Are we really free?

article by Michał Pasternak (Poland)

We wake up in the morning and say “Hello” to another day. After getting out of bed, we often think what we will do next. From Monday to Friday we think usually about our work, and at the weekend we think about the free time that we can spend with our relatives or friends.

When we are in the restaurant, we can choose what kind of food we will eat. In the supermarket we choose different goods. In the tourist office we can choose where we will travel during summer vacation. Turning on the computer we can choose what video game we will play. Going to the cinema we choose what movie we want to see. We think we are free because... we can choose. But are we truly free? Unfortunately... we are not. Our present existence is primarily focused on materialism. We forget about the impermanence that is the basis of reality. Even though we are confronted with impermanence: sickness, old age, death, loss, we push impermanence out of our minds. We want to be always young, beautiful and rich. We don't even want to think about the fact that everything is constantly changing. Changes. We want to think about something positive and do not worry about what will happen tomorrow. This is a really big mistake. 

We forget that the world around us is the Samsara: the Matrix. We are not rulers of this Matrix, but... its prisoners. It does not sound optimistic, but it is the truth. 

This prison is very sophisticated, because we are both the prisoners and the guards. We are not imprisoned by any intelligent machines, just like in this very popular American science fiction movie. These guards are our “internal guards”. Those “internal guards” are: our weaknesses of character, addictions, stupidity, greed, anger, lust, and so on. They do not want us to get out of this prison. Although we have an open gate in front of us, the gate of the Buddha Dharma, the gate of Amida Buddha and His Pure Land, most of us even don't want to go through it. Most of people can't even see it. Those “internal guardians” don't want us to discover this gate. 

Of course, those bondages also have a second, external origin. Looking at the history of humanity we can discover that every economic and political system is based on the same rule. Always one small group of people, called the “elite”, rules over the majority of society. Feudalism, communism, or capitalism, all of them have same foundations, the construction of a “class-based” society. The Medieval peasant and the modern factory worker still share a similar destiny. Both of them work for someone else’s prosperity: for a nobleman and king / for a factory owner and politicians. It is true that the modern worker is no longer beaten with a whip. He can change his job, or even make his own business. But his position is still inferior to that of his employer and state governors. This situation is even worse in countries, especially in Africa and Asia, where people work in mines or factories owned by foreign companies. In such places nobody worries about workers health and safety or about an 8-hour working day. All that matters is profit. This is how the world where we live has been built for thousands of years. Of course there are many other bad situations like wars, crimes... 

Are we really free? Do we really want to live like this? We have to always remember about rebirth and about the law of Karma. In next life we may end up in worse stage than we are now. The life of animals is nothing optimistic. Would you want to be a fly that gets caught in a spider's web or a pig that gets killed, only because someone want to eat the barbecue in his garden? Not to mention the destiny of hell beings or hungry ghosts whose bad situation we can't even imagine. Human rebirth is very rare and we cannot waste it.  In the next life we can go to the heavenly realms, but we won't be there forever, and after some time, when the good Karma that we have accumulated will be exhausted, we will fall down. This destiny will happen even to the gods in whom most of mankind still believes. So please don’t want go to heaven – it’s waste of time to go there. 

We are like a person who is standing on the roof of a house that has been flooded. Instead of seeking rescue, instead of calling for help, those person is just looking at the flooded area, not knowing what to do next. Instead of calling for help, he tries to save as many things as he can. We are like children playing in a burning house, not realizing that this burning house is about to collapse. 

We cannot alone get out of here. However, we don't have to stay on that roof or in that burning house forever. It doesn't have to be that way. Well, there is a one RESCUE. 

It is Amida Buddha, who is like a helicopter pilot or fireman. He wants to come and take us away. Only Amida can really help us. No one else. We cannot swim across the ocean of impermanence without knowing how to swim. Only He can take us from this sunken house / burning home. He will take us to a safe place, to His Pure Land. 

How to do that? So there are three important steps:

1). Believe that there is rescue, that AmidaBuddha is a real, enlightened Buddha who wants to help us.

2). Desire of His rescue, His grace. Call Amida for help. Say Namo Amida Butsu of faith even  ten times. Wish to be reborn in His Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss and Peace.

3). Be reborn in the Pure Land, where flood, fire, and all other misfortunes will no longer threaten us. Where we too will become Buddhas. Remember that the Pure Land is the best place where you can go to. Then you can also be able to save others. You will be a member of the best team – the Amida Buddha team. 

That's all. So what are you waiting for? You have to decide who you want to be. I want to be a Buddha. How about you?