Freedom and Problems
by JAREK CZECHOWICZ
The thing that prevents you from experiencing freedom is called a problem, something that wont let you rest until its resolved, or gone. A problem presents at least two possible outcomes, one of which you believe will point you in the general direction of freedom, through a relief from anxiety and some promise of pleasure. Unfortunately the solution to any problem can never deliver you to freedom, only to a new set of problems.
Freedom is not what you believe it to be.
You have been taught to pursue concepts like freedom and happiness, when they are already yours. Freedom is always present, always available, but not easy to find when attention is absorbed in thinking and problem solving. To experience your innate freedom you must see beyond believing your thoughts.
More than one person has said to me, Im always where I dont want to be, or, Im never where I want to be. You can hear this message all too often, in many variations, even from people in very comfortable surroundings.
Your ideas about freedom keep you seeking and dissatisfied. They lead you further and further along an endless stream of problems. The more reactive you are to those problems the harder it is to solve them, or escape them. When reactivity stops, when you relax, and start to see the situation with a sense of wonder, then you begin the journey to real freedom.
Whether something is defined as a problem or a solution depends on the mind that perceives it. Both problems and solutions arise within a field of freedom. Notice that your thoughts are appearances in awareness, just like other objects or forms. Thoughts are thought forms just as objects seem to be physical forms. Your thoughts are coming and going according to their nature, in the same way that all things come and go.
When you put your hand into flowing water you can swirl it around and try to create shapes and patterns, but those forms cannot be permanent, they give way to the flow immediately. All matter flows according to its nature, and the even the most solid looking objects are transforming very slowly. You can affect anything for a while but sooner or later everything returns to its natural condition. That doesnt mean that your actions upon the world are futile, in fact they can be very good and helpful, as long as you dont think that theyre good and helpful. The air youre breathing doesnt say, Look how many people Im helping! It is selfless, in the true sense of the word.
Once you let go of your concepts about things, particularly how you think they should be, then you become open to more possibilities. You might even begin to see opportunities within your problems, or some of your problems might dissolve.
The key part of any problem is that you believe your thoughts about what is happening. This causes you to overlook the obvious fact that your situation is changing moment to moment. In addition to this you can only see your situation from a limited number of perspectives. By the time your thinking explores a few of them the first one has changed. Operating in this way you will always feel beset by challenges because the unknown keeps appearing as a potential problem, when if fact it is not separate from you. Without realising it, you are surprising yourself over and over.
The pursuit of knowledge is the spontaneous ongoing inquiry into the changing landscape of thoughts and forms. When you dont have the capacity or desire to pursue knowledge any further along its infinite pathways then you can always settle on a belief. A belief is the minds spontaneous agreement with its own concept. Attachment to concepts gives a sense of security and stability where there is none. Once you see this, many problems and negative things begin to fall away, because they have less and less to hold onto.
See your problems with a sense of wonder and be free, then do whatever needs doing.
Peace