Everyone wants to be comfortable. Few want to be free. Comfort is good, we all need it. But the problem with seeking comfort is that it won’t last. Freedom on the other hand will be forever.
The confusion between these two goals, comfort and freedom, is the source of much disappointment, frustration and pain among people who honestly are seeking to improve their lives.
We are conditioned beings. We are not free. This becomes clear when we suffer. Our conditioning is like a jail cell. Its walls are the stressful thoughts and emotions that describe and create our world. We can ignore our imprisonment when things are good, but from time to time living in this cell becomes oppressive and painful.
Then we look for solutions, help and advice. A specialist then offers to help us change things in our cell. They help us paint the walls, move the furniture, clean out the closet and decorate the place with flowers and nice curtains. And we feel so much better, so much more comfortable. We consider what we did a success.
But something is wrong with this approach.
Being more comfy now and less stressed, we can ignore for a while that we are still locked in the jail of our conditioning and that the old conflict-ridden thoughts and emotional patterns are still in place. And sooner or later we will notice that we are still in jail and we will suffer again.
It doesn’t have to be like this. We can become free, but this is a different activity. It is a dissolving of the walls of our prison. This is not so popular because who would you be without the restraining – and deceptively comforting – walls of your jail? Will you miss the unreliable comfort of your old ways? Are you afraid of the unknown, even though what is not known is your freedom, your enlightened state?
We all fear the unknown. We cling to the mistaken identity of our ego. There is a part in everyone that would rather go down with the ship than dare to step into the unknown space of freedom.
And yet freedom is what we crave. Nothing else will bring us the unshakable happiness we yearn for from the core of the soul. That is why the Heart is important; that is why it is the cornerstone of the Skills for Awakening.
Nurturing ourselves from the unlimited power of the Heart will give us the strength to become free. Then we can use the other Skills to break down the walls of our stressful thoughts and beliefs and our negative emotional habits. And by stepping boldly into our freedom, comfort will come as well.
It will be the unshakable comfort, the brilliant joy and the great love of a free soul.
