Categories: Be Happy 24 hours
May the blessings of the Triple Gem be with you all!
Today, as part of our series on developing mindfulness, we will explore a quality we all deeply desire: mental freedom. This isn’t just a philosophical idea; it’s a practical state of being we have cultivated through practice, and this article aims to share how you, too, can attain it.
The desire for mental freedom is a fundamental part of the human experience. Everyone in this world, regardless of their background, is searching for it. However, this profound inner peace cannot be purchased. It cannot be bought with money, gold, or the most valuable material possessions on Earth. If it were that simple, people would spend fortunes to acquire it, using every possible means to secure it. But true mental freedom is not found in the external world.
How We Lose Our Freedom: The Pressures of Growing Up
Let’s think about this simply. A young child, around five years old, possesses a natural freedom. They don’t yet grasp the deep pressures and complexities of the world. They simply live in that freedom. However, a time comes when this innate liberty is gradually obstructed. Once a child reaches the age of five, they are guided toward formal education.
Considering the modern education system, especially in places like Sri Lanka, the world’s weight begins to settle on their shoulders as they interact with friends and navigate school life. The greatest of these burdens is the pressure to pass examinations. For example, the Grade 5 scholarship exam places immense stress on children.
Think about it: are these children living with a sense of peace and mental freedom? Parents often contribute to this pressure. When a child’s peer scores higher, feelings of jealousy, anger, and resentment can arise. In this process, isn’t your own mental freedom, and that of your child, lost?
The Escalating Cycle of Competition
Between the ages of five and ten, how much of your child’s mental freedom is eroded by this educational and examination system? Look at the children who fail these exams; consider the immense mental strain they endure. Are we living in a healthy way? What is this race we are all running? Why have we reached a state where we are consumed by such envy?
This pattern continues. As students approach their Ordinary Level examinations, the effort to pass through rote memorization further diminishes their mental freedom. By the time they reach their Advanced Levels, reflect on your own past. Did your jealousy and resentment increase? Or did you become someone who helped others? The competitive environment often pushes us away from connection and toward rivalry.
The Demands of Work and Career
Next, let’s consider our professional lives. You might have a high-level corporate job or a more common one. Regardless of the work you do, think about the pressure you face. The way your superiors treat you, the exploitation of your labor, the piling up of duties how much strain does this place on your mind? There are times when you are pressured to meet demand with supply, and in turn, you pass that same pressure onto those working under you. In this competitive world of careers and money-making, how much damage is being done to your nervous system and your mental freedom?
The Complexities of Family and Relationships
Now, let’s look at the family unit. You may be a wife, a husband, a partner. Within this structure, when there are children, how many sacrifices must you make? You need to provide for their education, their food, and their well-being, which requires you to earn a living. How much pressure does this place on your mind?
Furthermore, within the extended family and circle of friends, how many problems arise from gossip and misunderstandings? These conflicts add another layer of stress, pulling you further away from a state of mental freedom.
The Weight of Economic and Natural Forces
With the current economic downturn in the country, people have to work much harder just to get by. Even with all that effort, the money earned is often not enough to live the life you envision. Look at how much pressure these circumstances place upon you.
From the perspective of nature, we also suffer. Excessive rain, drought, and natural disasters cause immense hardship. Perhaps you are a domestic worker in a foreign country, facing hurt feelings, waking up before dawn, and working late into the night. Within all this, how much pressure does your mind endure? These external forces constantly challenge our pursuit of mental freedom.
The Illusion of Temporary Escapes
To escape these pressures, we often turn to things that offer temporary happiness. Young people, in particular, may use substances like drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes. When these enter the body, they affect the nervous system and temporarily make us forget our problems essentially inducing a state of ‘unmindfulness.’
Beyond substances, we seek escape through leisure trips. Imagine working to exhaustion until Friday, then going to a place like Nuwara Eliya on Saturday to eat, drink, sing, and have some fun. But by Sunday evening, on your way home, the thought returns: ‘It’s a shame, I have to go to work tomorrow.’ For how many days did you truly feel happy? You worked hard for twenty days just for two days of fleeting joy.
We also search for freedom on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, wasting hours scrolling. We go to clubs and throw parties. We hope for relief through romantic relationships and seek pleasure through sexuality. However, all of these are temporary. They provide happiness only for that moment. Afterward, the old pressures return in full force.
The True Solution: The Practice of Mindfulness
If you want to hold onto your happiness and mental freedom in every moment, you must turn inward. You must learn to observe your mind and recognize your thoughts. This is the practice of being mindful of the mind. As you gradually begin to understand your own mind, your attachment to external things like substances, trips, and dependencies will naturally diminish. Why? Because you will be investing your time in the essential work of understanding your own consciousness.
This is where we apply the Buddha’s teachings on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, known as Satipatthana, and the practice of clear comprehension, or Sati Sampajañña. This path of insight meditation, often called Vipassana, can be integrated into your daily life.
Practice this mindfulness while you are at work, doing chores at home, or studying. When you do this, no matter how many external problems arise be they economic, social, or even from the weather you can remain happy. Whenever a problem comes, alongside seeking a solution, observe how you can remain joyful within the problem itself. You don’t need to do anything extra; simply watch the problem with mindfulness. When you do this, you can live without agitation, in a state of true mental freedom.
Your Freedom is Within You
Apply these teachings practically in your life. See the words of the Buddha not as dogma, but as a description of a natural law. Through mentally letting go of everything and freeing yourself from attachments, you can attain real liberation. It doesn’t matter how much money you make or how many things you acquire; if your mind is not free, it is all meaningless.
That precious mental freedom is already with you. It exists right inside your own mind. Through these teachings, may you understand the suffering you have endured and the practical path to attaining the mental freedom you now seek.
May the blessings of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha the Triple Gem give you the strength to comprehend these points and apply them in your life.
We invite you to walk this path with us. Read our teachings, and most importantly, apply them practically in your own life. as you practice, questions will naturally arise. Please feel free to share your experiences and questions in the comments section below, via email or contact form. I will do my best to offer guidance in future talks based on your progress. For now, begin this practice with an open heart and a mind free from expectation. Cultivate it correctly, and may you find the clarity and peace you seek.
Thank you for joining us. We hope this blog will be of great benefit to your spiritual journey.
May you all be well and happy.
May the blessings of the Triple Gem be with you all!
