Flying has long been associated with feeling free. When we sit and watch the birds in the air and marvel at their lightness and agility, we long to feel as free. Today, so many people are feeling trapped and restrained, feeling that they cannot do what they would like to do because of their relationships, job, situations, or their own mindset. They feel as if they are caged rather than being free as a bird. They speak as if there are real bars between them and the life they would like to lead. “If this had not happened, I would be free”, “If I could be free of this job/ this person/ this situation, then I would be free”. But, on a spiritual level, if we look closely, we can see that the door of the cage is actually wide open. We have just not realised it yet. The natural state of the soul is freedom. So, what is stopping us from feeling free? Somewhere inside us there is a learned programme running. Our inner habits, personality traits, thought patterns are all overpowering any choice we wish to make, and these are the bars of the cage.
We have learnt to deal with only the physical aspects of our lives and to deal with them using the left, logical brain. We think if we deal with ‘this’ step by step, we can sort it out. However, the programmes running within us cannot be sorted out that way. We can sometimes rationalise and solve some problems on the outside world, but for emotional and spiritual matters we cannot use the same process. Freedom is an emotional and spiritual state of mind. The complex layers of our thinking patterns continue to be triggered by the outside world, and we continue to react in the same old way, and feel trapped. The more trapped we become the more unhappy we become because we are then living against the laws of spirituality, which say that all souls are free. Souls are free to express their original and beautiful qualities as they choose. We can, in fact, fly out of the cage whenever we wish, but we really need to want to do that and to know how.
In contrast to the little bird in a cage is the king of all birds, the eagle. When we observe this majestic bird soaring high above, it evokes the longing to be as free as he is. He possesses four gifts that can help us to fly just as free.
The first is the eye of the eagle. He can see everything with a bird’s eye view of everything that is happening on the ground. This is wisdom. The wisdom to integrate what we already know, to understand the full picture.
The second are the talons. The eagle hardly ever sets his talons on the ground. He flies, surveys, swoops, and sometimes rests on a branch. Spiritually, that is detachment. To know when to come down into action and when to stay above, stay quiet, and observe.
The third and fourth, are his wings. He has the greatest wingspan of all birds. The wings give the lift to fly higher and higher. One is the wing of courage. The courage to break free from what we have always known, to move on, to let go. The other is the wing of faith, of conscious trust. It is that ability to realise that whatever happens holds a meaning and happens for my best, and is beneficial to my growth and learning.
What is needed, is power. Once we have started to accumulate the necessary spiritual power to fly free, we will be able to see the signs. We will feel that we have begun to choose new responses to old situations. We will begin to change, and when we do, we will seek more and more change, because my new-found inner strength will make me want to learn more about the layers within, and to change them. Our humility develops, because the wonder of what is happening is so powerful, there has to be the hand of the Divine in it all.
Meditation is the pathway to freedom. Once I understand what it is that I need to be free of and what I need to do, meditation will show me the way.
Sona Bahri is a meditation teacher based in Abu Dhabi, and coordinates the activities of the Inner Space Meditation Centre.