To Fly Free

Love and wisdom are like two wings of our life. Without either one, life will be crippled. "The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge" — Bertrand Russell.

Love

Though we often look for happiness at the wrong places and in wrong ways, but basically we all want to be happy. That is the starting point of love. Life is so fragile and precious — when we clearly recognize it, we can learn to love ourselves and others unconditionally. Love is an open state of mind that brings pure joy to life. On the other hand, hatred is so heavy and a closed state of mind that it sucks away all our joy out of life.

Wisdom

Though love is essential, wisdom is the one that takes us to the ultimate peak.

"Love without wisdom is not beneficial! Faith without intelligence is harmful!"

But wisdom is not just mere knowledge. Often knowledge and faith are simply borrowed from others, not our own. When we take knowledge with a clear and deep understanding, we will discover our own insights and wisdom. Knowledge is just information in our head, where as wisdom becomes our whole being. Through wisdom, we see the power and beauty of openness and love. Through wisdom, we see the importance and joy of discipline, instead of falling for our temptations and meaningless/harmful short-term pleasures. Through wisdom, we become truly courageous and fearless. Through wisdom, ultimately we free ourselves from all the bondage and chains.

Note: To begin a journey on any path, we may need some level of "confidence" and "trust". Eventually we develop more "confidence" as we progress on the path and develop better "understanding". But, any blind belief is a major hindrance to wisdom and it will only cripple us severely. Often beliefs are just a cover-up for our ignorance and delusion. A belief comes out of convincing ourselves. There is always doubt deep down. We may try to cover-up our doubt, but we are always on a shaky ground. Truth is nothing to do with beliefs. Only our own "knowing" (wisdom/ realization) can free us.

Energy

Though love and wisdom are two wings of our life, but more fundamentally we need a sustained energy to propel them. It takes physical and mental fitness, and diligent mindfulness. We tend to dissipate our mental energy in so many ways: constant dwelling in the past and future, anger and aggression, hatred, etc. We tend to carry so much of heavy garbage from the past and heavy load for the future. So we have to first learn to relax and settle our agitated mind, where we find our mind's inherent strength and clarity.

Courage

The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage! But we fearfully hold on to life, not really living. It takes courage to let go and live free and joyful. We are often imprisoned in security, familiarity and respectability. We are easily influenced by people's opinions and follow the crowd like a sheep. It takes courage to break our narrow minded, egoistic cocoon and go out of out of our comfort-zone. To be miserable is easy, any cowardice can do it. It takes great courage to be joyful and fly free.

With a sustained energy and courage, and using the two wings of love and wisdom, we can soar high openly and freely!

——

CK. Kamaraj

26 June 2018