Unexpected Freedom

Unexpected Freedomit and doesn’t push past it. Of course, we still have ourhabitual desire to avoid it, but we study the desire too. Bycarefully investigating what is already at hand, who and whatwe really are begins to become clear.The instruction to contemplate anatta is not aninjunction to become something or somebody other thanthat which we already are – and that includes trying tobecome nobody! It is drawing us back to a recognition of thereality that already always is. The gradual dawning of thisrecognition dissolves the apparent solidity of oursomebodihood. We can gently trust in the benefits of all thatwe have endured in the process of investigation as weexperience the unfolding of a more agile being. We find thereare more and more situations in which we rememberourselves more quickly. We are now more likely to be able toaccord with whatever situation we are in as we movethrough the world – not because we have become moreliberal or compromising, not at all, but because we don’t holdourselves so tightly.I once heard a venerable monk speak of the differencebetween the awakened and the unawakened states as like thedifference between flowing and frozen water. A mindidentified in egoity is like an ice cube that only fits into spacesits own shape. As our rigid frozen ego is subjected to thefires of the passions in the course of committed practice,eventually a kind of meltdown occurs, and like flowing waterwe can move more freely with the circumstances of our life.Question: Could you say a bit more about having apersonality – does what you have been saying only apply tous, or do arahants have personalities too?Ajahn Munindo: That’s a very good question. I can’t saythat I’ve ever sat down for a heart-to-heart sharing with anarahant and said ‘How do you feel about your personality?’152