A New Year begins. It’s a time for taking charge of one’s
life and for giving up the old and embracing the new.
It is
said that we are born free. Well, never entirely free. You see, part of the price we pay for Spirit (pure Be-ing) descending into matter, for the Word
becoming flesh, so to speak, is that we invariably find ourselves caught up,
indeed trapped, in a time-bound, self-centred prison which is not entirely of
our own making but which becomes more and more escape-proof as we choose, hundreds
and thousands of times, to identify with our false sense of ‘self’ in the form of our innumerable likes, dislikes, views, opinions, beliefs, attachments and aversions.
Yet, as
Norman Vincent Peale once wrote, ‘There is a spiritual
giant within us, which is always struggling to burst its way out of the prison
we have made for it.’ How I love those words! The words are themselves bursting
with life-changing power. Even if what Peale said were not the case, I think those words of
his are nevertheless so powerful that they still could move mountains---perhaps even
literally!
Deep
down inside ourselves, we know that we were not meant to live as spiritual and
emotional cripples. I love these oft-cited words from P D Ouspensky (In Search of
the Miraculous) as he quotes George Gurdjieff
(pictured right):
Freedom, liberation, this must be
the aim of man. To become free, to be liberated from slavery: this is what a
man ought to strive for when he becomes even a little conscious of his
position. There is nothing else for him, and nothing else is possible so long
as he remains a slave both inwardly and outwardly. But he cannot cease to be a
slave outwardly while he remains a slave inwardly. Therefore in order to become
free, man must gain inner freedom.
The first reason for man's inner
slavery is his ignorance, and above all, his ignorance of himself. Without
self-knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine,
man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave,
and the plaything of the forces acting upon him.
This is why in all ancient
teachings the first demand at the beginning of the way to liberation was: ‘Know thyself.’
Know
thyself. That has always been the message of the great
teachers, mystics, saints and holy ones. In the words of Dr Peale,
'Self-knowledge leads to a cure. Self-knowledge is the beginning of
self-correction. The first step toward being what you can be is to know what
you are.' Yes, until we know we are in bondage -- and until we acknowledge that fact -- there is really no hope
for us. However, as soon as we admit to ourselves that we are in bondage, that
there is something seriously 'wrong' with and in us, there is hope for us. Further, when we say to
ourselves, ‘I want to be free, more than anything else in the world,’ then our
walk to freedom begins, but we must be prepared to go to any length to get it.
Do you
really want to be free? Well, then, ask
yourself this question, ‘Who has bound me?’ No voice answers back -- except
perhaps your own -- and if you are in touch with the reality of your being you
will come to realize that, in truth, you, the
person that you are,
have always been free and unlimited.
True,
you may have attached your ‘self’ to all kinds of things and persons -- for it
is a fact that the 'self' always wants opportunities for gratification of
various kinds -- but once you lose the illusion of self your mental states will no longer revert to
negativity. Know this: you are not a 'self,' but a person among persons in the
All-in-All of Life. If you have trouble accepting the fact that there is no
'self,' I suspect the reason for that is this---your attachment to 'self'
is very strong. If so, get rid of your 'self.' Drop it---now! You don't need it, and it only
gets in the way of your true Be-ing.
Yes,
the person that you are is part of life’s self-expression,
and the life of you is always free and unlimited. Life, which is forever
engaged in a timeless renewal of itself from one moment to the
next, is never in bondage or slavery, but we can and
so often do make a veritable prison for ourselves out of
our ‘selves’. Never forget that. But we can still assert our innate spiritual
freedom---at any time!
Vernon Howard (pictured left) wrote, 'To change what we
get we must change who we are.' We need to start living from and in that centre of life-consciousness
which is the very ground of your being---the very livingness of your life---right now! You see,
this ground of your being is nothing less than the individualised,
personalised, condensed totality of Be-ing itself, and this ‘energy-base’ is
closer to you than breathing and nearer than hands and feet.
Yes, Be-ing indwells, infuses, animates and
expresses all persons and all material creation – indeed, all life! Nothing, absolutely nothing,
exists which is outside the orbit and presence of pure Be-ing, and you are at
all times immersed, indeed saturated, in that Be-ing -- that All-in-All -- as It
forever lives out Its livingness in and as you, the person that you are. Once you fully awaken to that fact, and start living that fact, you are free. Yes, really!
Those who are free are those who
are not in trouble with themselves. They no longer react mechanically, that is,
from conditioned thought. They live in awareness. They are not obsessed with
the need to be happy. They do not care how others should treat them or behave
toward them. They know that the answer to every problem lies within themselves. Further, they know that, for each of us,
the only real
problem is---ourself, that is, our 'self.'
Do you want to be free? Really? How greatly do you want to be free? Are you
prepared to go to any length to be free?
Happy New Year!
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