The Path of the Slave and the Path of the Master

Mike George reminds us of the need to be awake and aware at each and every fork in life’s road.

One of the most prized freedoms in human life is the freedom of choice. Millions have fought and died down through the centuries for the right to make and follow their own choices. Unfortunately most of the choices we have made have turned into illusory freedoms. Paradoxically, when examined closely, they have been choices which have led us down the path to slavery.

Every waking moment represents a moment of choice. And depending on the choice we make, so will be the path we walk, and therefore the destiny we create for ourselves.

The Path of the Slave

Attention

You allow something to get your attention The first and constantly recurring choice is to what and to whom we give our attention. Where attention goes energy flows. There are now a thousand and one people competing for our attention and the flow of our cash. We find it easy however, not to take responsibility for where our attention goes, as we blame the myriad glamours, distractions, slogans and images which surround us. And yet we often contradict the belief that we have no control over where our energy flows by choosing which channel on the TV we will watch. And we turn towards what is most attractive.

Attraction

You move towards the object of attention Attraction follows attention as we move towards the object of our now stimulated desire. The new dress, the new car, the new person begin to pull us as gravity pulls a falling stone to earth. In the movement of attraction we begin to consume and take our pleasure in the form, the colour, the fragrance and design of the object (or even concept if you are a philosopher). And if we choose to linger too long and return too often we will be unconsciously choosing attachment.

Attachment

You are three hundred yards down the road but still thinking of the object of attraction. Attachment is not a commonly used word in ‘sophisticated’ societies. In relationship to our property it is called possession. In relationship to ideas it is called copywrite. In relationship with another person it is called love. But attachment can never be love. Attachment means resistance to letting go and where there is resistance there is fear. When we choose attachment we choose fear and where there is fear there cannot be love. Attachment is therefore an unhealthy choice at any level. If this choice is repeated too often dependency becomes a reality and addiction is the destination.

Addiction

Is when you must have or think of the object of attachment in order to feel good Who would choose to be an addict? Few would argue for it, but many, if not most, choose it a hundred times a day. Addiction is not only a needle in the arm. Addiction is indulging, consuming and returning to the same source of pleasure with habitual regularity. Even if it is just in our head. The source could be your fridge, your TV, your CDs, your work, your dog, your home, your partner. Our lives are a tapestry of addictions and contradictions as we tut tut the drug, the cigarette and the alcohol addicts while partaking in our own from of socially acceptable daily hits! And where there is addiction, even to a memory, there cannot be freedom, because choices are not consciously made. And where freedom disappears slavery enters, and with it the inevitable.

Atonement

Is when you pay the price for becoming dependent, much like the drug addict or any addict eventually has to pay the price How often have you seen a child and a toy being separated? The tearing, the wrenching, the parting are accompanied by screams and tears. Pain is the price that must be paid for taking a stroll down the path of attention, attraction, attachment and addiction. This is atonement, and it is as predictable as the sunrise. For big grown up people the toys take a different form and the pain which, if not expressed is suppressed or repressed, finding other ways out in a rainbow of dysfunctional behaviours. Or else it just eats away at our insides. Why do we choose this path, this pain, and call it pleasure? Why do we delight in our own demise? Smiling as we cry. Celebrating as we fry. Laughing as we die.

Was it because we surrendered our freedom a long time ago, and signed up for slavery in the name of civilisation, sophistication and progress, and called it all the good life? Sweet illusions. Cursed by the darkness of ignorance and those demons of desire have we all turned into frogs!

Imagine the kiss, the awakening, the transformation, the seeing of the ‘other path’. Imagine the path of the master now that you have tasted the path of the slave. What do you see?

go to