(back to Still Water Dharma Topics)

Dear Still Water Friends,

You are invited to join us this Thursday evening for our meditation period and for a program on the notion and practice of freedom.

For the past several weeks, far more than usually, I’ve been in a consumerist mode -- first buying a new computer for someone, and now exploring how to replace one of our cars.

Often when making major purchases, such as these, my life gets taken over. I get caught up in figuring out what is really needed, and then deciding on models, features, extras, and, also, how to get a good deal. The decisions become topics for conversation with whoever will listen. The deciding creeps into my dreams and meditations as well.

In the midst of making these decisions, I was stopped short by a comment from Thich Nhat Hanh in an article about connecting with our ancestors:

One day I talked to my [deceased] father and said, “Father, the two of us have succeeded.” I was successful because in that moment of sitting meditation, I felt completely free. I didn’t have any more dreams or wishes, any more projects I wanted to pursue. I felt completely free, completely relaxed; there was nothing that could pull me anymore. ( From the Mindfulness Bell, Summer, 2005)

In the west, when we talk about freedom, we tend to focus on political and consumerist rights: the right to act or speak or buy things without external interference. When the Buddha talked about freedom, his focus was on the release from internal constraints. As Ajahn Buddhadassa explains in the excerpt following these notes, in the Buddhist context, freedom is the core of Buddhist practice and is just another way of saying “salvation, deliverance, liberation or release.”

Some people may be concerned that this focus on internal freedom will take us away from the world, leading us to be self-centered and unproductive. In the Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, Thich Nhat Hanh. writes that quite the opposite it true -- with inner freedom we become more compassionate and more effective:

Someone asked me, “Aren’t you worried about the state of the world?” I allowed myself to breathe and then I said, “What is most important is not to allow your anxiety about what happens in the world to fill your heart. If your heart is filled with anxiety, you will get sick, and you will not be able to help.” There are wars  big and small  in many places, and that can cause us to lose our peace. Anxiety is the illness of our age. We worry about ourselves, our family, our friends, our work, and the state of the world. If we allow worry to fill our hearts, sooner or later we will get sick.


Yes, there is tremendous suffering all over the world, but knowing this need not paralyze us. If we practice mindful breathing, mindful walking, mindful sitting, and working in mindfulness, we try our best to help, and we can have peace in our heart. Worrying does not accomplish anything. Even if you worry twenty times more, it will not change the situation of the world. In fact, your anxiety will only make things worse. Even though things are not as we would like, we can still be content, knowing we are trying our best and will continue to do so. If we don’t know how to breathe, smile, and live every moment of our life deeply, we will never be able to help anyone. I am happy in the present moment. I do not ask for anything else. I do not expect any additional happiness or conditions that will bring about more happiness. The most important practice is aimlessness, not running after things, not grasping.

\Whoever we are, wherever we are, may we all walk in freedom.

If you can join us this Thursday, the best times to enter are just before our meditation period begins at 7 pm, just before our walking meditation at 7:25, or just after our walking meditation at 7:35.

Warm wishes,

Mitchell Ratner
Senior Teacher


Freedom is Coolness
by Ajahn Buddhadasa (From "Freedom in Buddhism: The life that doesn't bite," Inquiring Mind 23:1, Fall 2006)

Relinquishing ownership, possession and clinging to "me" and "mine" amounts to the classic Buddhist goal of relinquishing attachment to the five aggregates of life (body, feeling, perception, thought and consciousness). These aggregates are the naturally functioning subsystems necessary for human life. When they function without clinging, there is freedom. The clung-to aggregates are the prison of life. Letting go of them is like a convict being released from prison.

Call it salvation, deliverance, liberation or release, these all amount to the same thing -- freedom, the cool life that doesn't bite itself. Such a life does whatever needs doing, according to its mindfulness and wisdom. In this freedom, egoism, selfishness and the reactive emotions no longer obstruct. In Pali, this is also described as viveka, the singleness or oneness of heart-mind where nothing can disturb, afflict, entrap or harm it in any way. Does the power of this kind of freedom interest you?

Nibbana, the supreme reality of Buddhism, is simply this coolness. Thus, it's important that we understand this coolness properly. Imagine a burning coal from a fire. When removed from the fire it glows red because it is still hot. After it cools down, it no longer glows red. When it's no longer hot, we say that the coal is nibbana, it is cool. Even this physical example helps us understand nibbana, the coolness of something that was once hot. However, we're really talking about the fires of mind, by which we mean the reactive emotions (kilesa, defilements). Should you honestly look at greed, hatred, fear and the like, you will realize they are truly fires burning the heart-mind. The going out of such fires is nibbana. In our lives, so easily distracted by consumerism and terrorism, we aren't aware of these internal fires and so have trouble understanding what is meant by spiritual coolness and freedom.