Freedom

"Two basic qualities of warriors: sustained effort and unbending intent." (page 194, The Fire From Within by Carlos Castaneda)

My intent is to study the works of Carlos Castaneda and live the principles to the best of my ability. The goal of the warrior is freedom. Although that word "freedom" seems a bit vague.

What is freedom? That is a concept I will explore as I write each entry. Right now I'm thinking of it in terms of freedom from the past. That means we become new in every moment. The past doesn't have to define who were are. We can learn from it, yet not be forced by conditioned patterns to continually repeat the same unconscious habitual behaviors.

Discipline, as in "sustained effort and unbending intent," is not the same thing as habit. Discipline is behavior we choose consciously; a habit is behavior we repeat unconciously. The difference for a warrior is that choosing consciously makes one free. Habits, or unconscious behaviors, are imprisoning.

The second area of my life where I am looking at the concept of freedom is my relationship with the material world. I've mentioned a few examples in earlier posts. Another way I've seen myself change over the years is in relationship to books. I used to collect books. They were part of my identity. I wanted people to see: "I'm the kind of person who reads a lot and I read intelligent books; therefore, I am an intelligent person."

But over time, I found myself moving around a lot. I got tired of packing and hauling my books all over the place. Plus, when I wanted to leave a soul-deadening job and follow my heart, I couldn't afford to fund my book habit so I gave it up and found that I could get more than enough information for free from the library and internet. So I stopped clinging and let the books flow through my lfie. It was incredibly liberating.

I've also stopped wasting energy caring whether or not people think I'm intelligent.