CHAPTER THREE  -  Rumi. 

WEEK SIX. conversation by clair and tim

"Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?".
.

Rumi

 ~ ~ ~

its alot of conditioning... alot of layers laid down by a dedicated society/educational system and media to untangle, understand and decide upon...  layers well bound by zillions of days and 30's of years and a history which dates back to the beginning of time...

when i have seen that there is a door where i was lead to belive there wasnt, maybe i start to see its outline, the whole procedure is going to take oddles and oddles of time with lots and lots of unraveling...like a veryveryvery long jumper...and i realise right now, that even this thinking - 'that its gonna take time' - is slowing down and limiting my exit...!  and without these thoughts,  i might pave a quicker exit, and maybe even somtimes, i will leave like a ghost! ... effortlessly and with forward energy.......and .... freedom........!!!  yum....!!!  i'll be out and loop the looping!   @   *   !

clair

To acknowledge the door is to give the prison credence, to give it life. Maybe Rumi is questioning the existence of either-the door is *so* wide open because it isn't really there. If we see the door, we see the prison-yet we are already not incarcerated, we are already free. If only we could see so.

The layers that you speak of are real, they dampen our sensitivity to the freedom that is so close, a freedom that is only accessed in the present moment, so we can easily (if not voluntarily) flit between liberty and servitude, each breath bringing a gentle new moment that could be either.

T

mmm...interesting, you are saying that through the nature of there being a door there is in fact, by default, a prison?

c

If we imagine a perceived 'escape' route, we are allowing ourselves to acknowledge that we are walled in some way.  The very notion of saying 'there is no door' is a conscious step in the direction of freedom. By having no door, we have no boundaries, ergo we are free.

But we often do feel restricted, imprisoned, trapped and if some vague thought of thinking 'I am not trapped' was enough to free us in an instant, then perhaps we would all be doing it?! Or maybe it really that simple? I may adopt this notion right now and see where it leads me.

T
mmm...well do say where that notion in action leads you :)  

... so in acknowledging that there is a door, whether open or closed, you are feeling it is a restricting... but what if the room was desirable...most of us in england like a roof and walls - as long as there is a door which opens and closes.... but anyway, i think i know where you are coming from here...

the mind is the biggest organ of the body and contains a heart, it is super conscious super sub conscious.  it is more clever physically and emotionally than any other part of the body. it is a dream and it is a nightmare.... capable of bliss or touture, and anywhere in the middle and it is always somewhere on this spectrum...
c

Well, I have certainly toyed with the notion that we can be free by realising that we are already free...I like the concept (and I subscribe to the tenets of it) but it certainly is not instantaneous! That said, I have been thinking about the reasons that I sometimes feel restricted in my life and that has led me to think creatively about some very practical changes that I can make to address those areas. Perhaps the prison dissolves in degrees rather than a *kapow* ?

t

yes indeed and which returns me, to my beginning writing,..that its not just our mind but our society...our culture - where other cultures are celebrating life, living, community and freedom at the centre of their idelogly,  we are celebrating money as our form of wealth and fear as a way of control.

these teeth that we speak of, they actually dont let go, that easily...

but they do ease and cease over time and have started to ease much in my world, which feels like the way to go...! yay! and yay to all!! @  *

c

Sure, if you crave the perceived security of money, brick and mortar comforts and the like, you are building a new prison rather than escaping one! In my experience, people who stockpile money, possessions etc spend a lot of their time worrying that someone/something is going to take them away-no way to live, not for me anyway. As a wise man once said 'I was born with nothing and I've still g

ot most of it left' 

T

good work! @ *)
c