The Attitude Required For Inner Freedom
If I have to summarize the attitude which is required for coming to a place of true inner freedom, it would be – being fearless. The attitude of being fearless is not about the complete “absence” of fear (after all fear is one of the natural dimensions of thinking/mind) but about the openness to allow […]
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These are things I seem to have heard before but they never sunk in, not really until now. For such a long time I think I identified with my fear. That’s even beyond just believing statements like “I am scared” to even get to a point where it means “I, Adam, am someone who is scared of certain things and that’s just who I am”. The idea of fearlessness, to me, never really made sense, not in this way. I thought it meant not being scared at all, but in fact it’s about being whatever you may be and that can include being scared. People have said the same things before, that’s in no way intending to classify what Sen says here as old news or redundant , it’s just to say that the words and ideas are familiar. The thing is, it’s only until now when I read this that I think I truly get it. Being fearless is about coming to an understanding, an allowing, that anything might happen and no matter what you’ll still be “OK”. It’s a choice, and it certainly doesn’t mean you feel no fear. Most importantly for me, it’s about not defining myself as being someone who is scared, or even someone who is fixed in any way at all. Being fearless, I suddenly see, is being willing to accept anything. That’s kind of contrary to a defensive way of thinking which is about resistance. Resistance has an element of perceived strength to it and I suppose in many ways that’s still the case. Resisting something is not universally bad, it’s a choice that we can all make from time to time if we want to exert some kind of control over what’s going on. But constant resistance and refusal to accept the infinite possibilities of reality … that’s where things break down for me and I suspect for many other people too. Sometimes you just can’t fight life. There are things we don’t control and trying to control them and resist their influence can be completely pointless. That’s where we can end up achieving nothing more than hurting ourselves, adding to our pain and misery. Being fearless means that no matter what actually happens, putting aside any notion of being in control or not, that I am still here, I am still OK and even if there is pain and suffering I am capable of choosing to let that be. That’s a freedom from compulsive resistance. It’s not stopping all kind of resistance but rather choosing when to resist, when to not. Only if you are absolutely fearless and capable and willing to allow anything to happen can you make that choice freely. It’s not a weakness, it’s not rolling over and just allowing everything to happen over the top of you. It’s an attitude of saying that I’m OK no matter what. I’ll make what efforts I can, when I choose, when I see that it’s possible to do so, but I won’t cause myself extra suffering by struggling against unstoppable forces. That’s not just a noble idea, it’s an immensely practical and simple way of bringing more peace, contentment and true happiness into your life.
Adam, that’s a very accurate understanding of this pointer of inner freedom
Sen,
I’ve noticed that since I’ve been practicing allowing, that I have become dramatically more aware of other people’s energy. I spent time with a friend the other day who struggles with anxiety. I’ve known her for quite a while, but this time I could physically feel her anxiety. It gave me a lot of insight into her personality and behavior and allowed me to help her, but I felt like the experience zapped a little bit of my energy. Would you please provide some more pointers on how to be around others who have an imbalance of energy like this?
E, it’s just a sign of growing awareness in you, and it’s true that as your awareness grows so does your sensitivity to life as a whole including sensitivity to the energy of people around you – it’s a good thing because it allows you to be more connected with life and gain a better understanding of it. The reason you found the experience “zapping” is because there is still an emotional momentum present in you that responds to the energy of the other person (especially their imbalance or negativity) by becoming protective or offensive. As you go through the process of releasing your past emotional momentum (as you continue the practice of allowing) you will sense more stability and openness in your being, and thus will not be “influenced” by the energy of other people while being sensitivity to their vibe.
Thank you Sen, I appreciate your reply. I do believe the principles and teachings of Jesus are in some ways similar. He emphasized to not worry, to not toil and labor as we do, and to be in today’s moment and not tomorrow. The principles you discuss have given me several ah ha moments. This wisdom to me is universal and amazing. Thanks Sen, you are helping people to chill out. Us Americans are wound up waaaaay to tight.
hi sen,,
during all this allowing and awareness, i am constantly guilty about not putting in my best at work,, there s a element of boredom as i feel that it should happen naturally and i need not do anything more than what i feel like doing, i am unable to wake up very early in the morning and am constantly guilty about this and tend to reprimand myself and feel low about this everyday. is this all a part of momentum and am allowing as much as i can but occasionally i do feel desperate and feel that the damn thing should end! had started this beginning of the year! any pointers on how to feel better and enjoi the process
Priya, it’s true that during the phase of release (of past momentum), what I call phase 3 (in this post awakening, transcendence and return of focus) there is sense of being less organized and less functional, and this is normal because of all the “inner work” that’s going on and the adjustment your body, and being, makes towards these inner changes – however, even during this phase, things are not hay-wire or chaotic, rather there is a grace that’s present and things get managed, well-being is seen to be dominant. Your guilt is valid (after all, the mind does want to be productive and efficient), but you would also need to let go of being pulled around by this guilt (the guilt about being productive) and develop a freedom in your being towards being a slave to this pull of guilt – when you are driven by guilt based productive it lacks a quality that’s present in a wisdom based productivity. This release of the pull of guilt is also part of the process of finding inner freedom (part of phase 3). As the momentum of your mind releases itself, you will sense a real choice coming in towards a conscious living – what I call the return of focus. In this phase of “return of focus” (which is basically the movement in conscious living) you will sense that you are able to make conscious choices towards your life-style based on your wisdom, this includes being consciously productive and organized. The nutshell is that things do fall in place, and what you are going through right now is just a temporary phase, the pointer for you right now would be to find freedom from this guilt of wanting to be productive.
Hey Sen,
The past few days I had the inner freedom you describe in this article. I was like a space where I was totally allowing any thought/emotion without being pulled around by it. However, it only lasted a few days and then I started identifying myself with my emotions/fears again.
Was what happened just a mind play or a foretaste of what life should be like? or some part of the momentum release? You say that the “inner freedom” is an attitude that one should choose, but it kinda came and left by itself… so.. what do i do now? haha
Thank you for the great article!
Babsi, an attitude is something you keep choosing in the moment – so when the emotions and thoughts come up, and you feel pulled by it, you can consciously move into a state of allowing. If you feel “helpless” towards the pull, then just allow the feeling of helplessness also – don’t try to “create” some good feeling state. The state of allowing is not always going to feel “good”, during strong releases it’s bound to feel uncomfortable and you will feel as if you are mired by the negativity that’s coming up – the deal is to just stay open to it, allowing this unpleasantness.
Hi Sen,
What I get from this post is, inner freedom is a conscious decision, if ourselves “me” are still afraid of the uncertainty, regardless of the mind momentum or ego force, then we can not be free from the mind grip. Because, this is what I feel like right now, my mind occasionally thinking about what is wrong with this repetitive thoughts pattern, my assumption is either it still needs time to dissolve or I still afraid of the uncertainty without I am being aware of this fact, I still fear afraid with some repetitive thought patterns. And I am tired of it, and every time I want to ignore this because I am sick of it, then the mind generate another thought, that I do this maybe because I am afraid of it, I notice that I am kind of moving in a loop. And after see this post, I feel like something just came off of myself, it’s like I drop something off of my shoulder. I dont know is this the truth or not but I decided to go with the flow, wherever life will take me, I will go there.
Dear Sen,
since I came into contact with spirituality I read countless books and web sites and attended satsangs and meditation retreats. I collected so many pointers in my mind that over the years I got more and more restricted instead of open and free.
A couple of weeks ago my mind was again very very activ and I was searching
relief and found your blog (or did it find me?). I read two or three articles and suddenly something made “click” and I could see crystal clear that I used spirituality as a means to control myself and especially the experiences I had y by using all kinds of meditation tecniques like watching the breath and so on.
All at once it was so obvious that it´s all just about “allowing”. Suddenly I
feel this inner freedom where I was looking for so desperatly over the past years and I can see that I have the ability (maybe not the willingness sometimes) to allow anything what comes up.
In any case, thank you so much Sen for this wonderful blog, because it also answered a lot of questions I had where I didn´t even know how to formulate.
Also thanks to all the fellow readers + their comments and questions.
I take a lot of benetif out of your topics.
Love Achim