Unexpected Freedom

Unexpected Freedomis for the sake of the heart itself. The heart prays because itneeds to if it wants to become free. Our hearts are speakingall the time, but are we listening? We have deep concerns,we have deep longings; with skilful attention we can enterinto a dialogue with this dimension of ourselves and in sodoing be enriched. The mysteriousness is welcoming andinviting. It is our own true heart with which we are engaged.We don’t need to be afraid.Insight PracticeInsight (vipassana) meditation practice entails investigatingall phenomena according to their characteristics ofimpermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self, with the aimof letting go of our tendency to cling to them. If that is thetotality of our practice, however, we may try to let go ofeverything but still find that there’s a cold dark contractionwithin that doesn’t want to let go.Equipping ourselves with mindfulness and non-judgementalhere-and-now awareness, it is possible to find ourway into an intimate dialogue with the dimension that theistsmight call ‘the divine principle’. For me the divine principleis symbolised by the Triple Gem – the Buddha, the Dhammaand the Sangha. In my own devotional practice I refer to itas Lord Buddha, Lord Dhamma and Lord Sangha because Ifind the word ‘Lord’ meaningful. To me the word ‘Lord’carries the positive meaning of that which rules over: theoverriding governing principle.In traditional Buddhist countries nobody ever says,‘Buddha said such and such’. This would be to bring amongcommon, ordinary things something that is held in thehighest possible esteem. Instead one always says LordBuddha, or, in Thai, Phra Buddha Jao. Phra Jao means a Lord or134