Our Carefully Crafted Cages

In this world of diverse pleasures and pains, we strive to string together a series of life events in an attempt to optimize the occurrence of pleasure experiences over those that bring pain, but this seemingly simple life mission proves to be extremely difficult for most.  Of course, there is the problem that circumstance limits the options from which we can choose, but these issues of circumstance are largely beyond our control.  There is another big problem with making these correct choices that can be addressed by the individual.

Making good choices between the opportunities that are at hand should be a simple matter of deciding and doing what makes us happy, but frequently, the biggest problem in this simple pursuit of happiness is not having the freedom required to make and pursue the best choices.  There are two possible sources of obstacles to our freedom of choice.  One is the threat posed by persons external to us who want to obstruct the realization of our desires, but by the far, the greatest obstacle to our personal freedom is in the form of the carefully crafted cages that we create for ourselves.

Everyone longs to be free to pursue their own personal happiness. They just want to be the person they really are without fear of ridicule or worse yet persecution, but these simple desires like so many other things get tangled in the individual’s intricate web of illusions and are never realized.  Freedom seems like a simple enough concept, but most don’t even have a good understanding of what freedom is much less how to attain it. 

On superficial consideration, freedom appears to be a simple matter of being able to do what you want or not, but like everything else, the devil for freedom is in the details.  A popular catch phrase “Freedom isn’t free’ leads many to believe they can be free by virtue of someone else’s sacrifice, but true freedom is a much more complicated matter than just that.  It is further complicated by our own involvement in the decision process. To really understanding freedom, the entire process of action needs to be considered.

Every action begins with a desire, a gentle intent or a strong urge, and from that desire, we spring into the process of taking action.  There are no constraints on what we want at this desire level. Everyone has the ability to think that they want.  In fact most, don't have the self-control required to not think what they want.  Perhaps we are too afraid to acknowledge some thoughts to anyone else, but they are there nonetheless tantalizing us with the possibility of their realization pretty much all the time.   

The obstacles are encountered when we choose to act or not on an actionable desire (I.e. one favored by circumstance).  This personal evaluation to determine whether to act or not is where our personal truth enters the freedom equation and potentially make us our own worst enemies. 

Everyone’s unique and individual Personal Truth creates a unique personal reality constructed from all the things that known and that have been accepted as beliefs by the personal.  These realities become that individual’s rules of engagement which specify the circumstances and limitations under which that person will engage and interact with the various affairs of life.  In effect, this personal truth decision matrix makes us the gate keeper for our own desires.

This decision matrix is an important part of the action process where the immediate and long-term effects of the action for us and everything else are assessed.   We all understand our actions have consequences, and some actions have adverse outcomes for us and/or those around us.  These consideration is critically important to correct action, but we are all susceptible to things that can cloud the analysis and lead to the wrong decision. 

The great imprisoner of mankind is simple ignorance in all the common forms of its manifestation such as lack of understanding, fear, and self-doubt.  Ignorance makes us vulnerable, and the less we are aware of this ignorance, the greater is our vulnerability risk. Ignorance keeps us from the happiness that we all long to have, and we are foolishly by virtue of this ignorance the instrument that enforces that imprisonment by causing us to make wrong life choices.

It is only by the complete understanding of our Self that true freedom can be attained.  This process of liberation begins from the moment we deliberately start on the path of knowledge to discover the Self.  This liberation continues incrementally as long as we continue to be steady on this path until complete liberation is realized with a complete understanding of the Self in our personal truth.

The process of believing is both a blessing and a curse.  It is a blessing in the context that it is an opportunity to look forward on the path of discovery, but it is a curse if it is used to remain stagnant or worse yet look back. 

Be careful what you accept as a belief.  The consequences could be catastrophic.

Understanding One's Personal Truth

All of humanities many question can be reduced down to the two fundamental questions of 'who am I" and "what is going on around me?".  The two fundamental questions become the basis of the spiritual pursuit objectives in the form of a Personal Truth for "who am I" and an Everything Else Truth for "what is going on around me".

Everyone has a personal truth that is based on their own unique reality perspective by virtue their own personal background and experience. At a high level, they are born into a unique society with established religious and personal conduct beliefs, and more specifically, they are born to a unique family situation of parents, siblings, and other relations that fine tune these cultural beliefs. Beyond that, everyone encounters a particular, unique set of life experiences that further shapes their own personal reality perspective. The result is that every one of these billions of people living on this planet has a very unique personal identity and perspective on reality that is their very personal truth.

Personal truths are further complicated by the fact that we all have elements of our personal truth that we do not want to make generally available to everyone else. The simplest, most honest expression of this withholding is just not talking about certain things that we consider to be too private for whatever reason, but more complex types of withholdings involves deliberately trying to deceive others away from these truths about us. Sometimes these personal truths are things that we don’t even want to acknowledge ourselves. In some cases, the deception can be taken to the extreme of wanting to appear one way to some and quite another way to some others. Typically, these deceptions are for personal gain, but they can really complicate one’s life with many not being able to sort through their own internal deceptions.

In the context of these unique realities, everyone is trying to create a sense of what they believe to be true about themselves in their life. This sense of personal truth is derived directly from one’s own personal life experiences and indirectly from their own personal analysis of that experience.  Additionally, this personal truth includes anything else they may have been told which they choose to believe.

This relative sense of personal truth does not actually have to be based on reality and facts. In fact, it is highly likely that many parts of it are incorrect because the great mystery of life is not widely understood leaving a lot of room for error. This personal truth is the typical collection of ‘I know’ and ‘I believe’ with the ‘I believe’ being the source of all our troublesome illusions. This personal truth is simply what a particular person accepts as true for whatever collection of reasons, and their reality gets adjusted around those core beliefs they have accepted as true.

Our goal in life has to be sorting through the ‘I believe’ to ultimately reach our correct personal truth. This goal is much easier said than done, but the simple start for this complex task results from the realization that all personal truth centers on the two core questions of ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What am I?’.

Who Am I?

Our identity is a composite of things that have been done for us and those things that we have done of our own accord. We can become the person that we want to be, but we have to work in the context of the particular circumstances that were available to us.

Many of these composite things have been decided for us. The particulars of our body (e.g. hair/eye color, gender, and body proportions) are largely determined by our biology. The members of our immediate family (i.e. blood relatives) are beyond our control. The particulars of our station in life are initially set by the station of our parents at the time of our birth though this can change either up or down as our life progresses by our own doing.

As life progresses, there are many things that we can decide for ourselves. We can choose the people with whom we wanted to associate from the persons we encounter, and we can to an extent define the nature of those associations (e.g. friend, lover, business associate). Extended family (i.e. spouses and in-laws) are also selected at our discretion from the limited pool of persons in our sphere of influence. We also choose the things that interest us and establish the direction we want to take in life.

The progression of thinking on this question of ‘who am I?’ starts with simple life decisions, but over time (perhaps a very long period of time) it progresses to the deeper, more obviously spiritual questions directed at understanding these internal forces that drive and shape our lives. Perhaps these deeper questions start with some sort introspective quest such as counseling or meditation. Ultimately, there is a realization that there is something beyond the obvious that would be worth knowing.

What Am I?

The question of what we are is not as obvious to everyone as a question that even needs to be asked. Many just assume they are a physical body, but there are all these non-body related issues that they are handling without realizing they are beyond body. This simple oversight can further complicate an already complicated life.

From birth, most assume they are a simple body. A body is an incredible thing to have and our initial exposure to it is typically overwhelming. Most early life experience is body centric which is appropriate when we are focused on the issues of establishing some measure of control over this marvelous machine and are caught in the pure joy of the sensory discover of the world around us.

Both science and western religion tend to put too much emphasis on the body as the main or only element of the human experience. Some scientists gravitate to materialist and physicalist opinions about reality that pretty much ignores consciousness. Western religions also place all too much importance on the body with their resurrection of the dead notions and attentions focused on the concept of an immortal soul which is a mysteriously body like immortal thing that only humans have. Proper care and attention to the body’s needs to ensure that it is healthy and whole are important in spirituality, but we all eventually come to discover that the body is actually secondary in overall importance to that of the spirit consciousness.

At some point, our lives switch focus from issues of the body to issues of the heart and mind. As the heart and mind develop, they have their own particular set of needs that require attention just as the body had needs during its developmental stages. The problem however is that many people are still focused on the body and try to address the emerging mind and heart issues as though they were just new body issues.

The truth is that the body and consciousness though seamlessly blended together are actually two very distinct entities. Their needs are different, and for both to function properly, they both require their needs be addressed. For some people, this human identity dichotomy makes them feel inclined to practice yoga and/or meditation. These practices as originally conceived thousands of years ago are designed to facilitate this realization that a body and a spirit (aka consciousness) exist, and if properly applied, it nurtures both body and consciousness.
 
Historically when one is properly initiated into a meditation technique, they have a transcendental experience of their own consciousness. By virtue of this experience, they have become a yogi (i.e. one who is aware he is body and spirit). After years of dedicated practice, this initial awakening to the existence of the spirit becomes a clear understanding that spirit is actually greater in importance than the body.

The goal everyone has for their personal truth whether they know it or not is to ultimately have a personal truth that is correct and not just an illusion. For most, this goal is buried deep in their subconscious as they content themselves with all sorts of convenient illusions. Ultimately for everyone, their truth will be known. All the things that had mattered so much during their lives gives way to personal realizations and reflections on who they really are as the end of life approaches.