F.: The non-Realized will claim that they are happy and free, and many of them believe that. In fact, they are actually imprisoned, and no one who is imprisoned is either happy or free. Happiness can only follow complete freedom; it cannot precede it.
The bars which form the prison of the “mind” include bars made of concepts; bars made of ideas; bars made of emotions; bars made of beliefs; bars made from programming and conditioning and domestication and enculturation; and bars made from identification with body and mind and personality.
Those bars were forged during childhood days, but non-Realized adults allow their childish, naïve beliefs to drive their thoughts, words, and deeds throughout the entire day...every day. Non-Realized adults—with their development having been arrested during the six-to-twelve-year-old range and with their consciousness having been thoroughly warped by then as well—are now in the majority across the planet. Persons who have no power to choose anything nevertheless believe that they are making choices all day long.
Sane persons who are imprisoned would not claim that they are happy. Alan Johnston, a BBC journalist who was kidnapped in Gaza and held captive for 114 days, described his imprisonment by reporting that it was an “appalling” and “occasionally quite terrifying” experience. He said, “It became quite hard to imagine normal life again.”
He continued, “I literally dreamt many times of being free and always woke up back in that room. The last sixteen weeks have been the very worst of my life.” The correspondent added, “I was in the hands of people who were … unpredictable. I was able to see the sun in the first month but then they kept me in a shuttered room.”
How about you? Are you claiming to be happy and free but experiencing a relative existence that is “appalling”? Do you think you’re happy and free though you “occasionally feel terrified” and find it “hard to imagine a normal life again”?
Have your dreams turned into nightmares, proving one Advaita pointer offered earlier: “That which gives you the greatest pleasure will eventually give you the greatest pain”?
Have you dreamed “many times of being free and always woke up back in that room,” once again trapped and not free? Have you dreamed many times of being free but woke up to find that you are trapped in "that office" or trapped in "that relationship" or trapped in "those concepts" or trapped in "that dogma"? Have you dreamed that you are free, only to awaken enough to see on occasion that you are not? Have you gone back to sleep after that and continued to live in the dream?
Have the “last sixteen weeks” (or months or years) been “the very worst of your life”? Is your existence “in the hands of people who are…unpredictable”? How long has it been since you’ve had no chance at all to see the light?
The only way to be happy is to be free. The only way to be free is to see the light and thereby be free of the effects of the false content of the illusory “mind.” It is the “mind” which is the most-frequently occurring prison on the planet. Alan Johnston, upon being released from his imprisonment, said, “It’s unimaginably good to be free.”
Only after seeing the light, and only after Full Realization has led to total freedom, can one truly understand the full extent to which they were imprisoned and what it is really like to be free. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POSTING:
WORKING ON LEARNING TO QUESTION IT ALL AND BEING FREE OF THE FALSE (BUT HONORED) CONCEPTS AND BELIEFS OF YOUR CULTURE?
The bars which form the prison of the “mind” include bars made of concepts; bars made of ideas; bars made of emotions; bars made of beliefs; bars made from programming and conditioning and domestication and enculturation; and bars made from identification with body and mind and personality.
Those bars were forged during childhood days, but non-Realized adults allow their childish, naïve beliefs to drive their thoughts, words, and deeds throughout the entire day...every day. Non-Realized adults—with their development having been arrested during the six-to-twelve-year-old range and with their consciousness having been thoroughly warped by then as well—are now in the majority across the planet. Persons who have no power to choose anything nevertheless believe that they are making choices all day long.
Sane persons who are imprisoned would not claim that they are happy. Alan Johnston, a BBC journalist who was kidnapped in Gaza and held captive for 114 days, described his imprisonment by reporting that it was an “appalling” and “occasionally quite terrifying” experience. He said, “It became quite hard to imagine normal life again.”
He continued, “I literally dreamt many times of being free and always woke up back in that room. The last sixteen weeks have been the very worst of my life.” The correspondent added, “I was in the hands of people who were … unpredictable. I was able to see the sun in the first month but then they kept me in a shuttered room.”
How about you? Are you claiming to be happy and free but experiencing a relative existence that is “appalling”? Do you think you’re happy and free though you “occasionally feel terrified” and find it “hard to imagine a normal life again”?
Have your dreams turned into nightmares, proving one Advaita pointer offered earlier: “That which gives you the greatest pleasure will eventually give you the greatest pain”?
Have you dreamed “many times of being free and always woke up back in that room,” once again trapped and not free? Have you dreamed many times of being free but woke up to find that you are trapped in "that office" or trapped in "that relationship" or trapped in "those concepts" or trapped in "that dogma"? Have you dreamed that you are free, only to awaken enough to see on occasion that you are not? Have you gone back to sleep after that and continued to live in the dream?
Have the “last sixteen weeks” (or months or years) been “the very worst of your life”? Is your existence “in the hands of people who are…unpredictable”? How long has it been since you’ve had no chance at all to see the light?
The only way to be happy is to be free. The only way to be free is to see the light and thereby be free of the effects of the false content of the illusory “mind.” It is the “mind” which is the most-frequently occurring prison on the planet. Alan Johnston, upon being released from his imprisonment, said, “It’s unimaginably good to be free.”
Only after seeing the light, and only after Full Realization has led to total freedom, can one truly understand the full extent to which they were imprisoned and what it is really like to be free. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POSTING:
WORKING ON LEARNING TO QUESTION IT ALL AND BEING FREE OF THE FALSE (BUT HONORED) CONCEPTS AND BELIEFS OF YOUR CULTURE?
WORKING ON BEING FREE OF BODY AND MIND IDENTIFICATION?
WORKING ON BEING FREE OF MIND AND PERSONALITY IDENTIFICATION?
