MEDITATION
THE MEANING OF FREEDOM
W
hat is this thing called ‘freedom’ that we so earnestly wish for? Certainly, it means different things to different people. If we lived in so many parts of the world today: Russia, China, Afghanistan, Iran, Ukraine (to name a few), it might mean the freedom to live
without war, the freedom to associate or gather
together with people of like mind, the freedom to
speak out, to get an education, to walk unmolested by reason of gender or sexual orientation.
“We must strongly
ground the spiritual
journey in wholesome
moral conduct, with
compassion leading
the way.”
How fortunate we are to live in a country where
all those issues are non-events in most personal
lives! But if we are engaged in spiritual s earch,
this word ‘freedom’ takes on a different meaning.
The ‘nafs’ or hindrance patterns, the Maras, are
primarily internal, though they will most likely be
reflected in external activity. At their gross level,
they are the psychological imbalances, neuroses
even, that prevent us from becoming clear, unobstructed people, able to relate in a wholesome