On Breaking Free

Our desires, just like our belief systems are caused by karma. We identify with them, but they also imprison us. We may think that getting our desires fulfilled is what life is all about but sooner later we realize that they are prisons and nothing but.The problem is that we have never learned what exactly created these walls that surround us and we have to start learning first how to stop putting up new walls before we can learn how to demolish the existing ones. As the Bhagavad Gita says, that what tastes sweet as honey when you are young will be sour and poisonous as you grow old. Life is here to teach you what you truly want, and spirituality will teach you how to get to this realization here and now.

Most of the time we have no idea how we put up these prison walls for ourselves. We tend to stay in our comfort zone until one day we start discovering problems. Only then will we start enquiring how exactly we got to this stage in the first place. Since I was a little girl, I disliked the experience of physical labor and exercise. I preferred sitting quietly, enjoyed day dreaming, reading or living in fantasy worlds. I didn't like running around, or doing anything that would cause my body to hurt or feel uncomfortable. I would try to avoid PE as much as I could. All my life, I have lived in a comfortable world. The most difficult thing that I have ever done was probably preparing for my university entrance exam, which didn't require any physical strength anyway.

I certainly feel comfortable in this comfy cocoon which I have created for myself. Until recently it has functioned quite well since I have helpers doing everything for me. Yet, I started realizing that by staying away from physical labor, I have effectively hurt myself. Because of the lack of training, my body has become unable to do anything that requires endurance. I have finally understood that I have created a prison for myself. Luckily, God has given me another chance to break out of this prison and lets me start over again. I have finally understood that training our body muscles is as important as sharpening your ability to observe and be mindful. All these activities take time and effort, but they are very much worth the price.

What kind of prisons have you built up for yourself? Are you running some kind of patterns in your life and, like me before, find out that they come with a price attached? Some of these patterns have been caused by the karma, the history that you accumulated in the past. You will realize that in some ways you are like a puppet and do not really have a choice in what you do. You may at one point hate this situation you are in, but it takes a while before you can disentangle yourself.

Romantic relationships, family, occupations, drives and even addictions are often karmic bonds. The dream partner you meet, you have actually spent many lifetimes with already. You fall in love with each other and the familiarity is profound just because on a soul level you remember all the karmic obligations you still have for each other. It would be wrong to call your soul partner a prison, but the karmic bonds are. Use your spiritual wakening to cut these obligations once and for all. You can then live together with your partner in perfect peace, love and harmony.

Addiction is the most obvious prison. Everyone, but especially you, sees that it is ridiculous to live in that confined space when the key to breaking free seems to be right next to you. Yet, in a weird way, you have been put into that position to make this Herculean task plainly obvious to you. All addictive roads start with the enjoyment of sensual pleasure, a temporary heaven caused by alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, or whatever else it is that serves as a temporary orgasmic high. You like it so much and want to do it again and again until you are totally caught in this prison.

Belief systems are another kind of prison that you have created for yourself. Your mom may have said that you are a loser at a time when you were psychologically weak and it got imprinted in your system like a command of God. You caught on to this idea, identify yourself with this belief set and create your own negative reality ever since then. Your mom may also have said that you are a wonderful child, that you are smart and encouraged you to challenge yourself, but for whatever reason the damaging imprint sticks while everything else goes by you like water on oil. This is how people create their own mental prison, and this is also the method the positive thinkers want to exploit. It might be a beautiful and luxurious mansion to live in when you hypnotize yourself so that you can achieve whatever your heart desires, but you will be living in a prison nevertheless.

If you want to break free you have to realize that the mind has a life of its own. You can stand next to it and just experience its mental connections and the ramblings while the real you is not part of it. The spiritual path only starts in earnest when you have the desire to break free from all your karmic bonds and all the psychological games that we are playing with each other. Once you feel that hunger you will manage to break free - even if this calling is very faint indeed - spiritual giants will start showing up in your life and will help you. Many roads will lead you to Rome, and you are likely to travel on many of them. The road of love, love for your soul siblings, for your Self and for God; the path of mediation; or the way of the Tao, the understanding that everything and everyone is just a part in a giant virtual movie plot with the only objective to bring you home.

As they say, a saint is a sinner who keeps trying. Just try again today and soon the walls will crumble under the pressure. Even better than that, the wall behind you has already fallen down but you know it not because you to too busy trying to open the lock in front of you. Just turn around and enjoy your freedom.

By Sue Zhen