Teachings and Phrases About Freedom
Thoughts and words cannot convey silence and stillness, the lack of thought. The only way to know them is to experience them, just as the only way to know what honeysuckle smells like is to smell it. Although one can write about the scent of honeysuckle, one can never really capture, communicate, or describe the scent of honeysuckle in words.
Being free means having fewer thoughts. Unfortunately, many individuals think that acquiring more thoughts and words in their heads through studying teachings will grant them freedom. Then what frequently occurs is that all those ideas and words turn into actual obstacles to obtaining freedom:
When you begin to notice the absence of thoughts, you tend to disregard your glances as unimportant for advancing your understanding freedom because none of the words and teachings you learned correspond to your glimpses: You do not become conscious, a secret reality is not disclosed, or you merge with the universe.
Or perhaps you find it enjoyable to observe the absence of thoughts. But in the lessons you learned about freedom, there was no mention of enjoying oneself. Once more, you dismiss your glimpses of a world without ideas as unimportant to obtaining freedom and carry on, searching incessantly for it and hoping that it would coincide with the teachings you have read about.
Learn to believe in yourself and your own logic. If the absence of thoughts cannot be articulated, contained, or communicated by thoughts or words, how could your experience of it match any teachings or words? Nothing in words or lessons can ever compare to your experience of freedom.
In conclusion, freedom—the state of not having thoughts and of being present—cannot be understood by words or concepts; it can only be understood through experience. You must find your own road to freedom. You come to believe in yourself. And as the lack of thinking gets more ingrained in your life, you can occasionally discover that the moment seems to last forever, the part of you that ordinarily lives in thoughts is absent, and that all that remains of you is what is smelling the honeysuckle.Our Biggest Problem
The biggest problem that arose from our development of abstract thinking was worrying about death, which can trigger intense and sometimes debilitating fear. To manage that fear we long ago developed replacement, more positive abstract thoughts such as eternal life, salvation, liberation, and reincarnation; and we developed religions and spiritualities to manage those ideas.
In addition to those idea-based approaches to managing that fear, many religions including Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity also developed approaches such as meditation that decrease stress in the physiology, and hence fear. (Yoga, tai chi and qigong are other forms of this approach.) While these approaches are practiced differently, in general they can help shift the balance from living life “in your head” towards living life more as immediate experiences.
The above approaches can take the edge off the fear of death. However when faced with life threatening medical situations, those approaches do not extinguish the fear of death for many people. In that regard, research into a third approach from traditional religions is encouraging. In research by Roland Griffiths’ team at Johns Hopkins University, terminally ill cancer patients were given a substance that had the long-term effect for many of greatly diminishing their fear of dying.
Keep in mind that you have seen the moon with your own eyes, so you know what it looks like.
