Actionable Aspirations: Liberty lies within you through Moksha
Freedom: To wake up each day feeling on top of the world.
FREE - the four letter word we are all chasing. Free to be, live, love and move as we want to, without fear or discomfort. This is the ultimate goal of life, and the fourth of the purushatras. We can be free from many things; as a start, free from pain and discomfort in the body, free from negativity, shame and judgement in the mind - these already seem out of reach for many. But here lies the paradox: Freedom does not come from doing whatever you want whenever you want it. In fact, true freedom comes from detachment and discipline.
The last of the purushatras is moksha, described as liberation, inner peace, bliss or a state of unity with all. By leaving behind our attachments, we find the space to accept reality and see past the false identity and ideas of the ego, after which we can return to our true state of peaceful, loving kindness.
Sounds a bit like a fairy tale?
Let’s take it back a step - what’s the problem with attachment? The previous purushatra, Kama, was about recognising and following our desire or bliss, so why the need for detachment? There is a difference between following your heart, and following your mind/ego. The mind/ego creates samsara, or stories that bind us into specific patterns of behaviour through regular reinforcement. Do any of these sound familiar:
“I must have my large coffee in the afternoon or I just can’t get through the day, although I know it makes me crave sugar and keeps me up at night.”
“Those couple of drinks at night help me wind down and get to sleep, even though I often wake up groggy and disoriented.”
“On the days I wake up by 6am and move through my morning routine, I feel so fresh and light, but I just love lying in bed and scrolling through Facebook, especially on the weekends.”
Who is this “I” who is so attached to “my…”? We often blame the body, but it is only responding to the messages it receives from the mind - specifically, the samsaras. Many of our attachments are habits we learnt from someone else, or during a specific time in our lives to fit in or cope with a new or challenging situation. These are the chains that bind us; so slowly but consistently breaking the habit is a way of releasing the samsara that does not serve you. Here is my 2-step process to understanding whether you are following you heart, or following a habit from a samsara:
Step 1: Detachment
Ask yourself sincerely why you engage in a particular habit, and whether it is something that truly serves your health and happiness, or harms it. HINT: The stronger the attachment, the more likely that samsara is driving it, rather than pleasure.
Step 2: Discipline
When the urge to cave into the habit or samsara comes up, put a strategy or practice in place to support you, and be consistent. For example, if I wake up and find it difficult to get out of bed, I will consider why I don’t feel like getting up, and unless there is a genuine reason (such as feeling unwell, unusually tired, etc), I give myself a 15 minute snooze on the alarm clock, with the caveat that after that, I will get into my routine. HINT: Rather than using an aggressive energy or force to make the change, practice self love and positive self talk to recognise that making a better choice is really about choosing your health, happiness and freedom.
Detachment and discipline provide us with freedom from the cascade of suffering that comes when we are overly attached to things and people. Liberation in its truest form is not about leaving your friends and family behind, quitting your job to sit and meditate in a cave, or even surpressing your own desires and aspirations. Moksha in its essence is freedom from the ignorance that we are anything but free in this very moment, if we choose to be.
“Freedom is the natural longing in all human beings and our ultimate destination. ”
— Sathguru, Spiritual teacher and Ayurvedic practitioner
