Unexpected Freedom

Unexpected Freedomwhen we’re doing ‘the real practice’ – that is when we’re onretreat – there are no problems. As soon as we start talkingand relating to others, doing work and so on, then we get allthese problems. But if there is our real practice and ourunreal practice, then we are living in a state of fragmentation;relationships, talking to people and being at work appear asobstructions to well-being. Who is responsible for thatdivision? Where does the idea of real practice and unrealpractice exist? In our divided minds, in our divided hearts.Sometimes we’re sitting in meditation and the mind isnot how we want it to be. Perhaps we’re filled with longingfor intimacy that is causing an inner struggle as we sit thereon our cushion. If we look carefully, we’ll find that there is avoice that says, ‘It shouldn’t be this way, I shouldn’t be likethis.’ Where does that division of what should or shouldn’tbe exist? It exists in our own divided minds, our own dividedhearts. We are the ones who are setting conditions upagainst each other. We need to know this.Falling in LoveIt’s possible that if there is an absence of love in our lives, wetry with our divided minds to become more loving. We thinkof our unloving traits as things that we have to ‘fix’. However,when we look at what is – without any sense that it should besome other way – we can sense this very tendency to divideourselves off from what is. If we approach our lives in thisway, cultivating undivided attention to the present moment,we are capable of being loving in each moment.If we live this way, and one day a person appears, and thatspecial magic happens whereby fear falls away and the beautythat we call loving manifests, then maybe we won’t divide ourhearts and minds and start struggling to hold on to this58