Unexpected Freedom

Alone Togetherexpand in a more open and easeful way. By our practice ofrestraint we find that there are more, not fewer, possibilities.Practitioners become more relaxed, they become moretrusting. This is the sort of personality change you mightexpect from practice.Certainly, my experience has been that, instead of havingto feel sure about things, I am able to let myself be not so sure.Sometimes people tell me that when I talk I sound very sureand confident, but that is not necessarily my subjectiveexperience. When I talk about Dhamma, what I amconcerned with is encouraging investigation. At the end of aDhamma talk I hope the listeners have more and deeperquestions than at the start. However, when I meet my brothersand sisters and their partners, who are all evangelicalChristians, then I know that I am meeting people who arereally sure. If they are not travelling the world as missionariesin Africa, Turkey, India, or the United States, they arepreaching and running churches near home. They don’t haveany doubts at all – certainly not conscious ones. They are verymuch convinced that they have the answers. In that respect weare worlds apart because I can’t say that I have the answers. Ifeel connected to a reality which is much bigger than me –something beyond delineations of inner and outer – a realitythat I care about tremendously. And this is something that Iwholeheartedly commit my life in service to; but I can’t saythat I know or that I’m sure. I welcome this state ofuncertainty – I think it’s a healthy condition.Not SureAs far as making right effort in daily life – accommodatingfamily situations, community situations and other people – Ithink this particular point is very relevant. Recognising that,163