Unexpected Freedom

Unexpected Freedomcontemplation is to increase the likelihood of mindfulnessbeing there when we need it.Right PreparationWe all know what it is like to become caught up in thepassions, so we do not need to wait until it happens to dosomething about it. Right preparation is the way to protectourselves from our own harmful habits. By establishing inadvance this kind of understanding, we are much less likely tofall into old ways. The force of habit is inhibited bymindfulness. This kind of considered restraint is not the sameas a blind repression that we might fear will lead to theenergies returning in a more potentised form in the future.In exercising such restraint we create the conditions forseeing through the appearance of suffering. We develop thecapacity to overcome that state of inertia which binds us intothe humiliating condition of ‘losing it’ time and time again.When we experience the state of fearlessness that we know aslove, we are tempted to grasp at its beauty – believing that thiswill make it last. But with right restraint insight arises,outshining old painful habits, and love is purified. Bycomparison, when we are hurting, we tend to react byrejecting, seeking someone or something to blame. Butshooting our passions out onto an external figure makes usweak and dependent. If we can stay with the energy longenough, refusing to succumb to the temptation of trying torelease ourselves from it, the energy builds up until the wallswhich held us imprisoned and chronically limited, crumble.The awareness we occupy opens up. Being restrained withinformed awareness is the work of transformation. Mindfulholding back is the dynamic that frees us.After consciously going through such an expansion of68