How Humanity Has Enslaved Itself
Most people won’t believe
they are enslaved, though some believe they are enslaved by the ruling
elite. But when we look deeper into this predicament, we may be able to
see that we are in fact enslaved or trapped by our own minds.
Man is a slave. He is not born as a slave, he is born free. He is born as freedom, but he is found in chains everywhere. He lives in chains, he dies in chains. This is the greatest calamity that has happened to humanity.– Osho
Feeling vs. Expression
We have a feeling, and then there is the
expression of that feeling. The feeling is the intent, the motivation,
the driving force. The expression is the action we take to express this
feeling. This operates throughout life in everything we do. But conflict
and suffering arise when the expression does not match the feeling –
and I believe this is the predicament of most of humanity.
For example, an artist has a strong
feeling about something, which is authentic; she expresses it on canvas.
This expression pleases some people and they buy her work; she gains
money and reputation. Her expression gets noticed and becomes
fashionable. She seeks to reproduce something of similar quality, and
the expression becomes habitual and stylized. Inevitably, the expression
becomes more important than the feeling, and soon the feeling
evaporates.
When expression becomes all-important
because it is pleasurable, satisfying, or profitable, then there is
cleavage between expression and feeling. When the feeling IS
the expression then the conflict doesn’t arise, and there is no
contradiction. But when profit and thought (desire, power, money,
status, ego) intervene, then this feeling is lost through greed, and we
become a slave to money, desire, and ego. The passion of feeling is
entirely different from the passion of expression, and most of society
is caught in the passion of expression.
Let’s take a lawyer, for example. How
many lawyers do you know of who are really passionate about upholding
the law, and making society morally and ethically positive? Or, perhaps
do you think their driving force and intent is the money and status that
comes with being a lawyer? You only need to look at what lawyers charge
to answer that question. Lets take a doctor. Totally interested in
healing people? Or perhaps money has some say in it? I think you’d be
hard pressed to find anybody who isn’t in their career for what they can
get out of it – money.
To be brutally honest, I feel that it
would be very rare to find somebody whose life and career totally
reflects their feeling, and doesn’t care one iota about the
remuneration. Maybe it was like that in the beginning for most people;
the excitement, new prospects. But as with most jobs, the feeling
withers and is replaced by the need to survive from it.
Is Life a Job?
We live in a world where life is
basically a job. We believe it to be “normal” to have our alarm set in
the morning, to wake up and rush around, to sacrifice the whole day in
order to make money, and then look toward the weekend for respite. Is
this the life we imagined as a kid? Are we truly on this wondrous planet
to make life mostly about earning money?
And then we trap ourselves again –
because we are thinking, “Well yes, I have to provide for other people, I
sacrifice myself in this job so that others can be happy and healthy.”
And we do this without ever looking or stepping foot outside the box we
have created for ourselves. We get trapped by fear; fear of the unknown.
But in truth, there are millions of people all over the world who live
on essentially nothing, who have a fraction of the possessions we do,
and are ten times happier and content.
But! If you see this in yourself, if you
understand the way in which you have sacrificed the present so that you
may live happily in the future; if you see the way you have sacrificed
time with your children so that you can earn money; if you see the
cleavage between your truest, deepest feelings about life and the actual
way you live life – then this is an opportunity! If you can see
yourself doing all or any of this, then why not make changes? Do you
really need all that stuff, the upgraded car, the bigger house? Do you
need to work so many hours? Are you bringing to life your deepest
passions and feelings?
You can tell when the feeling is the
expression: when you are feeling creative, spontaneous, excited,
passionate. When you jump out of bed, when the world just seems like a
big playground. That’s a pretty good indicator. Whereas it’s also just
as easy to tell when the expression has become all important, and the
feeling has dissolved. It’s the exact opposite. When you struggle to get
up in the morning, when you want to be somewhere else, when you look
toward the weekend, when your mind is set on pay day, etc. Why not have a
go at changing things up?
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http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/07/18/how-humanity-has-enslaved-itself/
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