On another thread @danmcderm drew attention to the notion of freedom being born from perception, which made me want to read the original talk from which the quote he mentioned is from. I also did a Kinfonet search on the topic of freedom and found @Rick’s thread on freedom from his core of the teachings series: The Core of the Teachings :: Freedom
What both passages seem to have in common is the relationship for K between freedom and perception, or freedom and observation. Because this is not the usual way we understand the word ‘freedom’ I thought I would share both texts and make it open for comment.
(Note: the following passages are edited extracts from the originals)
From The Core of the Teachings
Freedom is pure observation without direction, without fear of punishment and reward…
In observation one begins to discover the lack of freedom. Freedom is found in the choiceless awareness of our daily existence and activity.
From Talk 1, Bombay/Mumbai, 1959
To be free, one must understand oneself; one must be aware of the movements of thought and feeling, the ways of one’s mind…
We are concerned with understanding the mind, and in understanding, there is no condemnation or demand for a pattern of action…
What matters is to observe your mind without judgment – look at it, watch it, be conscious of the fact that your mind is a slave. That very perception releases energy, and it is this energy that is going to destroy the slavishness of the mind… We are concerned only with perceiving what is, and it is the perception of what is that releases creative fire…
To find out about oneself, what one thinks, what one is, the extraordinary depths and movements of the mind – to be aware of all that requires a certain freedom. To inquire into oneself also requires astonishing energy, because one has to travel an immeasurable distance.
To go into ourselves deeply, fully, a sense of freedom is necessary, not at the end but the very beginning. Do not ask how to arrive at that freedom. No system of meditation, no book, drug or psychological trick will give you freedom. Freedom is born of the perception that freedom is essential. The moment you perceive that freedom is essential, you are in a state of revolt, against this ugly world, against all orthodoxy, against tradition, against leadership, both political and religious. Revolt within the framework of the mind soon withers away, but there is a lasting revolt which comes into being when you perceive for yourself that freedom is essential…
Most of us are not aware of ourselves… We have never really looked at ourselves, never wandered into the depths of ourselves without calculation and premeditation, without seeking something out of those depths. We have never taken the journey into ourselves without a purpose…
This perception, this constant awareness of what is, has its own will – if I can use that word will without confusing it with the will to which you are accustomed. I am talking of a perceptive state of mind which has its own action. That is, perception itself is action…
Going to the office day after day in utter boredom, being a slave to tradition, custom, fear, to one’s wife, husband or boss – that is one’s life. See the appalling pettiness and nauseating indignity of it. So we ask how we are to be free…
If you perceive completely, absolutely, that the mind must be free, that very perception brings an action which will set the mind free…
So the problem is, surely, to free the mind totally so that it is in a state of awareness which has no border or frontier. How is the mind to discover that state? How is it to come to that freedom?
… The margin of freedom is growing narrower every day. The politicians, leaders, priests, newspapers and books you read, the knowledge you acquire and the beliefs you cling to, all this is making the margin of freedom more and more narrow. If you are aware of this process going on, if you actually perceive the narrowness of the spirit, the increasing slavery of the mind, you will find that out of perception comes energy. It is this energy, born of perception, that shatters the petty, respectable, fearful mind.
Perception is the way of truth.
To perceive something is an astonishing experience. I don’t know if you have ever really perceived anything – a flower, a face, the sky or the sea. Of course, you see these things as you pass by, but I wonder whether you have ever taken the trouble actually to look at a flower…
You perceive something only when your mind is silent, and there is no chattering of any kind. If you can look at the evening star over the sea without a movement of the mind, you really perceive the extraordinary beauty of it…
Perception takes place on the instant; it is a state of effortless attention. The mind is not making an effort, and so it does not create a border or frontier, it does not place a limitation on its own consciousness. Then life is not this terrible process of sorrow, struggle and unutterable boredom. Life is then an eternal movement, without beginning and end. But to be aware of that timeless state, to feel the tremendous depth and ecstasy of it, one must begin by understanding the slavish mind. Without understanding the one, you cannot have the other…
If you are aware that your mind is narrow, limited, slavish, petty – aware of it choicelessly – then you are in a state of perception. It is this perception that will bring the necessary energy to free the mind from its slavery…
So, what is important is to be aware of how one’s mind, in the very process of accumulation, becomes a slave. Do not ask, ‘How am I to be free from accumulation?’ – for then you are putting a wrong question. But if you really perceive for yourself that your mind is accumulating, that is enough. To perceive requires complete attention, and when you give your whole mind, your whole heart, your total being to something, there is no problem. It is partial attention, in which there is a withholding, that creates the problems and the miseries in our life.
So, freedom means observation and perception. What do people feel about this?