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| Personal article on Inner-Freedom | |||
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| Personal article on Inner-Freedom on Mon Oct 09, 2006 6:24 pm | |||
MartialArtist
Joined: 03 Feb 2006 |
Kind greetings to everyone.
I would like to share with you some philosophy on suffering and shortly after I will provide you with what I believe to be an excellent key towards inner freedom. I am posting this in the meditation section because, to me, this philosophy requires observation of ones self which is a form of meditation. Also I post it here because I think this area’s ‘atmosphere’ suits the subject best. Philosophy on Suffering: We all suffer on a daily basis. We may not notice our own suffering anymore except when we suffer intensely, but there is an ever present movement of disturbing energy, or: suffering, rolling continuously in the back of our minds/bodies. These constant feelings/energies of discontentment, or in other words: Desires towards something beside what we already are or have, are the cause of the fact that we often have such a hard time to experience peace and inner freedom. We might not notice it because we are not present, not conscious enough, but inside we are in constant battle with ourselves and our current situation or state. We constantly lack acceptance for who we are, what we do, what we have, and so much else. This lack of acceptance for ourselves and our current state/situation is the source of our desires >>> our desires are the source of our discontentment >>> our discontentment is the source of that constant disturbance >>> this disturbance is the reason we cannot experience inner freedom and happiness all the time (read: hardly ever), thus: We suffer. Example of Suffering: As you see in the philosophy above, the source for suffering is a lack of acceptance/contentment with our selves. Much too brief do we think that it is some outside situation that causes our emotional imbalance, or suffering. I believe that it is not the situation that makes you feel shitty; it is the fact that you do not accept and respect the fact that this situation is present right now, or may be present in the near future. It is not the situation that causes a disturbing, depressing and enclosing feeling/emotion, but the fact that we worry about it. We worry about it because we do not accept it for some reason. The best way to make this clear is probably by using an example. Let’s use a common example of suffering: worrying about some present or nearly present event or situation. Example: [You know that physical exercise is good for you and you have decided some time back to really exercise the body a lot in the upcoming months/years but you lack discipline to move your lazy butt to the gym. You now feel bad about yourself and this is a depressing, enclosing sensation that exercises pressure on a lot of parts of your body, especially on the stomach and solar plexus area. You feel the sensation of frustration.] You will subconsciously assume that this suffering sensation is caused by the fact that you don’t have the will to move your lazy butt to the gym. I believe this is not the source of your suffering. What is causing your inner experience to depress? The fact that you cannot accept the fact that you do not have enough will to move your lazy butt to the gym. So it is not your lack of discipline that is limiting your inner freedom, but your lack of acceptance towards your lack of discipline. Let’s quickly make another common example before dealing with the key that will possibly set us free: [You want to gain better health and free yourself of your addiction, so you decide to stop smoking, drinking, or: eating snacks in between meals or eating too much fat food. You are already 2 days in progress but your motivation is failing and that cigarette/drink/food is becoming highly attractive to your senses and your mind’s weakness for it. Somewhere in the second half of the first week something happens to you and you become a little emotional. You now grab that cigarette/drink/food from the table and start smoking/drinking/eating it. You will enjoy this short moment but not that freely because not only after you had your shot, but already once you started laying your hands on the object of addiction, you felt some disturbance/suffering within. Afterwards you feel really bad about yourself and are kind of ashamed. Now you are suffering pretty intensively.] Subconsciously you blame yourself for lacking the will power to ignore the addictive impulses of your mind. You think you are the cause of the currently present sensation of suffering which you experience. Once again: I believe you should consciously examine this. Then you will see that the limiting of freedom; the suffering sensation is not caused by your lack of discipline and will-power to resist the addiction, but the fact that you are being so hard on your self: You are incapable of accepting your flaws the way they are; you are judging and fighting something that belongs to your current situation or to your own mental state. This is causing the suffering: your lack of acceptance for yourself. So what is the key to unlock our inner experience of carefree freedom again? You may guess already: The key to unlock inner freedom at any given time: Acceptance is the key to feel intensely free. Next time you feel disturbance and discontentment with something that occurs in the outside world or with something that belongs to your own present state/situation, observe the sensation and realise that there is nothing you can do about it right now. The situation is the way it is. Accept and love yourself even when you lack something or some characteristic that you would like to posses. If you manage to honestly cultivate feelings of love, respect and acceptance towards yourself even when you ‘failed’ at something you set your goal at, then you will always be successful and carefree regardless whether or not you succeed. This acceptance,Self-respect and Self-love gives such an intense feeling of inner joy and freedom that you will love more then any other sensation. Freedom is the experience we search for and believe to find in cigarettes/alcohol/food etc in the first place. Why take such illusionary, petty sensations if you can instead experience true freedom by simply accepting everything about yourself even if you actually disapprove your current state? You may think: but if I accept all my bad habits, then how can I ever gain health or discipline? Gaining health or discipline or any other goal that requires some mental change will be gained much easier and much faster if you accept your current state/situation, because if you do not, you will suffer and feel frustrated…then what will you do? Yes, you will light another cigarette, take another drink or get some tasty chocolate bar to suppress the sensation of suffering for awhile. Lack of acceptance is what caused you to start with your addiction in the first place. Do cultivate inner feelings of love and acceptance to what is and most importantly to every aspect of your own being. If you do that, you will experience an overwhelming sensation of freedom, self-confidence and immortality even, that you will not even want to grab that cigarette anymore for as long as you can maintain this state of self-acceptancy. You will be able to resist and overcome your bad habits while retaining a peaceful state of freedom, and a clear mind and perspective, which will make things much easier and so much more fun and joyful. I wish you all infinite Love, Self-Acceptance and inner freedom, MA |
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| Posted on Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:41 am | |||
somefatguy
Joined: 17 Jan 2006 |
Wow, great article.
I am going to have to read it again to understand it more though. So we should not strive for perfection, we should accept what we can already do? Is this the key I need to perform my celibecy with ease? |
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| Posted on Sun Oct 29, 2006 10:32 pm | |||
mattz1010
Joined: 14 Jan 2006 |
Celibacy is bad for you, SFG.
Well written, but I disagree on some parts. I'll read over it later, and see what I come up with. |
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| Posted on Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:33 pm | |||
skiman691
Joined: 25 May 2006 |
I must say after reading that i must say that i would have never thought of this and that you are truely wise. This article has taught me much about suffering and how to become more carefree and less stressed and this will help me alot throughout life. | ||
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| Posted on Sun Nov 12, 2006 2:47 am | |||
MartialArtist
Joined: 03 Feb 2006 |
good! That makes me even more happy 
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| Posted on Sun Nov 12, 2006 12:27 pm | |||
somefatguy
Joined: 17 Jan 2006 |
Huh? Really? Can you explain this? How can celibacy be bad for me? |
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| Posted on Sun Nov 12, 2006 11:02 pm | |||
Rahmid
Joined: 14 Apr 2006 |
Pretty good explaination. I never know how to explain this to people. I always end up make people angry... well really just my one freind who is totally missing this concept.
yeah... She always more or less just goes, 'you dont understand how hard life can get!' yeah... Rahmid |
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| Posted on Sun Nov 12, 2006 11:04 pm | |||
Tankdown
Joined: 10 Aug 2006 |
The only thing that I feel I must say for this time is that sometimes when someone don't accpet things. There strive to improve it, to simply change what they dislike. However this is not always a good thing...
Waiting for a correction for my reply
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| Posted on Mon Nov 13, 2006 9:56 am | |||
somefatguy
Joined: 17 Jan 2006 |
I agree with that. What about my celibecy question! 
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| Posted on Wed Nov 15, 2006 10:48 pm | |||
Gekido
Joined: 27 Jun 2006 |
I think I may have missed a few connecting points in this post, but I'll try to respond. Are you stating that it is not the desire of a thing, or the inability of fulfilling that desire, but our lack of self-acceptance which causes suffering? I disagree.
We desire that which appears good to us. Now that may be an apparent good, i.e. something that isn't necessarily a good but appears to be so because of our acquired wants. To live well, we have to satisfy our needs, and perhaps some of our wants. I'll focus on your example of someone with a nicotine addiction trying to quit smoking. He desires to quit smoking. Not fulfilling that desire frustrates his goal in living well, which makes him unhappy. The man may be quite aware that he is unable to quit smoking, and accepts that fact. That doesn't change the fact that his want is being compromised. To be happy our most pressing desires need to be fulfilled to some extent, or we need to abandon or replace that desire. I got the feeling that you're supporting a surrender to the situation rather than promoting a struggle, with the hopes that the person might feel more comfortable and eventually overcome that situation... somehow. I'm in a difficult school, and I want good grades. I try to reach my potential, but often times I'll get lower than what I desired. I realize that there are some weeks where I will not be able to do all the work, but that doesn't eliminate my suffering. Sorry if I'm missing your point and debating with a strawman. Summary : Our frustrated desires cause our suffering, not our lack of self-acceptance. Self-acceptance can only allay some of the suffering. In any case, I'm always glad to read your stuff, MA. Keep it comin'. :] |
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| Posted on Thu Nov 16, 2006 3:14 am | |||
MartialArtist
Joined: 03 Feb 2006 |
 Your post makes me happy. Thanks, it is intelligent and shows me that you have given it real thought....and disagree, which is no problem at all.
Though you should realise, that acceptance is not just saying: "Ah well, I didn't make it...nevermind then...I'll make it some other time." Acceptance is saying: "Hahahahaa! who cares! Whether I 'fail' or not, I am still a very happy person, I can constantly see the bigger picture and realise that all of this is not important. Whether I am considered succesful or not, whether my desires are accomplished, I am enjoying life to the utmost. I love myself and I allow myself to make mistakes, or rather: Learn the lessons of life and enjoy them! I am not born on this world just to go to school and get good grades, that would be an insult to the sacredness of every human soul that gets born. I am meant to enjoy life, not to suffer and cry about these little things society does not like about me." I may have overexagerated, but that really is a good example of how you feel when you experience a moment of true acceptance. Belief me when I say that it is not the unfulfilment of the desire that makes us unhappy, but the fact that we don't like it when our desires remain unfulfilled. Do you understand the difference? In other words: We can not accept whatever happens. Because really, if you would not care whether or not you would fail your desire, then would you still suffer if you'd 'fail'? No. That is to me, enough proof to conculde that it is not the situation that makes us unhappy; it is the way we think and therefore feel about what happened. (because emotion is always an effect of our thoughts). This proofs to me that it is not the outside world which is responsible for how I feel, but me, for the full 100%. That is why I can be a very happy person no matter what happens. If you fully comprehend this and accept this mechanism of you being 100% responsible for your feelings, you can be told that the world is about to collapse five minutes from now and you would still enjoy this moment without a care in the world. That is why when you master yourself, you have mastered life, because life is merely your perception of it. If your retina is red of colour, you can rub the outside world as much as you wish, but if the retina remains red, then th eoutside world will be perceived by you as red. Once you rub the retina (symbolically: change yourself, your way of thinking) you will see the colour of the outside world changing. That is why you could say that the entire world is within you. The example of the world collapsing might seem a rather extreme example, but it follows the very same mechanism, only it includes more intense energetic movements, aka: emotions. The example of the world collapsing and still remaining free and unattached does not ncessarily have to be your goal of course, it is mine though, to be permanently free no matter what happens. But I would like to think that people would at least like to lighten up their lives and get in control of their selves. Therefore I posted this thread and I belief that if one starts to see the value of the following realisation, it can very well set you free from every-day suffering.
So accepting yourself walks hand in hand with not creating feelings of suffering. Hope this explains some more on what I intended with the word acceptance? What are your thoughts now? Let me know, MA |
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| Posted on Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:34 pm | |||
MartialArtist
Joined: 03 Feb 2006 |
I just found a beautiful quote. It goes deep and it took me a few deep seconds to realize what was meant here:
I would like to hear how some of you would interpretate this quote before I explain my interpretation. What do you get out of it? Analyze it carefully, use what you already know, and let me hear your thoughts on it, if you will. MA |
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| Posted on Tue Nov 21, 2006 8:31 pm | |||
somefatguy
Joined: 17 Jan 2006 |
Shouldn't it be "man" instead of "men."
I am sorry, I must go into a higher state of mind to give you a good answer, and I don't have that time right now. 
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| Posted on Tue Nov 21, 2006 10:32 pm | |||
Rahmid
Joined: 14 Apr 2006 |
I'll have to think about it when I meditate.
I'm too distracted right now to think clearly. haha Rahmid |
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| Posted on Wed Nov 22, 2006 5:30 am | |||
MartialArtist
Joined: 03 Feb 2006 |
haha Ok, I'll be waiting. | ||
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