Our mind is a structure which uses sensory information to make sense of the world. Further to that, we have structure in our belief systems, which are the building blocks in our mind which help us perceive and navigate through the world. Structure is everywhere.
Religion is a structure – a structured way of conceptualising the idea of God and its structure is further reinforced with disciplines which are there to help reaffirm its teachings.
The environment we live in is in a structure… our lives are basically in a structure (primary school > secondary > uni > work > marriage > kids > then work forever lol).
When people look around they see everyone following the structure. And by association its easy to not only do what everybody else is doing, but to think how everybody else thinks.
Social conformity plays a major role in this; we are social creatures and want to be accepted by everyone. And so we allow a large majority of the external world to really influence the way we conduct ourselves in the world, whether consciously or subconsciously.
All this conformity and structure places your mind in a box.
Many people are unaware that their thinking patterns are limited to the way their mind has been ‘programmed’. Don’t get me wrong, things like religion and social conformity I believe are crucial in helping us to initially create a framework upon which we use to view and understand the world and help us navigate it. These are the necessary foundations of building up your mind.
But there is a ceiling to this and it is important to understand that the thinking patterns you now possess are primarily just a product of the external environment.
So how can we liberate ourselves from this box? How do we break the invisible chains which are shackled to our mind?
The key to liberation is to understand that no one in the external world has the answer. They don’t have the key to unlock the chains. The answer is within you, and you have the keys to unlock the chains to liberate your mind.
“When you confer spiritual authority on another person, you must realize that you are allowing them to pick your pocket and sell you your own watch.” – Eckhart Tolle
To liberate your mind is psychological freedom. The story of Christ’s death and rebirth is precisely the story of psychological death and rebirth. This is essentially the mythological archetype of the hero’s journey, which we see is a template used throughout the ages – a tale as old as time which is used to describe the inner journey of man.
There is something within us which seeks acknowledgement, an inner voice always waiting to be heard, the true inner self which has been silenced in our upbringing as we moulded ourselves into people fit to operate in society.
I do believe also this is why people have ‘mid-life’ crisis. They live their lives diligently to tick all the societal life checklist (study > job > family > mortgage) without taking a second to pause and reflect and to think for themselves. To shut this voice down, they’ll take out a loan to buy a red BMW and other fancy materialistic items to fill this inner void. But this inner void can only be filled with the spiritual nourishment of self-awareness.
So how can we achieve psychological freedom?
“The truth will set you free” – John 8:32
We set ourselves free by telling the truth to ourselves. To be self-aware.
“This above all: To thine own self be true” – William Shakespeare
It easier said than done. But it’s essentially to question your own beliefs and your thinking patterns, to analyse your thoughts. To question whether your thoughts are yours or thoughts that have been part of the “default program” you were raised with, or your own genuine thoughts. A great medium for this is journalling. It’s sort of like confession in a way, it’s a great medium for which you can allow your self to be honest and tell the truth.
This process is painful. It hurts. It’s like a farmer who is plucking out the weeds from the garden so he can plant some fruits in its place – but you are both the farmer and the weed and soil. It is your old ideas getting plucked, which is a part of you, so it will hurt.
‘Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor’ – Alexis Carrel.
I also do believe the story of Christ, the story of redemption, would not be complete with his suffering on the cross. I do not believe the achievement of liberation is possible without the prerequisite of suffering. And this ties into our spiritual quest of self-awareness, as the death of our old ways and modes of thinking is painful, but the reward of liberation awaits us on the other side.
“Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
