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The Psychology of Liberation (part 1)
zenff
Veteran
Spirituality is – the way I see it – not a matter of a “spiritual” belief. It is is not about faith in some hidden and profound fact about our universe. The questions we ask shouldn’t be about what the world is like and spirituality is neither in conflict nor in line with scientific findings on fields like physics or biology or history.
In a horrific meeting of managers that I (accidentally) participated in one day, at some point in the discussion a participant said: “You cannot disagree with me. You misunderstood my statement. It wasn’t actually saying anything, so you cannot agree or disagree with it.” In this meeting it was the low point of the day, but I can use it here. Spirituality is mostly not saying anything about facts and it is a waste of time to check if you agree or disagree with it in that way.
Zen or spirituality is the psychology of liberation. It is about mental processes and it focuses on the process of liberation; of awakening; of transformation.
The only assertion is that liberation (awakening, transformation) is possible. The rest is experiment and practice in order to let this process take place.
And here I think we should make the important step - maybe the first step in the process of liberation – to not try and put this assertion into context. Don’t build a universe around “the possibility of liberation”. It would just distract us and it could even prevent our liberation.
In this context of the psychology of liberation, don’t believe a single thought (with the exception of believing in the possibility of liberation).
In every other context we can use thoughts and argue about them, but for our liberation we must refrain from affirmation and denial.
In a horrific meeting of managers that I (accidentally) participated in one day, at some point in the discussion a participant said: “You cannot disagree with me. You misunderstood my statement. It wasn’t actually saying anything, so you cannot agree or disagree with it.” In this meeting it was the low point of the day, but I can use it here. Spirituality is mostly not saying anything about facts and it is a waste of time to check if you agree or disagree with it in that way.
Zen or spirituality is the psychology of liberation. It is about mental processes and it focuses on the process of liberation; of awakening; of transformation.
The only assertion is that liberation (awakening, transformation) is possible. The rest is experiment and practice in order to let this process take place.
And here I think we should make the important step - maybe the first step in the process of liberation – to not try and put this assertion into context. Don’t build a universe around “the possibility of liberation”. It would just distract us and it could even prevent our liberation.
In this context of the psychology of liberation, don’t believe a single thought (with the exception of believing in the possibility of liberation).
In every other context we can use thoughts and argue about them, but for our liberation we must refrain from affirmation and denial.
1
Comments
liberation from the material world into a nirvana state? here you assert both the existence of said nirvana state and that liberation is possible, oh and that should must therefore exist. please prove all 3 before continuing. claims that are asserted without evidence may be dismissed without evidence
Yes it is good to take a stand here. Otherwise you'll end up like me..every time someone expresses an opinion I immediately accept it as truth and law. This becomes very uncomfortable when opposing opinions and viewpoints are absorbed by me. Then I usually just walk in a tight half meter circle arguing and agreeing with myself until i short circuit and become unconscious, which then starts the process over again. Sound like a living hell? It is! You should definitely not accept what anyone is telling you to do. Or, to put it another way, you should.
Or not. Or shou......*sizzle....*thump
Much of my experience of liberation has arisen from simply no longer demanding my mentality to achieve liberation. I had been trying to push my thought organ into becoming the center of my practice for a long time before discovering how ego bound, such a spiritual acquisition could be over renunciation.
In letting go of my own directed mentality, of course I discovered that no one limited my freedom but me. Here, intelligence and spirituality, was uncovered as the sea I was formally trying to maintain my identity from disappearing into.
Your posting reminds me of this.
What I do is, I sit down and try to make sense of my thoughts and write them down as if I explain something to an audience. It’s just thinking out loud. They use that in courses (at least in the ones I was in). They have students explain the material to fellow students and force them to make their understanding explicit. The one who is “explaining” is the one who is learning.
Any feedback is welcome. When people get irritated I learn something. Maybe my tone was insulting or patronizing or whatever; or people just disagree with what I said. It happens. :rolleyes: