FREEDOM TO OR FREEDOM FROM

Power aims
at Freedom To;
finds itself
on a collision course
with all the other Freedoms To
that inhabit gods and men and beast;
storm and drought and pestilence;
sickness, old age and death.

Wisdom aims
for Freedom From
discovers that all the competing Freedom To's
struggle within the stadium of life
and win and lose and win and lose
and lose at last at the gates
of old age and death.
Discovers that he who enters not
the arena of the breath
suffers no loss and dies no death.


Freedom To can be used to discover how one gets into places and situations that one wishes one could be Free From!


FURTHER COMMENT:  You are free to jump out of the girls' bedroom window but you are not free from the consequences of landing in the slate courtyard thirty feet below.


NEW PROJECT: BLONDIN

Blondin above Niagara,
the rope begins to sway.
The rocks below are grinning.
Every step is Judgement Day.

THINK.

The Labyrinth is made of Think. (Who built it?)  Ariadne's thread enables you to explore it safely.  What is the thread?  (If Ariadne's name was Sophia, what would it mean?)  Who or what is the Minotaur that lurks in the Labyrinth waiting for its annual sacrifice of seven young men and seven young women?  Who were its parents?  Why?

The River carries debris, dead animals, sewage, messages in bottles, courting couples in bath-tubs, other people's treasures, yesterday's memories, tomorrow's plans, everyday's fantasies.  The flow of Think is endless, ever-changing, always the same.  It is different from the flow of the river, though in exactly the same place.

NEW PROJECT: FREEDOM TO OR FREEDOM FROM?

IN-TRAY/OUT-TRAY

Entries into the in-tray should be cleared immediately or as soon as possible. If not, they build up and one's whole life becomes unbalanced and out of the present moment (which is where one actually lives). Even when the company folds, your desk goes with the rest of the furniture to auction and the office is demolished to make room for a motorway, your in-tray accompanies with all its contents, eternally waiting to be cleared.

NEW PROJECT: THINK

Think is interesting

Think is knowing

Think is funny

Think is painful

Think is boring

Think is difficult to control.

Speech is Think.

Think is not thing

Think is not seeing

Think is not hearing

Think is not smelling

Think is not tasting

Think is not feeling

Think is not doing

Think is not understanding.

What (or who) is Think?

Who (or what) controls Think?

SAMMĀ SAMĀDHI (RIGHT CONCENTRATION)

Right Concentration specifically produces Happiness.

Suffering is embedded in every aspect of the Sangsara.  The Sangsara is our world (and all other worlds).  It is life itself.  Everywhere, beings are being born into circumstances they don't want.  They are growing old (which they don't want).  They are sick (which they don't want).  They are dying (which they only want if they think it will be better than being alive).

When a man concentrates the mind successfully on a single wholesome object, he deliberately withdraws his attention from his physical link with our world.  He does not see, hear, smell, taste or touch the world.  It therefore does not cause him physical pain while he is in this state of 100% concentration.  Because he does not see, hear smell, taste or touch, there is no point of contact with external things and therefore no feelings arise.  So feelings cannot cause him pain.  Because his mind is fixed on a single object, he makes no contact with the outside world at the mind sense door.  He does not contact thoughts or memories or mental images with the mind.  So these things cannot trouble him and cause him pain.

He finds himself, consciously, in a state which is absolutely free from pain, discomfort or any kind of suffering, whether mental or physical.  Absence of suffering is the beginning of Eternal Happiness.

Therefore; Right Concentration specifically produces Happiness.

NEW PROJECT: In-tray / Out-tray

SAMMĀ SATI (RIGHT MINDFULNESS)

  Behold,

  You Inheritors of Immortal Bliss!

  Now is Here!

  And This

  Is All there Is!

New Project: RIGHT CONCENTRATION

Samādhi (sam + ā + dhā): "the (mental) state of being firmly fixed". The fixing of the mind on a single object. Concentration is right or wrong in so far as it is associated with wholesome or unwholesome states of consciousness.