Pain, play and an addiction

 

A Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity discussion topic

Copyright 2006 by K. Ferlic,   All Rights Reserved

 
RYUC Home   Why free?    Contact     Links     Programs/services      Contributions
 

When one is in creative play there is freedom of movement but there is also surrender which limits freedom. In actually, we surrender to a flow of energy. Normally we surrender to the flow of energy of the experience you are having. If we created that flow of energy with a conscious intention, we are living in freedom for we are out of mind and surrendering to what we ourselves create. If we have not consciously created that flow of energy, or we are unaware of how and/or why we created it, we are not free. We are at the mercy of whatever created the flow of energy to which we surrender. We will also not feel free because we are being carried by something we have not consciously caused to happen or not awareness of having caused it.

This issue becomes most acute when a burden or obligation of some type, especially pain, is lifted from our life. Creation takes us into the unknown and in reality we don’t know what to expect. To create something new we will have to face the obligations that may go with what we create. But there may be existing flows of energy that are the result of other intentions we hold and do not serve what we currently desire to create. If this is the case, we will feel a tension if not pain within our being as we enter the creative play. There is the flow of energy flowing to create what we desire and then there are the existing flows of energy which are result of the desires of our past programming, As a result, we will often withdraw from the play but never look to see what is giving rise to the current of energy carrying us in a direction we did not want to go.

What needs to be realized is when a burden, such as pain or obligation is lifted, we will feel free. If we focus on the freedom we find, and only desire the freedom to just do what we want because we are now without obligation and without the burden, we will eventually become bound. To feel freedom because a burden of life has been lifted from us is not the same as freedom and the freedom to have consciously determined the flow of energy to which we need to surrender. In needs to be remembered, there are two levels to the freedom we can feel. One is to be out of mind and experience the freedom to move in the energy that we feel. The other is to have the freedom to create the flow of energy in the first place and then surrender to the flow. People who seek the freedom of movement without obligating themselves to a particular creation of their choice, surrender to the flow of energy not realizing that the flow to which they enter may not ultimately be serving what they desire. If we seek only the freedom of being in the flow of energy of creation, we will direct ourselves into a series of paths that limit our options and in the end, end up helping to create an addictive pattern.

If we do not ever choose to be out of freedom to create something new and risk incurring work or obligation we have to continually chose from our memory, the past, and what we know and have experienced as to what was pleasurable. In doing so, we recreate the part of the past that we know is pleasurable. We have no other choice if we are going to avoid any pain or obligation.. If we don’t rely on the past, we then risk creating something new and enter the unknown. As a minimum, we risk having to face the obligation that goes with creating. Otherwise, we have to go with what mind knows, namely, the past. But what is pleasurable is also dependent on time and place. As we move into life and time and place change, what will give the type of freedom and pleasure we seeks based on our memory will become less and less available. In the end, we lose the very freedom they seek.

Only if we are willing to risk the pain and obligation that come with any new creation do we find freedom. The freedom is found in realizing that we can create whatever we choose and each creation may have an element of pain and obligation. Yet in the end, we can create greater and greater freedom for we can learn from each prior creation how to create more freedom in the next creation.

The question is, “What serves and doesn’t serve our being?” The only way we can really tell is whether the freedom we feel is serving or not serving us is to see if the freedom is causing us to experience more and more freedom of movement or does it lead to restrictions where we have less and less freedom of movement. For example, addictions often develop by using or doing something - like using some substance - that causes us to have an experience of greater freedom, in particular, freedom from the pain we feel or the burden we carry. However, continual use of the substance cause us to become bound to that substance or activity and freedom is lost. Play for the sake of the experience of freedom of movement, no matter what one does to experience that freedom, will lead to an addiction. The reason for this is there is lack of awareness as to what is causing the flow of energy to move into pain in the first place. It is essential we learns to understand what is causing the freedom we feel and where the flow of energy that gives rise to play we feel originates and is carrying us.

Related topics
Creativity perspective on addictions and addictive behavior
True freedom

The Password Protected Area provides access to all currently posted (click for current loading) Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity related discussion files and applications.

Top

RYUC Home   Why free?    Contact     Links     Programs/services      Contributions