LIVING FREE
Your life is lived through your human vessel. If you want to travel unhindered you have to understand the mechanics, and you’re best off to become your own mechanic too. You will have to know how to adjust something, when to break, and when to go full speed ahead—just like when driving a car. This require essential skills of self regulation. You need to know when and how to fix the problems that might arise along the way, and to take good care of the machinery.
A car is useless if it’s always on break, it can’t go anywhere. A car is dangerous if it’s alway speeding. A car is dangerous to drive when something is off, or not working. We have to be able to know when something is off in ourselves, how to adjust the speed with which we move (speed is excellent when the road is clear, and very dangerous when it is not), and most importantly how to flow with ease through the different spectrums.
It’s so easy to get caught up in collective narratives like “only hard work pays off”, or that by rejecting “doing” altogether we have somehow found freedom. We’re forgetting that we can simply move between it all. When we know that there is no situation that we can’t move into or out of. The problems in life always arise when we respond inappropriately to the situations in front of us, and this usually comes from inflexible convictions or a lack of energy and maturity, then we try to escape and avoid. But real freedom comes when we can show up for anything that we are faced with, with ease and with grace.
I am aware that the notion of the body as machinery should be viewed with some caution, because it has gotten us into many trouble in the past—from how we approach health in the medical system to how we treat babies and children like something that we can control and fix with generalized methods.
Living according to generalizations doesn’t work. Nor does looking at the physical body only. We have to take into account all ten bodies, and we have to take into account individuality, and be able to approach each person and situation individually. The reason that we make generalizations is to save energy. It’s normal and human to do so, but it gives an experience of living life in a sort of confinement—boxed in by our own and others rigid beliefs.
The tendency to avoid is also very normal and humane. We are wired for safety and comfort, and avoidance is often a response to a situation that we feel unsure or inadequate in. There’s many things in life one would want to avoid. The strategy is to avoid it before it even enters our field. If we can maneuver ourselves in a way that brings us what we need in life and helps us avoid that which isn’t for us, we are saving ourselves from many struggles and wasted energy. Once the thing hits our field, we have to know that we are capable of dealing with it.
That’s what a spiritual practice does—it helps to install that kind of protection and alignment. The effort you make when doing your spiritual practice saves you from wasting energy on misalignments. And it gives you the courage to face what’s in front of you, so even when you do encounter hardships, you don’t avoid or deflect. You are ready to face the challenges.
Basing our strategies for coping with life on those found in a spiritual system will also help save energy because instead of uncovering your existence from scratch you can picking up on where others left off. You can rely on thousand of years of information delivered through teachers, teachings and methods, that can adjust and perfect your own life experience very quickly. You are still responsible for what you’re doing of course, and you should test how the practices work for you. Dogma isn’t helpful. Neither is superficial and depthless efforts.
Having a spiritual practice that you can rely on is priceless, though it isn’t a guarantee that you can live life completely obstacle free. But when we know how to maneuver through them even the obstacles become part of the flow. Then everything is either a blessing or a challenge—and you can grow from both.
When we take responsibility for how we “drive our car”, when we understand how it works and when we have the right tools to adjust and regulate, our journey becomes so much more enjoyable. It’s the difference between feeling capable and successful and feeling inadequate and helpless. The struggles become an opportunity to grow and overcome, and the nectar of your efforts flow into every corner of your life, making it more meaningful, beautiful and graceful.
It all start with learning the mechanics and how to shift between the gears, so that you can generate more energy and present awareness—enough to face what comes at you, and receive your next move with clarity. That’s when you start to live life free.
