A. A friend of mine, he’s a Tibetan Buddhist. He lived in a box for three years.

B. Three years!

A. Yes. Not a real box like a new television set arrives in. More like how a fire place has a low surround around the hearth. But that’s the deal. No movement.

B. I cannot imagine having my freedom taken away like that.

A. He was in search of an inner freedom. A spiritual freedom. Enlightenment. When you are no longer attached to things.

B. We live free country. That’s enough for me.

A. Really? You think you are free? And yet your thoughts have been conditioned since you were born. People, the environment, technology…they all take away your freedom don’t they?

B. How?

A. Well start with people. Your family. They all put in but at a price. Parents are always judging you and you are always trying to please them. Friends; they are fun to be with but hard work aren’t they? And then there is the rest of society; watching how you dress, drink, behave, consume.

Consider the environment. Books have been written on how the world into which we are born, stimulates and moulds us. We totally ignore our perceptions and information filters and think we are like cameras. But we are not. What we see is what we believe and most of the time we don’t see at all.

B. What do you mean?

A. Well, take this morning. Did you watch the sun rise?

B. No. I was asleep.

A. Well I stepped outside at four this morning and saw the stars against the great blackness. The moon was rising low on the horizon. A few hours later came the miracle which is sunrise. Have you ever thought how amazing it is that the sun rises every day?

B. Well it has to doesn’t it?

A. From our infinitely small perspective as human observers on the surface of a planet spinning at one thousand miles per hour, nothing guarantees the appearance of the sun each day. One day the earth will stop spinning and the sun run out of fuel. It’s an infinitely long way away but it will. And consider how the sun never actually sets or rises. That’s just because we are fixed to the earth, but if we could travel at th e same speed of the earth the sun would never set or rise again, depending on which side of the earth you are on.

B. That’s pretty amazing. I hadn’t thought along those lines.

A. All of our thoughts constrain or liberate us. We hold back from thinking and doing new things as much as possible out of fear. If we haven’t done it or been there, it’s going to cost us some emotional well being. But mountaineers don’t think like that. They do what they do because they are prepared to face their fears and if necessary encounter death. They know that the pluses of pushing to the extreme, greatly outweigh the minuses of sitting in the restaurant watching climbers through a telescope.

B. I guess I don’t all have what it takes.

A. You don’t have to climb mountains. That’s just an analogy. What I mean is that we need to face our fears, get out of our comfort zones in everything we do. When you drive to work, you always take the same route, yes?

B. More of less. It’s quicker.

A. That’s it. We justify our habits with rational statements, but never balance what we lose with what we stand to gain. If you deliberately found twenty different routes to work, you may have to start leaving earlier but you would be breaking free from your routines.

A. Seeing new sights.

B. Exactly and by analogy and literally, thinking new thoughts. A new environment can change our perception. That’s why we enjoy holidays. But some people go to the same place every year. They are not even beginning to be free. It’s just a replay of the year before. Just like our thoughts are replays. The same ideas we have had for years, since we were children even, stay in our heads and we repeat our ideas to those around us without ever realising how bored they are of listening.

A. But if your lived in a box or a cave wouldn’t that be boring?

B. To start with yes, but the mind is a cave in it’s own right. Prisoners in extreme solitary confinement will tell how after a while they began to hallucinate. They travel into their own minds and see, feel, experience things and places that those outside, could never imagine. Who then is really free?