Freedom and Imprisonment
Suffering #2 - Imprisonment
No matter what is the life situation of an individual, it is everyone's dream to gain freedom. Freedom from what? Nobody really have a clue. It is one of the worst suffering that everyone goes through, to greater or lesser extent at different points in their life. It is because humans do not know what they yearn to be free from, they constantly distract themselves from this overbearing sense of constriction, imprisonment.
Very few attains to freedom because they sought freedom of the self. But the fact is, they are seeking freedom FROM the SELF. Sex, sleep, alchohol, drugs are powerful distractions from this imprisonment. They are effective because they gives you a temporary limited relief from the "self"/mind/life story. Sex is very powerful, because during that split-second of orgasm, the "self" disappears. The "self" also disappears when connection happens during deep passionate love, in deep dreamless sleep, when drugs breaks the confines of the mind. However, such reliefs are temporary, and like all addictions, it requires increasing doses to maintain its effectiveness over time.
How does the mind imprison our souls?
Lets relook at what I mentioned earlier. A karmic thought cycle happens when you identify your "self" through your experience;
desire -> pleasure -> fear -> pain -> desire
desire: someone told me I am cute. I enjoy the experience of being admired as cute. I desire more of such experience and therfore I groom myself to be even cuter.
pleasure: I successfully groomed myself and now I have many admirers and suitors. My life is great.
fear: I am now 30, my youth and beauty is fading. But I've grown too attached to the attention and affection due to my beauty. My sense of self identity is "David is cute" is being seriously threatened by physical aging. This aspect of "self" sense is dying.
pain: someone commented on the wrinkles on my face. My "self" sense is hurt as it clashes with its own "self image". The attention I used to receives are gone, including my lover. The pain becomes unbearable but yet I cannot find relief because as long as the "self" exist, this momentum will perpetuate indefinitely.
desire: therefore, the only way to escape from this pain, is to distract the attention with another desire. Either by chasing after another lover, or by partying, friends, career etc. The sense of "self" will seek to repair itself by denying any information that is contrary to its own image. Such as avoiding seeing the wrinkles in the mirror, dismissing comments about my aging face as jealousy or malicious. In other words, create a complex illusion to protect the "self image"
In repairing/defending the "self"/"self-image"/"thought-groove", many mental rules are formed.
e.g. "I must wear certain clothes/hairstyle to look young", "With beauty and youth, I will be loved", "If I exercise and take care of my skin and look young longer", "older men are more mature and sexy" etc etc etc
And each of this mental rules are thought-cycles that follows the desire-pleasure-fear-pain-desire cycles, and spawn off more mental rules and thought-cycles exponentially until it becomes a complex matrix of psychic prison.
From a simple desire to be accepted, it is projected to a desire to look young/cute, projected to a desire to have nice clothes/hair, projected to a desire to know many cute youths, projected to a desire to be rich to attract youths, ad infinitum. Each desire has a rule, and these rules are your prison walls. It is so insane, that we cannot hug or hold the hand of our friends without fearing eroticism, where we only simply need the warmth of human contact.
These mental rules, collectively, becomes social norms. An individual may rebel against his internal mental rules unconciously by drinking, taking drugs, constantly seeking sex. A person who is aware of their mental rules and rebel will become angsty or depressed. E.g. I am betrayed by my ex, but I cannot help but still love him/her. An individual can also rebel against collective mental rules (social norms). E.g. A gay boy resent society condemnation and rebel by being more "gay" (flamboyant/effeminate) than he actually is.
Acceding or rebelling against collective or individual mental rules is futile, because the imprisonment is there. Thus, the only way to be free of this imprisonment, is for the "self"/life story to die before our body dies.
No matter what is the life situation of an individual, it is everyone's dream to gain freedom. Freedom from what? Nobody really have a clue. It is one of the worst suffering that everyone goes through, to greater or lesser extent at different points in their life. It is because humans do not know what they yearn to be free from, they constantly distract themselves from this overbearing sense of constriction, imprisonment.
Very few attains to freedom because they sought freedom of the self. But the fact is, they are seeking freedom FROM the SELF. Sex, sleep, alchohol, drugs are powerful distractions from this imprisonment. They are effective because they gives you a temporary limited relief from the "self"/mind/life story. Sex is very powerful, because during that split-second of orgasm, the "self" disappears. The "self" also disappears when connection happens during deep passionate love, in deep dreamless sleep, when drugs breaks the confines of the mind. However, such reliefs are temporary, and like all addictions, it requires increasing doses to maintain its effectiveness over time.
How does the mind imprison our souls?
Lets relook at what I mentioned earlier. A karmic thought cycle happens when you identify your "self" through your experience;
desire -> pleasure -> fear -> pain -> desire
desire: someone told me I am cute. I enjoy the experience of being admired as cute. I desire more of such experience and therfore I groom myself to be even cuter.
pleasure: I successfully groomed myself and now I have many admirers and suitors. My life is great.
fear: I am now 30, my youth and beauty is fading. But I've grown too attached to the attention and affection due to my beauty. My sense of self identity is "David is cute" is being seriously threatened by physical aging. This aspect of "self" sense is dying.
pain: someone commented on the wrinkles on my face. My "self" sense is hurt as it clashes with its own "self image". The attention I used to receives are gone, including my lover. The pain becomes unbearable but yet I cannot find relief because as long as the "self" exist, this momentum will perpetuate indefinitely.
desire: therefore, the only way to escape from this pain, is to distract the attention with another desire. Either by chasing after another lover, or by partying, friends, career etc. The sense of "self" will seek to repair itself by denying any information that is contrary to its own image. Such as avoiding seeing the wrinkles in the mirror, dismissing comments about my aging face as jealousy or malicious. In other words, create a complex illusion to protect the "self image"
In repairing/defending the "self"/"self-image"/"thought-groove", many mental rules are formed.
e.g. "I must wear certain clothes/hairstyle to look young", "With beauty and youth, I will be loved", "If I exercise and take care of my skin and look young longer", "older men are more mature and sexy" etc etc etc
And each of this mental rules are thought-cycles that follows the desire-pleasure-fear-pain-desire cycles, and spawn off more mental rules and thought-cycles exponentially until it becomes a complex matrix of psychic prison.
From a simple desire to be accepted, it is projected to a desire to look young/cute, projected to a desire to have nice clothes/hair, projected to a desire to know many cute youths, projected to a desire to be rich to attract youths, ad infinitum. Each desire has a rule, and these rules are your prison walls. It is so insane, that we cannot hug or hold the hand of our friends without fearing eroticism, where we only simply need the warmth of human contact.
These mental rules, collectively, becomes social norms. An individual may rebel against his internal mental rules unconciously by drinking, taking drugs, constantly seeking sex. A person who is aware of their mental rules and rebel will become angsty or depressed. E.g. I am betrayed by my ex, but I cannot help but still love him/her. An individual can also rebel against collective mental rules (social norms). E.g. A gay boy resent society condemnation and rebel by being more "gay" (flamboyant/effeminate) than he actually is.
Acceding or rebelling against collective or individual mental rules is futile, because the imprisonment is there. Thus, the only way to be free of this imprisonment, is for the "self"/life story to die before our body dies.