The State of Freedom
A journey of Truth into the mind’s sanctuary
with the destination of inner Freedom.
Unprecedented magic.
While the hands render service, the mind watches them and is attracted and fascinated by their dedication to a supreme goal. He is able, at last, to focus, without his attention becoming diffused into the world. It’s the first time that he gives up his familiar anguishes so easily, because they are simply indifferent to him.
The woman and the gold are of no significance for the mind now. They do not distract his attention violently anymore; the innumerable obscure issues of conquests and acquisitions which he either chases or worries that he will be deprived of no longer fill him with dread. Security and recognition do not preoccupy him at all now, because he has been absolutely absorbed by the work produced by the hands and the service which they render.
My mind reacts like small children do: he found something brand new, unprecedented and beautiful, was enchanted by it and fixed his attention on it. He quiets down while he watches with engrossment his hands work to serve the accom-plishment of one goal. The mind now feels a sense of completeness. For this reason, he no longer runs after security and praise, because now he doesn’t sense inside himself the existence of any void which could be filled by these Sirens[1].
The mind is “manipulated”. My ancient brother who first said this word (in Greek: manipulate = χειραγωγώ = lead someone or something by the hands) probably mastered the knowledge I am looking for. Because this word – which nowadays is often used in a negative sense – tells me now that the hands by their example enchant and lead the mind, fascinate him and take him like a small child from his hand and lead him to his one and only goal, the forgotten one, which is his liberation from the yoke of his obsessions.
[1] The Sirens were female deities, marine demons of Greek Mythology. They were portrayed with a female human head and a body of a predatory bird. With their bewitching song they trapped the unsuspecting travelers, who approached them and either forgot their destination or were mangled by them.
Ulysses had been informed about the Sirens by Circe, so he commanded his whole crew to place wax in their ears, to avoid hearing the song of the Sirens. Furthermore, he asked his crew to tie him to the mast, so that he wouldn’t be seduced by their charm while hearing their song.
The wax in the ears, in my opinion, implicates the choice which the mind can make, provided he wants, to not pay any attention to hearings originating either from outside or inside, which could seduce him and lead him astray from his goal – inner freedom.
Respectively, the tying of Ulysses to the mast reminds me of the dedication to the central inner axis of my life, which stands upright, dignified, unbending. It is the erect spinal cord of the man who remains devoted to it and does not abandon it for the sake of any agony or expectation and, instead, moves forward participating in the world in a simple way and never losing his contact with his perennial deeper Existence.