Freedom from the known

It's a book by Krishnamurti that I'm re-reading at the moment. I finished it and then turned back to the front and started again. Yes, it's that good but also I had the awareness of just how much of it was going over my head, so hopefully a second reading will allow a little more to permeate my little grey cells . . . : )

In the book K talks about how we are constrained in our lives through authority. This authority comes in many forms - some obvious: societal, parental etc; others less so, such as the internal authority we have as an established framework within us that is a structure built from our previous experiences. These "truisms" are borne of our past and passed experiences yet we hold onto them and when we do we view life and ourselves with "the authority of yesterday" and in doing so never truly see or interact with what is before us in the actual moment.

To be completely present in a moment, letting go of preconceptions, knowledge, frameworks, traditions, structures etc is to free from this authority of the past, this freedom leaves you open to full experience of what is before you. This is newness, freshness, and is invigorating. Rejecting authority (which is different than rebellion or revolt), means that you are free, no longer looking to others, no longer fearful (because there is no right or wrong, no fear of mistake), and living fearlessly is a tremendous unburdening of all the dead weight you have been carrying with you as baggage to this point.

Basically I haven't captured the ideas nearly as well as he has but it is something that I do think about, the limitations we perceive in our lives which are self created realities; if we are unwilling to admit entry to other possibilities then the absoluteness of our realities are assured. It is far easier to perceive in others than in ourselves, I think we often see people we care about who have a strong belief about themselves or the circumstances of their life which just do not appear so to us yet the totality of their convincement actually manifests what they believe. In subtle ways through their reactions, actions, words they create subtle beginnings or seeds that grow into fully formed realities of their own invention.

We do the same things in our own lives but, we are living so much within our own framework that we fail to see or perceive it. Living each moment in full awareness of ourselves, letting go of knowledge, allows learning to take place in the moment, and allows other options to slip through the web of possibilities.