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The desire to be free is inherent in all living things. Is it possible to observe my mind to see if thought has the freedom to navigate, without bias, my inner feelings, opinions, viewpoints and images? If I discover that thought is not as free as it might appear to be, even within the privacy of my own mind, is it possible to discover the cause of this bondage?

In human beings, with the help of thought, it appears that the impersonal desire to be free, once personalized into ‘I want to be free to become something in particular’, begins to breed distortions in the perception of reality. This suggests that ‘desire’ becomes a prison only after being personalized by thought. Without personalization, desire is simply life expressing itself.

Once I become aware that my personality compels me to distort reality, this simple awareness should immediately summon the energy necessary to do something about this shackled state of the mind. If it does not, is it because my interest in some personal fulfillment is temporarily overshadowing the desire to see things freely, as they actually are, even if they might be ugly or fearful? Until I become painfully aware that I have chosen to live in a prison, my life of personal prejudice, of substituted realities, must inevitably continue. I will be looking at life ‘through a glass darkly’ and the brain will continue to be ignorant of its own nature.

It seems to me the deep awareness of this situation, which is the beginning of that self-knowledge stressed so heavily by Krishnamurti, can be brought about naturally only if there is both an impersonal desire to see things freely and an acute sensitivity to the absence of that freedom. Perhaps this is why Krishnamurti never wavered from his early statement that his desire was to set humanity unconditionally free. He spent his life trying to make each of us more sensitive to the self-imposed imprisoning process we all share as human beings, no matter how individually different we like to think we are.

 

What is the final state of mind when it is face to face with what really is ...

Any animal that becomes aware that it is caged will find the energy to try to break free. With the awakening of the impersonal desire for freedom to see ‘what is’, awareness must immediately follow. This means that awareness can be seen as a consequence and not as the means to an end. Demanding or praying for increased awareness can never succeed. Therefore, it is pointless to make awareness into our new god, our new key to enlightenment. Instead, let awareness be effortlessly awakened by acute sensitivity to the absence of the freedom to see things exactly as they are.

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