QUESTION6.com
We,The People, are not happy
QUESTION6.com
We,The People, are not happy
17 - Can we escape our jail
Absolutely! The problem is where to begin.
The first step is to free us from our attachment to the material world.
We can put our body to good use. Let’s start with something simple, such as chocolate. Is it the body or the soul that is addicted to chocolate? We need a transformation in the soul that will counterbalance the body’s attraction. We can move to a cavern in the mountains where there is no temptation. There is no guarantee that we will not succumb to chocolate when we return. Freedom comes from the soul. It does not come from the environment. The same principle applies to smoking and drinking. The battle is inside us.
Freedom will come from our soul,
rather than our environment.
Let’s keep going: After easy victories, we will be ready for more serious battles. What is our idea of a successful life? Is it going up the social ladder? Can we be sure that this is nothing more than ego gratification? We may find that, hidden behind excuses, our primary motivation has been to satisfy our ego. The first step towards true freedom is to remove the ego from the driver’s seat and place it in the passenger’s seat where it belongs. The goal is to bring changes in the soul that will balance the temptations of the material world. It is an internal fight for freedom!
The next step may be to reclaim our time. Who decides how much time we spend watching TV? Is it us or is it the screen? The TV shows movement, color, and sounds. Wood burning in the fireplace also has color, sound, and movement. They are the criteria of life. We are drawn to TV like we are drawn to life. It takes energy to dominate this kind of attraction. It takes a stronger soul.
Here is an idea that could help when we get desperate. Try a TV set with pedals! When it’s not worth pedaling, the TV stops! The goal is to use TV without abusing it.
“Use but don’t abuse” is a law of nature that science has yet to discover. We may enjoy a glass of wine. We cannot rely on wine to have a happy life. It is not easy to refrain from something that both the body and the soul would enjoy. The battle is inside. The body is the battleground where the soul must prevail.
The body is the battleground where the soul must prevail.
To overcome sadomasochism may be different. History shows that we inherited it from our ancestors. Chances are that it came with the body. Thinking may not be the right tool to fight genes. That would explain our slow progress in this domain. That does not mean that any resistance is vain. If we can improve our body and prolong our life, we can also improve our thinking. There is hope. We can find what is influenced by sadomasochism in our everyday life and we can develop restraint. That takes thinking, consciousness and energy. We have some and we can amplify what we have.
We started with the material domain and the body. That was an easy place to start but it was a trap. What is important in our life is in our soul. After the body, the time has come to work on the soul
Everywhere we turn, we find a need for a higher level of consciousness. We have some. We can try to amplify the little we have like we amplified the multiplication of seeds and developed agriculture.
We want to distance ourselves from the material world and break our glass ceiling. The teacher who gives mathematics problems to his students does not expect them to discover a new solution. He wants them to become conscious of a solution that already exists. Education develops consciousness. This is our way out of Plato’s cave.
