The Way Out is In
The Way Out Is In
Richard Rohr asserted that "Freedom from oneself is the only real freedom." [1] What does this mean exactly?
It means that we are imprisoned by ourselves, none other, by our ideas about who we are, how we should be, and what the world should be. As a result, we become enamoured or fixed on our conditioned views, preferring them to reality, i.e., how things are. Enter problems, anxiety, fear, pain and perhaps other responses essentially because we can't let go of our views and resist life as it is.
We attain freedom of mind by seeing how we think and by learning to "see things as they are rather than as we wish or believe them to be. It's called enlightenment." [2] Seeing in a new way can't be intellectualised; it has to be experienced. "We do not think ourselves into new ways of living; we live ourselves into new ways of thinking. To know and not to act is not to know." [1] Much like other aspects of life and learning, we have to practice to embody the teaching and tend to understand differently, more permanently.
How?
After struggling and failing to find answers, the Buddha discovered that meditation helped, and the only thing that worked. It was how he developed his insights.
As Chögyam Trungpa put it, "It was only when there were gaps in his struggle that insights came to him. He began to realise that there was a sane, awake quality within him which manifested itself only in the absence of struggle. So, the practice of meditation involves "letting be." [3] Put another way, we can't see the box if we are in the box. Likewise, we can't see our thinking if we are wedded to our thoughts. Mindfulness (meditation) helps us adopt an observing stance freeing us from our thinking mind and its consequences. By making the largely unconscious processes of our thinking conscious, we start to see differently, see more, and give ourselves space to build new skills, strengthen our ability to stay with ourselves and respond to life in different ways.
[1] Rohr, Richard; Martos, Joseph. From Wild Man to Wise Man: Reflections on Male Spirituality (p. 174). Booksurge. Kindle Edition.
[2] Hagen, Steve. Buddhism Plain and Simple (p. 3). Tuttle Publishing. Kindle Edition.
[3] Trungpa, Chögyam. Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (p. 9). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.