The gifts of freedom

I just came across a very powerful teaching of Buddha that I want to share. A while back I tried writing about something similar to this. About the idea of not just not doing certain bad things, but the idea of being able to create good realms.

For most people know that they should avoid doing bad things, and what those clearly bad things are is understood. And there are all kinds of different levels of this.

I became aware of this while riding my bicycle. I was reflecting on how there are very different realms on Earth – I am talking about the types of realms where, if you close your eyes, it is like the state you are in. How happy, how free is that state? Not just superficially, but all the way grounded with reality, how free really is any realm?

How is each of us predisposed towards participating in and towards generating realms that are truly free and good, versus realms which are not free?

Because being on a bicycle means being highly vulnerable and also highly perceptive, this is how ti came to me. For it is possible to be bicycling somewhere and it can be a really pleasant, positive experience. Or it can be a very abrasive, grating, injurious experience.

Even people who may think that they are not doing something bad – for example they might be driving a Prius – to me it still seems like they unfortunately are in a way blocking a realm of complete freedom, because even a hybrid vehicle is still a vehicle on the road and can create stress.

To really get to that truly amazing, happy, free world that one wants to reach, I think that one has to at some point get on a bicycle and participate. Sadly, there are many, many people who, despite everything else about them and what they may believe, never ride bicycles.

Anyhow, to correlate with this, I just came across this very powerful teaching by Buddha about the Five Precepts as gifts:

..”Now, there are these five gifts, five great gifts — original, long-standing, traditional, ancient, unadulterated, unadulterated from the beginning — that are not open to suspicion, will never be open to suspicion, and are unfaulted by knowledgeable contemplatives & priests. Which five?

“There is the case where a disciple of the noble ones, abandoning the taking of life, abstains from taking life.

In doing so, he gives freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings.

In giving freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings, he gains a share in limitless freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, and freedom from oppression.

This is the first gift, the first great gift — original, long-standing, traditional, ancient, unadulterated, unadulterated from the beginning — that is not open to suspicion, will never be open to suspicion, and is unfaulted by knowledgeable contemplatives & priests…

source: wikipedia.org: Five Precepts #Motivation

Quite often when I’m bicycling and it is difficult – there are too many vehicles, I am being harassed, the air is foul – usually some combination of all of these – I think about the gift that I am giving. I am giving a gift not just to people, but to all the creatures of Earth. I especially think about the marine life in the Gulf of Mexico, which was so badly harmed by the Gulf Oil Spill. I think about dolphins and their freedom and their happiness. As I’m enduring breathing the nasty particulate matter in the air, the loud, abrasive noises, the abusive motorists, and often threats to my own safety and livelihood, I just think about freedom and about my power to create.

Even if it does not manifest for me, now, in this lifetime, I know and believe that I am creating a good realm for other beings. Therefore I am doing something with this life. I am choosing to use my life, my body, and my mind as an instrument to create true freedom even while what is considered freedom is often deliberately obscured in the world for the sake of malevolent agendas.