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Fresh, Solid and Free
person
Don't believe everything you thinkThe liminal space Veteran
In one of Thich Naht Hahn's prayers a line is May I live fresh, solid and free.
What that means isn't completely clear to me, so I wonder what other people interpret those words to mean.
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I think fresh might mean in the moment. And free means to be free to be as you are? I don't know about solid but I am a chemistry nerd so perhaps I lose track of what solid means to most people?
May I live fresh, solid and free.
Fresh like a beginners moment.
Solid, grounded, a steadfast tree.
Free of attached uncertainties
May I live
Yeah, I immediately thought of 'solid' as 'grounded'...
Or perhaps...
May I live fresh (not clinging to concepts etc) solid (stable) and free (flowing)
So maybe living solid means to stay in corporeal form and not live as a gas or liquid?
@person yes being/living a gas would be rough having collisions with everyone around you and the walls!
Actually, that's quite easy for a Mod....
Water is not a solid, but it always the same components that make it pure. In my opinion, he could be referring to water.
I don't find that analogy or simile to be fitting, in my view.... Water is a moveable feast; it adapts to its surroundings, goes with the flow, and changes according to the elemental environment. Water that is always still, stagnates. It needs to keep moving and be refreshed in order to be of benefit...
What components of purity are you thinking of, @namarupa ... ?
One man watches a river flow by. If he does not wish it to flow, to change ceaselessly in accord with its nature, he will suffer great pain. Another man understands that nature of the river is to change constantly, regardless of his likes and dislikes, and therefore he does not suffer. To know existence as this flow, empty of lasting pleasure, void of self, is to find that which is stable and free of suffering, to find true peace in the world.
Ajahn Chah
When water is still and stagnates all the impurities settle at the bottom. Then it can free flow again, through the air as vapors and other means.
You must have different water to me....!
If water stays still, and stagnates, all the dirt may settle at the bottom, but the surface is clouded and putrid with green algae, and it develops a smell.
How can the stagnation be reversed? by the addition of more fresh water, and the breaking of the boundary that contains and enables the stagnation...
The analogy needs no elaboration...
I remember in a talk, The Art of Mindful Living, he used the following breath meditations:
Perhaps he had these visualisations in mind.
That talk is here by the way:
That was just my opinion and interpretation. I’m sure it can be understood others ways that may be more fitting to that person.
Fresh to me means self replenishing,
Solid to me means self retaining
Free to me means not bonded
I thought of water from my own interpretation
Oh I just saw the post above ^^^ and that should be it right there
Yes, @namarupa... I'm just splitting hairs....
Comment edited
Oops, wrong thread!!
Fresh seems to imply unobscured or unspoiled. I see the proverbial lotus in the mud.
Solid gives rise to doubtless... Having faith in that which has been tested rather than faith in comforting beliefs just for comforts sake.
Free makes me think of being unconditional. Not that there are no conditions to staying alive but that death may be faced without suffering.