Free at last ...

lobster

“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.”
ML King

Ah freedom.
Gone beyond Dharma? Finding wisdom in a teacup and a grain of sand?

The Buddhist Path is a tight ship, with a small wheel ... (Hinayana as it is not known)

However Freedom is a big raft, with many shores to reach. In many ways the form is not the essence ...

Behold, O monks, this is my last advice to you. All component things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation.
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/lifebuddha/2_31lbud.htm

Free?

federica

"Lo' We are in the Buddha's hands;
The freer we become, the more fettered fast we are...."

wojciech

free dumb, free dumb, who wants some free dumb

Shoshin

Free?

All this "I" can say is.....It ain't what is use to be ...

Hozan

AWESOME @Shoshin !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jeroen

@lobster said:
Behold, O monks, this is my last advice to you. All component things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation.
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/lifebuddha/2_31lbud.htm

Free?

All is part of the inter-related interbeing of this world, the only freedom is the freedom of the mind, where each transformation of realisation can move you a step closer towards new choices here and true freedom there, the farther shore. That is how I understand it.

lobster

@Kerome said:
... the farther shore ...

Further shore? Ay caramba . . .

Nasreddin sat on a river bank when someone shouted to him from the opposite side:
'Hey! how do I get across?'
'You are across!' Nasreddin shouted back.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nasreddin

Buddhadragon

@lobster said:
All component things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation._
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/lifebuddha/2_31lbud.htm

I prefer Woodward and Thero's translation "Impermanent are all compounded things. Strive on with diligence." Or "All compounded things are subject to decay...."

techie

Can there ever be freedom as long as we're subject to the body?

Fosdick

Freedom is a relative concept, a conditioned state. Freedom from what? Freedom to do what?

Freedom from the law of cause and effect, now that would be something - but I doubt that's what Dr. King was talking about.

lobster

@Fosdick said:
Freedom is a relative concept, a conditioned state. Freedom from what? Freedom to do what?

Good questions. I could try answering them but would prefer to hear others answers ...

Freedom from the law of cause and effect, now that would be something - but I doubt that's what Dr. King was talking about.

Quite right.
One of the great freedoms of the Boddhisattva is to hear what is being said and represent it in a completely different light. Being free of the obvious meaning is dangerous. It can be and often is representative of imbalance ...

One of the great strengths of much (not all) dharma is its obvious and transparent nature. It is not muddled, esoteric or complicated.

For example how free can we be of the body as @techie asks. Our experiences, our past, our culture, our location, our education, our age, our hormonal shifts, our gender, our level of dharmic unfoldment ... How free of those? Rather how independent can we be?

Avalokitasvara bodhisattva when practising deep with the prajna paramita perceives that all five skandhas are empty and is safe from all suffering and distress. Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness; emptiness does not differ from form. That which is form is emptiness; that which is emptiness, form. The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, consciousness. Shariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness. They do not appear or disappear; are not tainted or pure; do not increase or decrease. Therefore, in emptiness no form, no feelings, perceptions, impulses, consciousness; no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no colour, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind, no realm of eyes and so forth until no realm of mind consciousness. No ignorance and also no extinction of it; and so forth until no old age and death, and also no extinction of them. No suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path, no cognition, also no attainment. With nothing to attain the bodhisattva depends on prajna paramita and his mind is no hindrance. Without any hindrance no fears exist. Far apart from every perverted view he dwells in nirvana. In the three worlds all Buddhas depend on prajna paramita and attain anutarasamyaksambodhi. Therefore, know that prajna paramita is the great transcendent mantra, is the great bright mantra, is the utmost mantra, is the supreme mantra which is able to relieve all suffering, and is true not false. So proclaim the prajna paramita mantra, proclaim the mantra which says –

Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha!

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildfoxzen/2015/05/the-no-of-no-no-affirming-the-great-heart-sutra.html

grackle

@lobster. "Free at Last" is a spiritual song. Having to do with meeting King Jesus in the air. The ending of a life filled with harshness and tribulation. MLK gives credit to the spiritual prior to the "Free at Last" quote. In his "I have a dream" speech in 1963.

Shoshin

Free

One could say that to be free is to become comfortable with "groundlessness"

”Transient alas; are all component things,
subject are they to birth and then decay
Having gained birth; to death the life flux swings
Bliss truly dawns when unrest dies away !”

I feel the earth move under my feet

Buddhadragon

@techie said:
Can there ever be freedom as long as we're subject to the body?

I am not subject to my body.
My body is an aggregate that came included in the package.
It deserves as much respect as the other aggregates.
It can either be a tanha and dukkha generator when left to its own devices, or a great source of pleasure and knowledge when handled with wisdom and compassion.

David

There is no true and solid ground.

Stand regardless.

karasti

It seems freedom has definitions that span an ultimate nature and a relative nature. It means something different every time you use the word depending on the context. Ultimate freedom to have no limitations to "who" we are or what we are able to do is one thing. In some traditions this is not possible until you die. In others it is possible while still embodied. But living with freedom in the normal limitations of our bodies, minds (more so than anything) and society is a totally different thing. I think a lot of people will tell you they feel less free today than they did, say, 20 years ago. Not everyone, of course. Some groups thankfully have been granted more rights in that time. But how much of that sense of restricted freedom is entirely in our minds?

lobster

Maintain the state of undistractedness, and distractions will fly away. Dwell alone, and you shall find the Friend. Take the lowest place, and you shall reach the highest. Hasten slowly, and you shall soon arrive. Renounce all worldly goals, and you shall reach the highest Goal. If you follow this unfrequented path, you will find the shortest way. If you realize Sunyata (the absolute Emptiness), compassion will arise within your hearts; and when you lose all differentiation between yourself and others, then you will be fit to serve others.
Milarepa

... I knew there was a plan ...

pegembara

Sabbe sankhara anicca
Sabbe sankhara dukkha
Sabbe dhamma anatta

Suffering is saccadhamma, truth. If there is suffering in the heart, it becomes the cause that makes you think about escaping. It leads you to contemplate. You won’t sleep so soundly, because you will be intent on investigating to find out what is really going on, trying to see causes and their results.

Happy people don’t develop wisdom. They are asleep.

….When the eyes see something displeasing, dukkha is born. The ears hear something that you really like, and dukkha is also born. There is only suffering.

When dukkha arises, we call that suffering. When it ceases, we call that happiness. It’s all old stuff, arising and ceasing. We are taught to watch body and mind arising and ceasing. There’s nothing else outside of this. To sum it up, there is no happiness–there’s only dukkha. We recognize suffering as suffering when it arises. Then when it ceases, we consider that to be happiness. We see it and designate it as such, but it isn’t. It’s just dukkha ceasing. Dukkha arises and ceases, arises and ceases, and we pounce on it and catch hold of it. Happiness appears and we are pleased. Unhappiness appears and we are distraught. It’s really all the same, mere arising and ceasing. When there is arising, there’s something, and when there is ceasing, it’s gone. This is where we doubt. Thus it’s taught that dukkha arises and ceases, and outside of that, there is nothing. When you come down to it, there is only suffering. But we don’t see clearly.

We don’t recognize clearly that there is only suffering because when it stops, we see happiness there. We seize on it and get stuck there. We don’t really know what’s going on, which is just arising and ceasing.

The Buddha summed things up by saying that there are only arising and ceasing, and there’s nothing outside of that. This is difficult to listen to. But one who truly has a feel for the Dharma doesn’t need to take hold of anything and dwells in ease. That’s the truth….

Ajahn Chah

lobster

@federica said:
"Lo' We are in the Buddha's hands;
The freer we become, the more fettered fast we are...."

Indeed. However .... [great 'esoteric' secret about to be revealed - look away now if not on an esoteric path)
... However these 'fetters' or attachment to service, kindness, free fish for lobsters etc are liberating ... as @federica intimates.

Here we have karmic choice. We choose the better way, Martin Luther King's dream, the Boddhisattva ideal, the 8 fold path etc.

So being free is the freedom to choose ...

Namo Buddhaya
Namo Dharmaya
Namo Sanghaya

I go for refuge to the Buddha,
I go for refuge to the Dharma,
I go for refuge to the Sangha.

or, the Tibetan (Mahayana) version:

Until I am enlightened,
I go for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
Through the virtue I create by practising giving and the other perfections,
may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings.
http://www.viewonbuddhism.org/refuge.html

You knew the plan?