The State of Freedom
A journey of Truth into the mind’s sanctuary
with the destination of inner Freedom.
Α37. The warm-hearted, wise and forbearing father-mind.
The engagement of the cells of the whole body gave the mind courage, strength and self-confidence. Now he enjoys the gravity and deepness of his existence. He feels mature enough to proceed to forthcoming steps which prerequisite responsibility, foundation, settlement and fatherly equanimity.
Eagerly and effortlessly he takes my small weak self in charge, by accepting and undertaking the role of the wise forbearing father. He shows understanding and compassion for my childish facets which bear in me stress and misery, as well as for my generalized feeling of deficiency and anxiety, my fear of re-experiencing the pain and my dedication to ephemeral joys and worldly goals with the vain hope that their conquest will redeem me from the stress and misery.
The father-mind knows that his son will need quite some time in order to maturate; therefore he grants him with limitless patience. He does not force him to grow up. He does for him all the favors he asks for, in order to keep him quiet, at the same time talking to him about the possibility he has of being free one day. The father-mind, due to his compassion, feels much moved by his son’s pain and has the will to assist him.
The father-mind has set the care for his son as the main goal of his life, as his first concern, and takes care of him with discrimination: one blow at the nail and one at the horseshoe. He eagerly dedicates as many hours as needed to professional activities, sports, dressing, nourishment, contact with the opposite sex, relationships of his son with his other worldly brothers and whatever else his son may hanker among the worldly goods, because compassion equips him with the required discrimination to recognize that his son needs all this. Hence, he grants them to him with care, affection, sweetness, love, acceptance and forbearance.
Besides, the father-mind teaches his son to rejoice whenever he confesses his weaknesses humbly, in order to calm down and not get constantly angry with himself. In short, the father-mind takes me by the hand affectionately and shows me one by one the steps which lead to inner freedom. The new attitude which he has adopted creates a feeling of safety inside me, because it constitutes for me a guarantee that I will have a warm and astute guide up to the end. This is much better than it was in the past, when my mind lacked father-liness and was dominated by angry demand, disappointment, fury and despair, whenever he saw the big distance which separated me from the fulfillment of the expectations he had set for me.
Now the mind does not expect anything from me; his only concern is that I can travel in peace, try and learn my endurances and limits and become gradually acquainted with my latent faculties, for as long as needed. This change of his calms me and makes my life more beautiful. The forgiveness and compassion which I now receive from the mind remove the old sorrow and grant me with a nice emotional mood for my course within the world and optimism for the conquest of freedom, which I have so much missed.
My relief is now so overwhelming that I even trust the Universe for the first time so deeply, since I perceive it now as a friendly and safe place to live in, and for the first time I do not worry at all about my future within it.