1. The Problem
The reason for all suffering lies upon the Sufferer.
The moment we accept the causation behind our sufferings, we immediately become free from it.
but the truth is we don’t want to be free.
We love our chains because that’s the only thing we have experienced from the beginning. So, any taste of true freedom stings like a bee.
We get frightened just by the idea of being free.
It’s like thousand needles poking into our bodies and every moment the numbers are escalating.
It hurts like hell but we keep withstanding because
after every 100th needle into the body, 1 needle gets removed.
To get rid of only 1 needle, we accept injection of 99.
That’s the math of our lives.
We keep holding on to our old, rigid, stinky thoughts, beliefs and actions just to get some tiny fruit out of it.
“
I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday
“
– Abraham Lincoln
There was Daisy. She loved her tiny stuffed rabbit toy.
She’d play with it all day, eat with it, sleep with it in her hands.
It got old, it tore few times but was repaired after lot of crying.
One day father bought a giant rabbit, twice as big as Daisy.
It also had new features. It could talk, make sounds, move it’s hands and everything.
Father asked Daisy to hand in the old rabbit to get new one.
She desperately wanted the new one as normal but still she couldn’t let go.
She denied.
Father tried to show her all the features she could use with new toy.
She saw them, she loved them, she really wanted the new toy.
But she just couldn’t get rid of the old one.
Well, after few days father was tired and returned the Big toy and Daisy was sad.
Now that she saw what she could have gotten, she grew distaste for the old rabbit.
Her interest in the old one withered away, the very thing she refused to exchange the big one for.
Daisy felt disappointed with her choice.
“
The unteachable man is sentenced to being taught only by experience
“
– Criss Jami
The only reason she couldn’t give away her toy was because it was “Her” toy.
This false sense of ownership keeps all Daisies of the world from New Rabbits.
We’re all Daisy.
2. Why
We love our chains till we know its our chains.
It requires lot of love and passion for the Freedom to break the chains, not that those chains are very strong, they are as fragile
as a nacho chip under a hydraulic press.
But because we have made ourselves weaker than the chain, thus chains feel as strong as titanium.
When we get a glimpse of Freedom, we can’t unsee that we’re bonded with unnecessary restrictions.
We can’t let go of our chains because of a simple reason ‘It’s My chains”
Buddha says all ownerships and sense of ownerships are hoax.
Men neither own anything nor owe anything.(that doesn’t mean you should skip on that taxes though!)
All that we “have” has been hand us down by others.
Body has been given by parents
Mind has been given by Nature
Tendencies has been given by Society and Culture
Experiences are experienced by body
Most of our actions are caused by the body to serve the bodily demands.
Eating, sleeping, mating, surviving.
How does anyone own anything?
“
A man asked Gautama Buddha, “I want happiness.”
Buddha said, “First remove “I,” that’s Ego, then remove “want,” that’s Desire.
See now you are left with only “Happiness.”“
– Buddha
So, knowing that we’re just a lucky event in the grand scheme of cosmos should be humbling instead
Never feel all mighty and powerful and knowing and Grand.
We’re not even dust in front of Universe.
3. The Cure
It’s only as hard as you make it to be.
It’s up to you. How strong is your love toward Freedom determines the weight of the chains.
Yes, there’ll be bruises because you made yourself weaker but hey, it’s a small price to pay.
Freedom, as people like to think, doesn’t come easy. It’s extremely expensive and not everyone can afford it.
Only few, a little crackbrained, a little nonchalant, can dare to stand up to receive all what Freedom has to offer.
Those who immediately tend to tiniest of scratches cannot even fathom what it’s really like to live as free as wind.
Those who get tangled in tiny chores of life, giving equal importance to everything, get’s frustrated with smallest of setback, can’t leave without pre-planning,
tickets-booked, luggage checked, prepared for everything (just in case), they make the 99% of the population.
4. The Bliss
Living Free is not for all and certainly not for those who love pre-planning in advance.
If you prepare for you something what else will you experience beside the planned.
To experience the unknown, you have to be unprepared and willing to embrace the unknown.
The moment you plan for something you cease yourself from letting anything spontaneous happen to you.
Spontaneity is not some random event, that’s the biggest misconception.
Spontaneity occurs when you let it occur. You need to make a room before inviting someone over.
When our lives are filled to the brim with 100 tiny unnecessary things, how do you think
as grand as spontaneous will occur? huh?
You have to scramble around constantly just to make a room to put a cup of coffee on your desk,
and you still think one day you’ll magically have space to put your espresso machine?
We have filled our lives with so much rubbish that even if something truly magical
wants to happen, there’s no room, no time, no attention, no money, and sadly no expectations.
We have made such a deal with our sad and boring existence that we have removed
the very possibility of freedom.
Haven’t you seen people who must keep themselves busy no matter what the matter because
they just can not stay idle. They physically can neither cherish silence nor stillness.
If you tell them to be still and they feel like they’re in hell.
They just can’t help themselves but to constantly talk, move, do, something or other.
It’s partially not their fault. You’ll play with whatever hand you have.
That’s a curse they have imposed upon themselves.
The result? Burnout, Depression, Insomnia, Anxiety, Broken relationships, various addictions..
Freedom is such a high-maintenance girl-friend that you not only need to
say goodbye to your wife, but your side-chicks, kids, parents, friends everyone that
makes your life miserable.
“
Anyone who keeps you entangled in tiny matters is your enemy
“
– Malay Khatri
When you clear up a space amounts to a giant tree, that’s when freedom enters in the form of a seedling.
That’s how spiritual math works, but soon you’ll understand that no price is justified for the fruit it serves.
Once you taste the fruit, you’ll quickly realize that for such a fruit
you will clear up whole city.
It’s a matter of your love towards your being.
If you have slightest of remorse for yourself, only thing you should be living for
is to separate yourself from suffering.
