Self-imprisonment and Liberation

Granted, we are all completely different. We differ in race, appearance, background, social status, relationships, health, habits and of course greatly in our thinking. Basically we differ in everything.
And yet, there is something which we have in common and this is what I would like to talk about. Used well, it can unfold our full potential. Failing to use it well or misusing it, it may bring about countless undesirable consequences.
I'm speaking about our true human potential, the heart of being human.

We all are endowed with the great gift of intelligence, the ability to know, the ability to discriminate what to adopt and what to abandon.
Also, appreciating the gift of being alive, we all have the ability to feel, to connect and empathize with others.

Now, if the light of intelligence and knowledge merges and unites with the heart and life force of feeling and emotion, we can feel whole and satisfied and there is a special dynamics. It is a highly effective combination, it is a situation where male and female principles in ourselves go hand in hand, intellect and intuition united, supporting each other and brilliantly manifesting a dance of joy, being in the center of our life force.

Many spiritual and mystical traditions speak about this, and they even go further and point out the possibility of a great spiritual achievement, transcendence, a mystic union, a permanent cessation of suffering and recognition of our true nature.

When Buddha Shakyamuni attained enlightenment, he proclaimed so inspiringly,

"Profound peace, natural simplicity, uncompounded luminosity, I have found a nectar-like dharma."

Speaking of our true nature, let's think about it, what is it exactly? Is it all these ever-changing aspects like age, social status, appearance, fluctuating mental and physical states? Although usually we identify with many of these aspects, if we have a closer look, we recognize that they are constantly changing and not really reliable and therefore not truly ourselves. They are not our true nature. Our true nature goes beyond that.

So why does this true nature not become apparent and obvious and manifest in actuality if it is really our true nature? If something is true, it should be visible, isn't it?

Yes, the true nature might be visible but maybe we are looking at the wrong place. We get mesmerized by a completely different vision and create another (false) "reality", a self-made reality based on ignorance. We get lost in a sort of "virtual reality" world and cannot get out of it.

I'm sure most of you have seen the movie "The Matrix". Well, this is exactly what I mean. In the movie, people are deceived and lost in a false reality created by the Matrix. They do not recognize that they are in fact stuck in the Matrix. They think this "normality" is how things are so they just continue living like that without any further scrutiny. The interesting thing here in the case of the Matrix is that people are being unknowingly used as batteries and getting drained of their energy by the Matrix. They are being drained of our true life force and by continuing this state of ignorance they will be stuck there forever as a battery!

I think taking hold again on our life force is key in freeing ourselves from the net of illusion. Making friends again with our body, energy and mind and using it in a wholesome way. Gradually recognizing the illusions and deceptions we are stuck in we will be able to free ourselves more and more from neurotic entanglement and regain space and freedom.

The following posts will contain different aspects and approaches towards more freedom and liberation and you are very welcome to join. Thank you for your attention.

Finally, I would like to emphasize the following:

It is not the "evil" Matrix who traps us in a false reality. It is not an external force which holds us in prison. It is us who are in charge.

We are the creators of our own prison.

And we are the ones with the power to break the illusion to set us free.