure? If you cannot stop to rest, you will most assuredly run out of gas!
9. Freedom from Vanity
If you have bought into the illusion that your ego is real, your own self-importance will blind you to the actual reality. You will spend your days seeking trophies to put on display in your home so that people will be impressed by your achievements.
You will also sink to the level of sentimentality so that your consciousness will be governed by a host of conditioned feelings. It will be a battle to experience the meaning of calm.
Vanity means getting caught up in the appearances of things. Appearances are always misleading. But you know that there is something underneath the veneer. This is why you can never judge a book by its cover, including this one! What stops you from taking a closer look?
This checklist is considerably useful if you are at all serious about living a balanced and harmonious life in accord with the principles of spiritual philosophy. Furthermore, any petition or prayer to the divine will be answered to the extent that the checklist has been satisfactorily completed.
Intent
As far as the spiritual is concerned, by now, having read thus far, you will know whether or not you are a candidate for living a different kind of life. May the blessings be! Trust and know that there is a way to live a thoroughly peaceful and enjoyable life supported by knowledge of higher truths.
It is called balance and harmony – living a spiritual life while living in the world. And it doesn’t ask anything of you except that you give up fear and live honestly: with pure intent!
Intent means the way you approach something. If you have an investment in the outcome, for example, the approach is prejudiced from the very beginning. You will sweat on the result. If you don’t get the result you want, you’ll be disappointed. This is a corrupted intention. It is not pure.
Intent is nothing more and nothing less than attitude. A pure attitude means you have gotten rid of negativity. To attain a pure attitude is neither difficult nor easy. You need only have the vision of higher truth and see everything in this way. Drop the investment in the outcome from the beginning and you’ll be surprised at what happens. After a while, purity leads to clarity.
Once clarity is established, this leads to ‘emptiness’. This means free from burdens. For most people though, life revolves around the daily struggles associated with making money, developing or wishing for meaningful personal relationships, and securing the future. That these pursuits are often fraught with danger and obstacles is par for the course.
That we don’t know ourselves as well as we might and so prevent danger and eliminate obstacles is similarly apparent. Freedom from strife and struggle therefore, means the ending of money problems, the actualisation of harmonious relationship, and putting a stop to worrying about the future.
To live like this, free from anxiety about tomorrow and free from the pain of yesterday, the inner ‘being’ (you on the inside) must be put back together so that the ‘outer’ being (you on the outside) reflects composure, stability, contentment and enjoyment.
The reason why people have such vastly different attitudes is due to their differences in living the higher truths. If you are a calm, caring and considerate kind of a person and I am not, then obviously our life experiences will be quite different. Compassion and benevolence will be extended to you and I will most certainly find only self-centredness and alienation. That you are caring and considerate is based on attitude.
This attitude has developed through the unfoldment of spiritual evolution. You worked hard to earn the right to live this way and you live this way because it dawned on you at some point that a balanced and harmonious life is the only way to go! Then you set about the task of going into training.
Training Requirements
The training requirements for living a balanced and harmonious life are simple to understand. They were established firstly, by the ancient masters and personally transmitted by genuine spiritual teachers. Then the Chinese sages documented a more generalised framework of these teachings and wrote them down several thousands of years ago in a book called the I-Ching (The Book of Changes).
Some of the more fundamental secrets of mastery are contained in this great book, but unless one is able to penetrate the meanings hidden in the language of code, the only revelation for the reader or student, will be fancy talk and rhetoric!
The aim of the exercise therefore, is to help you gain knowledge of yourself and in the process, positively develop the ability to transform the source of any problems that you have either inherited or created.
By knowing yourself, you know others. When you know others, you are no longer exploitable! Not able to be exploited, everything is then in perfect order. There is in effect, freedom from agitation.
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