Is your “self”-control, spirituality, morality, love, kindness, speech, conduct, emotional state, and so forth, based on conditioning and the dictates of Maya and ego-based forces inside and outside of you, or do these expressions, when they come to life through you, come from your freedom to be your True liberated Self, a pure observer, in the world?
How free are you to be and to express in the world without tiptoeing through the illusion of Maya and the perpetual cycle of Karmic negotiations that keep everything as it is without always waiting for another ego, fabricated entity, or thing, to approve, disapprove, reject, or validate your careful adherence to any fleetingly “preferred” illusions?
As you practice living in Truth, since this is not naturally supported by the unnatural expectations of the world around you (even in the binding contexts of “moral” rightness and “wrongness,” which often erroneously stakes its claim in truth) is it your pure, incorruptible, Nature, full of perfection in and of itself, what you align yourself with, beautiful Creator?
Or, are you, like most people, out of fear, simply catering to a world and to egos that do not bend to accommodate even your “physical” and “emotional” needs while simultaneously demanding that you bend to cater to an unnatural order for fleeting and mediocre “rewards” and/or prizes?
How free are you, or is anyone else, to simply be when not causing harm to yourself or others?
Do you have more or less freedom than a bird, or an insect, or the trees, for example, which follow a higher and purely natural order even despite human intervention and pressures that often so drastically change nature itself that even these things have to either evolve or die in order to maintain their own balance?
What does it mean to fully claim, and to live your greater freedom in a world that accepts the truly profane as acceptable, defendable, and even praise-worthy, but is quick to punish or ignore Truth in even its simplest expression?
Taking These Questions A Step Further:
As you continue on your path, guided by Viveka (right understanding) and Viragya (non-attachment), what, if anything, in Maya, I will ask you again, is truly worth getting involved with or holding as precious when nothing, except your pure being, holds any Truth?
Always remember that ignorance, which is the root of all obstacles, Karma, and suffering, has a specific definition, according to Sutra 2.5. “Ignorance is regarding the impermanent as permanent, the impure as pure, the painful as pleasant, and the non-Self as the Self.”
Understanding these distinctions beyond the illusions of Maya is key because when these mistakes are made and upheld based on conditioning and attachment, and not simply observed neutrally based on True seeing, the result is unconscious reaction, not conscious response, which have very different effects in the world.
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