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..:: Liberation I /
The Body ::..
By
Alan Schneider
We all seek liberation from
the many known (and unknown) forms of bondage that typify human
experience and consciousness. The Sanskrit term for this condition is
moksha, an indication of the importance and recognition granted
this concept in Hindu scripture, and, indeed, the associated experience
of freedom is perhaps the single most important condition to be
attained by human beings, and the most difficult one to preserve, as
well. Our human personal liberation is the subject of this essay
series.
From the perspective of the
naïve observer of physical events, liberation appears to be primarily
the release from physical bondage, but, with depth of observation comes
the realization that it is much more than that. It is not merely that
the body can become imprisoned – the body is itself
the prison of the physical sensory awareness that it sustains as one
form of consciousness. And true freedom involves much more than the
physical ability to travel about unrestricted – it necessitates the
ability to travel within oneself in search of all the extended
states of higher manifestation attainable, and then travel
externally and communicate the information about these states to other
interested parties that may be in a position to benefit from this
knowledge. Do you doubt the validity of these contentions? Well, my
friend, you must then still be steeped in youth’s radiant glow, and
free for that reason to believe that my words are foolish, for, with
the advance of age, we all tend to discover through the growing
discomfort of the body their truth – while it is a youthful,
comfortable, and hopefully enjoyable prison, we tend not to
complain so much! Yet, a wise youth will still be capable of pondering
the wisdom of my observations, and can benefit from the line of inquiry
presented here.
Now, there is nothing to say
that the removal of physical constraints is not an important part of the
process of liberation, and so is empowerment on the Physical
Plane in the physical sense – increased financial, literal, and social
influence are all significant elements present in the liberated
condition. But, there have been absolute prisoners of many types of
confinement that have discovered that they could be more truly free in
that condition than they had been on the outside of the bars – in
fact, the individual involved in generic awareness who does not think to
investigate the world lives in an utterly trapped state of being whether
cognizant of this or not.
Thus, let us begin with the
examination of the constraints imposed by the body on waking
consciousness. Probably the most exhilarating physical experience, and
the one most likely to be perceived as “free” for that reason, is the
sex orgasm, and this particularly in one’s youth. Following this in
not necessarily rank order are eating to fullness, resting to one’s
requirement, drinking as one chooses (of whatever type of liquid one
chooses!), exercising as one sees fit, and otherwise stimulating the
organism by whatever other means one chooses in what one finds to be a
pleasurable context. Beginning with the first example cited, the sex
orgasm, regardless of extensive foreplay, is a phenomenon of very
short duration, followed by an afterglow period of also relatively short
duration, and a period of appreciably dissipated libido of (perhaps) a
day or two until we are hormonally compelled to begin the gratification
cycle again. Obviously, we cannot live in a prolonged state of orgasm,
Tantra and Tantric theory notwithstanding! And the attempt to live in a
prolonged state of arousal is equally problematic – this is inherently
frustrating for the organism, and breeds all manner of physical
dysfunction in its wake. So, we are left to consider the more commonly
experienced baseline state of neutral waking consciousness, which, for
the purposes of this argument (and giving human beings the benefit of
the doubt) can be defined as a state of casual and relatively satisfied
well being. But, if this supposed state of comfortable baseline
awareness is observed carefully, many objections to its authenticity
arise.
Perhaps the most crucial one
is that the maintenance of this condition requires the ongoing
application of what the Buddha referred to as desire action – the
efforts on the Physical Plane geared toward obtaining and repeating
gratification episodes. This tendency and the associated social
maneuvers remain subconsciously active in the mind even while we are
engaged in other mental and physical behaviors – they are central to
the ego, and the ego is itself central to the experience of waking
awareness. The ego has no real purpose other than to seek out and
obtain physical gratification for the organism of which it is an
incident part. So, we can say that the apparent baseline comfort of the
satiated organism is still subject to an ongoing, low grade state of
agitation, and agitation is, by definition, uncomfortable. Since
this agitation, like many other related conditions of negative
organismic arousal, only subsides in the absence of ego activity, we are
left to conclude that “neutral waking consciousness” does not really
exist as such, in direct consequence of the inherently turbulent nature
of the body and its processes.
Desire action represents
addiction waiting for an opportunity to manifest in individual
existence. In fact, anything present in a physical, zoological form
amounts to a mobile addiction to sense objects – we humans are
relatively fortunate as conscious beings because we have the sentient
capacity to recognize this fact and take appropriate counter measures.
The Buddha defined many such measures in his life and discourses, all of
them geared toward neutralizing and dissolving the body’s addictive
potential and the related influence on consciousness. This is where
real freedom and liberation begin for the person – recognizing
desire and desire action for what they are – jail!
It may well be that sensory
consciousness itself is so inherently flawed in view of its relationship
to and dependence on ego awareness that our entire evolution and
existence as a species should be called into moral question. Since this
is the commonly experienced state of human baseline awareness, we would
appear to be hopelessly entrapped in desire and desire action,
regardless of the Buddha’s contention that the Noble Eight Fold Path can
deliver liberation in this life eventually. We, and every other
physical being in creation, are quite possibly doomed from the outset of
conception to struggle with physicality for the term of incarnation,
only to be genuinely “liberated” at death, often referred to in Hindu
scripture as MahaSamadhi – literally “the great combining”.
Short of this event, we are confronted with the essentially transitory
and superficial nature of sensory gratification on the Physical Plane,
and the necessity to mentally transcend this condition somehow to
attain what liberation may be possible while still incarnate.
The Buddha was well aware of
what was involved in his personal search for liberation – he passed
through many years of the most severe austerities, culminating in his
decision to sit beneath the Bodhi Tree (actually a pipel tree) until
either MahaSamadhi or liberation (termed enlightenment in this
case) took place, regarding the problem of suffering inherent in the
human condition. Accounts vary, but he remained there in the deepest
possible state of meditation, eating only one grain of rice a day, for
from sixty to ninety days! Finally, the blessed event of enlightenment
took place, and he realized the root of suffering to be desire, and the
curative to be the Eight Fold Path of right living. He also foretold
of a succession of Buddhas to follow him, but no one is sure (the Lamas
notwithstanding) that any more great luminaries of his stature have ever
appeared. Thus, we are left with the difficult application of what
effective techniques may exist to lift ourselves out of the incarnated
morass. Unfortunately, these all require great sacrifices akin to
those of the Buddha to achieve – there is no easy way to be free
from the bondage of the flesh! OM Name Shiva...
If worldly awareness is so
fallen, what else are we to do with our condition? Such answers as may
be available appear to lie within the mechanism of consciousness. If we
investigate this mechanism through meditation and reflection, turning
away from the physical world and senses, and probe deeply within
ourselves, the answer of enlightenment – of liberation – may yet
be found. The precursive condition for this investigation resides in
cultivating a considered mistrust of the gratification process on the
Physical Plane. Only if we learn to view this psychological activity
with suspicion can we then hope to look away from it successfully,
otherwise we remain hypnotized by our physicality and physical
edifice. When what has here to fore been regarded as benevolent is
progressively revealed to be deceptive and negative, then we are ready
to move forward along the Path of Liberation.
Thus are the body and
physical, sensory awareness shown to be the elements of mental bondage,
and the first ones requiring neutralization for freedom to be
realized. As we pursue the path of inner exploration, the only real
path of liberation, many obstacles will be encountered – the actual form
of the human entity – the extended form of “many bodies” encountered in
enlightened awareness – is exceedingly subtle and complex, and shrouded
in layers of difficulty and confusion that frustrate human perception
and investigation. What one finds eventually is that our perception of
existence is literally created from inside out, however external
the events surrounding us may seem to be, and that the core structure
that is finally encountered at the center of everything (whether
internal or external) is the Self of Jung, Yogananda, and
Maharshi, to name a few of those others who solved Buddha’s riddle.
And it certainly can be solved by the very determined
investigator who is willing to pay the price in terms of the exchange of
personal illusion for universal truth.
This series of
essays will investigate the process of liberation attainable from the
incarnate perspective – the only one of which we can, after all, be
certain. Many spiritual insights from several traditions will be
brought to bear on this inquiry, which will be focused primarily through
the lens of Jungian psychodynamics as the most scientific theory
among the plethora of such theories in existence. The reader is invited
to return to this series as we illuminate the Self!
- With Love, Alan -
(Copyright 2009, by Alan Schneider)
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