Spiritual conversations often focus on ways to stay
connected to divine consciousness and how to open our hearts by giving and
lending a helping hand. The same hand that extends outward to be kind, thoughtful,
and loving has another side. That other side is the inner place, the
consciousness that nothing, no-thing,
binds you, except you yourself.
The Buddhists call this consciousness, practicing the dharma. I call it being
on the path of love and practicing. As you reflect upon the places that you
struggle against that feel like boundaries, understand that those boundaries
are not real. This understanding is liberation. If nothing outside of me binds
me, and I know this and hold this consciousness at all times, in all places,
and under all circumstances, then I am liberated. I am empowered all of the
time to do the practice, to do the work, and to bring myself to a place of
acceptance, understanding, and non-suffering.
All of the situations that seem to bind
you are cosmic set-ups created by you and for you so that you may gain
understanding and be able to know that these set-ups are not real. The outer
adversaries that you think you are dueling with are not real. You are really
dueling with your own consciousness, your own heart, and your own mind. There are
no exceptions.
Take just a moment and think of some
place that feels like a struggle; it could be another person, something at
work, some karma with someone you love, or even an obsession with a
thought-form. Whatever it is, it cannot bind you because the universal laws
that govern your being are infinite and vast, far beyond the limiting concepts
and beliefs of the profane world.
Freedom is a matter of consciousness, not a matter of outer
circumstance. You could be in jail and still be free. You could be living a
life that seemingly has everything, and still be bound and in jail. There is
nothing that can bind you, except you yourself.
If you know this intellectually but do not apply
it, then you are thinking about the practice, but you are not practicing. You
are still giving power to the places you feel bound by. So when you are
practicing, go right to the place of, Wait
a minute, this is not about anything or anyone else. This is about me! Then
the conversations that you have with the other person or situation, stop. The
justifications and the ways that we position ourselves against the other,
stop. Then we are practicing.
Some years ago, we were delivering a statue of Kwan
Yin to the Sanctuary on Cape
Breton. She was wrapped
in cardboard fastened with metal straps. As we drove up the highway, she would
fling off one strap and then, a little while later, she would fling off
another. She was flinging them off all
the way up the highway, one by one, and by the time we got to Cape Breton,
the cardboard was in tatters.
There is great freedom in knowing that if we bind
ourselves, we can unbind ourselves. Remember Kwan Yin, and do the work that
will unbind you, step by step. Be willing to meet what you feel when you feel
it and know that it is all about you. That is the practice. When you have had
enough—when you have really had enough--it
will be done. When you yearn for non-binding love and that feeling of
liberation above all else, you will let go.
