#self-imprisonment

KaravakiAgrahara1983 Karavaki was viewing the movie Dayalu once again, the promised true love, joining two different people, into unconditional unity, almost like blending grape and ginger in the blender and the perfect concoction where one does not differentiate the grape from the ginger. To Karavaki the big question had been if love is defined as an unconditional force that unites didn’t it…

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Elective Affinities

Jorhat1964 Wondering, what new I would have to add, after all the people you have been reading. Well not much. I did my engineering and got married before I could find a job. The first flush of excitement, HI visa, I went with my husband, and by the time the green card came,  Keshav was born and then Kavita then came our citizenship. Somewhere I was reluctant but it seemed to he the right thing…

IMPRISONMENT

‘The first step to true awakening involves realizing our habitual, everyday, walk-around state of being “asleep.” Our distracted, daydream-filled life has been compared to sleepwalking. As we know, sleepwalkers often dream on in relative comfort - until they suddenly bump into a wall of step off a staircase. The resulting “ouch!” experience corresponds to the discovery of what the Awakened One called “the noble truth of suffering.”

Certainly the Buddha’s own spiritual path involved first waking up to his sleepwalking state. Suddenly - with a penetrating glimpse of the painful realities of human life outside the cozy comfort of his parents’ palace - he saw that he had been living in a pleasant dream. The bubble of indulgent life at court was a seductive trap, lulling him into a false sense of security, keeping him from seeing the bright truth of real life. For Prince Siddhartha, recognizing confusion was the crucial first step on the way to enlightenment, a milestone in his journey to complete freedom from the confused suffering.

This is the victory cry of the unbroken lineage of awakened ones: there is a path that leads to liberation. We can free ourselves from the automatic, habitual thoughts and emotions that so often bind us into familiar psychological prisons. The good news is that liberation is possible. Our first major challenge is facing the trap of self-imprisonment, for the path to true freedom begins with insight into our routines of self-deception. Our initial awakening is to the sleep state, our lack of self-awareness.’

Dark Day of the Soul – poem

People who lock themselves in, either physically or psychologically, are often asked, understandably, ‘But why didn’t you open the door? Or call someone to let you out?’ Simple answer: Some get to the stage where they believe that they deserve to be in there – because of ‘crimes’ they have committed – and their fear is such that it is very difficult to talk them out of that confined space. Th…

-_-

Over the past few months,

while I have had my dreads,

I've felt some different attitudes

toward me and from me

I've been asked all the stereotypical questions

starting from "Hei can I get some weed?"

and ending "What if you don't want dem anymore?"

and so on...

There has been very few,

if even any,

asking the main question: "Why?"

My current state is caused

by my previous state

which I can only describe

as imprisonment

I could blame society and social norms,

rules and normative but...

I and I, we know that it is

I who created the biggest prison –

self-imprisonment

Imprisonment can be seen

as opposite of freedom

but I would go futher and call it

lack of power,

lack of power to be free

And I was giving it away

for all the wrong reasons,

for al the wrong people

This is my power of freedom

                my power of choice

Which I give away only to God,

to Him and Him only will I give

my power

my power of freedom

my power of choice

No other reason, person

no other

no country, government, community

shall take my power

my power of freedom

my power of choice

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'Fear of being a flawed person lay at the root of my trance, and I had sacrificed many moments over the years in trying to prove my worth. Like the tiger Monhini, I inhabited a self-made prison that stopped me from living fully.'