http://www.care2.com/greenliving/how-to-experience-freedom.html
How to Experience Freedom
Adapted from Power, Freedom, and Grace by Deepak Chopra (Amber Allen, 2006).
What does it mean to be free and what does it mean to be in bondage?
To be in bondage is to be stuck in this or that possibility, having lost the ability to choose from an infinite range of responses. What is the bondage to? The bondage is always to our own boundaries, to our own beliefs and conditioned responses. Boundaries and beliefs are nothing more than ideas or concepts that we have committed to and accepted as truth. And when they are as rigid and inflexible as concrete, we cannot see past them. They become the prison walls that we inadvertently construct around ourselves. You wrap yourself in thoughts the way a spider wraps flies in gossamer. You are both the spider and the fly, entangling yourself in your own web.
Most people live their entire lives in bondage. They are a bundle of nerves and conditioned responses, which are constantly being triggered by other people and circumstances into totally predictable outcomes. To be free of bondage, we have to break down conditioned responses; we have to go beyond boundaries and experience the boundless.
To experience and practice freedom you need to:
- Practice life-centered, present-moment awareness.
- Observe your addictive behaviors without judgment.
- Transcend your fear of the unknown.
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6 comments
add your comment »Thank you for sharing with us, Deepak. Through your writing, I continue to be inspired and discover anew. It was through your many books, that I was able to finally free myself of deeply hidden conditioned beliefs about myself and about the world, and to know my true Self. With gratitude, Ms Bobby Hackland-Morris
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Thank you Deepak, I´ve learn to much of your writing.
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GREAT STUFF...
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From Deepak:
Thanks so much for writing. From Deepak:
Thank you for your kind words. I am happy to hear that my writing is meaningful to you.
These are simply ideas we share. As the great Sufi poet Rumi says...
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Love, Deepak
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"The only freedom which deserves tha name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs or impede their effort to obtain it." JOHN STUART MILL
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Thank you, Deepak Chopra. Your ever present wisdom flows like the water in a river; it is endless and travels far. Yes, bondage seems to come from past memories or anticipation of the unknown. If we could all just trust ourselves, our intuition, and just take off, it has always been my experience, that nothing is ever as bad, or as good, as our imagining. As Jesus Christ said:" the experience is the life". And I can say for mesefl, it certainly is. May blessings always be with you and your family.
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