The Great Escape
Our job is not easy…
First, we need to escape the personality programming. I like to think of this process as “svarupa sadhana” (or the spiritual practice of building character) where we forge our own personality and determine our own character, rather than living content in the place society-karma-accident put us.
This is related to discovering your True Will, or finding yourself, or seeing Dharma… but… it’s not the same thing.
Rather than playing our part in the unfolding drama, with this process, we can run away from the scene, or at the least, stop playing by other people’s scripts.
Please remember that this isn’t mere teenage rebellion. It is a recognition that our personality is arbitrary and that we are free to be whomever we wish to be. It is seeing the fact that the role we chose to play is just a role, and that there is no mechanical restriction holding us from assuming any role at any given point in time.
It is the preposterous insight that shows you that there does not need to be a continuity in personality.
This is quite refreshing because most people have personalities are made up of the echos of other people’s thoughts, or from reactions to such thoughts. Most of us start here simply due to our human-birthing-upbringing process. Instead of being stuck with it, coping and trying to make the best of it; why not bypass it all together?
Once this is achieved, we gain a freedom in social and interpersonal dimensions. Also, internally, a natural congruence develops in our activities. The mind becomes at ease and many internal conflicts get incinerated. You find contentment in the absurdity of daily life, and become comfortable with contradictions.
Yet, these are all relative freedoms, and should not be confused with the Freedom yoga promises. Yes, this shift from a single personality to Legion is incredibly useful in living an authentic life. It even clears some modern day obstructions from the spiritual path. It even helps us construct the personality we desire to have, on our own terms!
Freedom from the Kleshas, escape from the domain of Maya, and re-union of the Microcosm with the Macrocosm is the actual “Escape”.