You’d have to be interested in how your mind works to want to know how ‘free me from me’ is explained but do expect down-to-earth impressions because this comes from the viewpoint of an ordinary layperson who has observed his own and others’ misbehaviors, asked himself questions and sees commonsensical answers as to why people act the way they do.
A noticeable thing about us humans is the constant undercurrent of conflict in the way we live – within ourselves and in our relationships. To meet a cool, calm and happy looking adult is less common than to come across one who is preoccupied, worried, annoyed or in a bad relationship with someone, at home, socially or at work. We don’t seem to be able to come to terms with our conflicts, not genuinely, though many will put on a show. But if you cared to look at yourself frankly and honestly you would see that this ‘me’ of ours is burdened.
How would ‘me’ be free from ‘me’?
Firstly, the words imply two separate entities, one real and the other a persona. But even for those not inclined to put up a false front, notice that we are often in two minds when we are faced with a choice – aware of a desirous thought versus a restraining one. This conflict in deciding suggests one ‘me’ needing to overcome another, though of course, we are a single entity weighing the pros and cons of the choice we want to make. And whether we don’t care about consequences or make well-considered decisions, we can determine which to choose.
So, what is it that decides? An accumulation of information and memories to weigh all the necessary factors? Without turning to religious or other interpretations, all we are left with is our lone selves to think about things. To do so we need to be brazenly honest about our behaviours and misbehaviours because we prefer to ignore uncomfortable truths about ourselves and pretend that we are the best in all areas of our lives (or not) in how we think, what we say and in things we do. It’s a universal quirk, a human foible, that it is far easier to be blasé about what we are than to try to face and understand what pushes us to do the things we often do against ours and others’ better interests. The hidden ‘me’, is what we must contend with – the driver and responder of all our deeds.
The weight of mental baggage
Take an honest, unabashed look at yourself and people you meet, and you’ll notice that no matter who we are, what we project or how we make a living, at heart everyone has a common preoccupation: we carry a lot of mental baggage. And we hardly realize that we are overloaded, that the thoughts, experiences, emotional disturbances and motivations we have can disturb our peace of mind, overwhelm our ability to function rationally, and hamper our ability to relate to things and people wholesomely. This excess baggage weighs us down and prevents us from going about freely without confusion. It causes many of us to crash inwardly or into each other, with unpleasant results.
If we are objective, we would see that we are like addicts, stuck to both mental and physical habits, wallowing in ignorance about what drives us, unwilling to take responsibility for our thoughts and actions. See that ignorance comes from ignoring, to take no notice of, to disregard. Given the unwelcome consequences, why? There is no pleasure in pain and no serenity in distraction. This is the ‘me’ that would make sense to be free of, the one that is reactionary or unconcerned or even proud of its arrested development.
One might publicly object to this depiction and say it’s subjective, but secretly we know about the chaos in our lives, or we should: the differences we hold to, the bickering and disagreements among people we deal with, the insistence for doing things the way we want, the clashes between us and those in authority, the conflicts and wars between those so-called authorities in different countries and the devastation and hardships that result. None of these are positive or beneficial. The peace of mind we enjoy is always fragile and temporary. Surely, we should want to change ourselves and the world for the better, to opt for comfort instead of constant unease.
Our lives are literally at stake
But we cannot awaken a collective consciousness for well-being without starting with ourselves, individually. Each of us must be the starting point to be able to see such a cumulative benefit and if we don’t see the urgency of it, we’ll never start. Our lives are literally at stake.
We need to delve into the makings of our consciousness: the cravings, pride, anger, fear, hatred, hypocrisy, jealousy, contempt, impudence, unforgiveness, cynicism, violence, all the mental hang-ups that burden us from time to time. Admit to them, examine why they occur to understand them, and you’ll see that when you have the guts to face up to each one of those nasty human traits, study them, see them for what they are and what they do, that clear acknowledgement and acceptance diminishes and could eliminate them. If you pretend that you are never or only rarely like that, those beasts will never be released.
This is the first acknowledgement we must make, that there is a secretive driver of all that we think, say and do that shows up in all its many expressions. When we take ourselves for granted, we simply act on our impulses regardless of what happens as a result. We counter this with the power of conscious awareness to stop ourselves from acting as if we have a fixed role in a movie plot we can’t change. Or else we suffer the consequences – tossed like idiots in a boat without oars in rough waters. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence shouldn’t accept that.
Getting free from me
Now, picture someone saying, “me”, and you’ll see that person pointing to his or her body. We all accept this as a natural fact, the obvious reference point to our being. Our body is ‘me’, the starting point of all we think, say or do and though this might seem like an obvious thing to say, what is this ‘me’ we refer to? We take it for granted, don’t we? In fact, many of us don’t even want to think about what we really are. We are mostly uncaring about anything that doesn’t concern how we can please ourselves and satisfy all our cravings to make ourselves “happy”.
The extreme expressions of this are the many other forms of addiction that we are prone to: power, drugs, eating, gambling, making money, having sex, immersing ourselves in social media channels, movies… anything that stimulates our senses and brings on some kind of instant though momentary satisfaction.
Look at the broader picture: humans are electro-biochemical beings and like everything else on this planet, we are forms of energy, of different densities and shapes but energy, nevertheless. We are affected by our environment, subject to decay, and are tied to the workings of a ‘me’ about which most of us aren’t clear. We are vulnerable, depend on psychological and physical support, cannot escape the consequences of our behaviour, and as sentient beings our experience of life is mental.
What are our lives about?
Apart from ideas of creation and the whys of being born on this planet, what are our lives about? Since most of us don’t study science or psychology and can only rely on ourselves, why don’t we try to get to the root of it to try and understand what we can see and sense – our own experiences – the things that happen to us and how we react? Why hold on to the likes, dislikes, and all the emotional baggage in our minds and inflict them on each other? It’s all for nothing when we die, all that effort, all that spent emotion. To be free of this weight would be real freedom, no ‘me’ involved, only a wise and peaceable doing for the good of oneself and others, aware of the miracle that we are as a lifeform.
Observe and you will notice that our likes and dislikes reinforce the ‘me’ which created them. It says, of course I have a right to believe these things. So ‘me’ the thinker is right about ‘my’ thoughts. Whether the thinker created the thought, or the thought created the thinker is a question to think about. As one teacher said, perhaps the thinker only exists because of the thought. Whatever.
But the thinker who decides everything, exists in everybody’s imagination… the decision-maker of what to eat or drink, who or what to have relations with, what to gain pleasure from, which special person deserves to share this or not, and when or where the enjoyment should be had. Satisfying this constant craving has become the reason to exist. It needs continual feeding, with its never-ending hunger.
Right or wrong or good or bad
Yet another problem is thinking in terms of right or wrong or good or bad, subjective judgements that create indecision or shallow decisions. We have the innate intelligence to guide us toward what is beneficial and life-supporting, which makes subjective judgement of right or wrong useless as a concept because there are so many definitions of both. We literally fight over these positions – bearing animosity based on a thought form conjured out of thin air, like a magician on a stage.
The source, the thought that creates the ‘me’ is impossible to pin down. Look for it. Check out where it arises, what its source is. Dare yourself to do this and discover that without it and its baggage, peace of mind becomes real and thrives. And this peace opens a reservoir of intelligence, without bias or prejudice, to understand things, free from ‘me’ and all its audacious reactions.
freemefromme.com 