THE ENTRANCE DOOR TO FREEDOM

Have you ever wondered what pushes you to act as you do?

What are the forces that propel you to get the next thing done, to acquire the next object, to want to modify, change, improve, develop, to rush into, to dream about, to envisage, and to plan?
Are you aware enough to feel the energetic pull towards things, the push to keep going?

What are those forces that will give birth to an “I” in a spatio-temporal context with a goal?

Have you ever inquired? Why does it matter?

In insight meditation, it is possible to observe the formation of mental volitions (sankhara in Pali). The preparation, the strategies to get objects, entertainments, the framing of a person in an environment in relationship with others whose activities will be geared towards obtaining something. It is not just simple thoughts; they have a binding and cohesive effect, and they shape your world around your interests, standpoints, and relationships in past-present-future.

They will create an impression of continuity in time and space, a purpose in life, and a role that cannot seemingly be given up. – I have responsibilities-. I am this, with an attitude, wishes, preferences, to-do lists, and a schedule whose plans are fulfilled or perturbed by external conditions.

Those mental volitions well up depending on craving. Craving seems to be a strong word, a heavy-connotation word. Yes, because the forces to exist as an “I am” are very strong. You have no idea until you have peeled off all the layers of the I-making process. Still, your mind will make up some problems out of nowhere just to keep you doing something. It will bring up memories from decades ago, if necessary, to just make you think about something. Anything will do to switch back on the activity of concocting the world.

Deus ex machina.

Where is the problem with that? One can ask. Am I not allowed to be me?

There is no problem as long as you don’t suffer from it and don’t harm others.

However, very often, the bubbling up of this incessant inner story-telling that is the source for further actions and speech doesn’t make you happy. Those fabrications are of a deceiving nature. However rationally well constructed and pondered they seem to be, they will never reflect the truth. They are what prevent you from sleeping soundly in the middle of the night, trying to make you solve useless problems with suppositions about what’s going to happen tomorrow. They have the tendency to proliferate and you get caught up in them. They create the so-called fear of missing out. Through repetitive activation by specific triggers, they become mental habits. Over years, they can be recalled again and again creating mental ruts.

They are us.

The good news is that those mental fermentations and concoctions can cease. How do I do it? Quench the source: the craving, the thirst. The problem is that without them, we are lost since we can’t define ourselves anymore. What can I be if there is only silence and stillness?

The end of the incessant agitation,
The end of the need for answers
The end of hypotheses, presuppositions, and guesses.
The end of the separation between here and there, this and that, her and them.

Rest which is -LOVE-

Try to walk slowly for more than 5 minutes. The forces will reveal themselves. The pushing force to go forward to get something. What is left when you resolve to walk one step at a time and be aware of your body? You might feel them as irritation, boredom, nervousness, impatience, tensions in the body, or energies stuck in the head.

Renunciation is also a good method to start realizing this propelling power. Try not to get the food you like; ask someone else to pick your main dish. Try not to wear your fancy dress or suit but a kind of formless, colorless outfit, or not to wear make-up. Let someone else choose the schedule of your holidays. Stay away from your favorite social media account for several days. Try not to read, write, or watch anything during breaks or while waiting or queuing. Do not try to fill the time gaps with doing. Stop the A.S.A.P. attitude. By not filling, but rather by pausing, you allow the activity of the sankharas to be observed and felt.

They will appear in plain sight. You’ll probably feel it through

dis-ease.

Allow them to be released. To cease. By staying mindful of their presence without feeding them or rejecting them,.
“It feels like this” is enough at first. How can I relinquish those energies?
Standing firm. Grounding. Exhaling. Bringing forth goodwill.

Have faith in the process, raise energy. Being mindful and focused, with proper discernment, the dependence of mental activation on clinging and craving can be unraveled and relinquished.

Observing the cessation. What is left at the point where those mental fabrications cease? This is the entrance door to freedom. The gate to the Deathless.

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