Becoming Free
When we really understand ourselves we become free.
The purpose of our meditation practice isn’t to stop thinking or to banish wandering thoughts. It’s to learn how to stop grasping at them. We want to see our thoughts and feelings for what they are, temporary phenomena that are passing through our minds. You are not your thoughts and you are not your feelings. You have thoughts and you have feelings. Thoughts and feelings come and go and they’re always changing. Seeing thoughts and feelings as they are, without attaching to them or being distracted by them, is the essence of meditation. Realizing that thoughts and feelings are fleeting and changing is wisdom.
The truth is our minds don’t have to be dominated by these thoughts and feelings, or by labels, baggage, attachments, or any other names we give to the activity of our minds. The nature of our mind is originally free, just distracted by junk. If we can learn how to get some stability and cultivate freedom in our minds, then we will see things more clearly and we will suffer less. We can only understand ourselves and the world if we learn how to see clearly. Our suffering depends on how much we wish things were different, our attachment to views and ideas about the world. When we attach to them, we let go of our freedom. If we allow ourselves to be open instead, then we can remain free.
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Want to come meditate with me? I’m at Ubuntu Village Monday nights at 7pm. Meditation Practice, Support, and Encouragement. 4327 Troost, Kansas City, MO.
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