“Freedom” from OCHA DHARMA’s perspective refers to liberation from tendencies and habits that contort our experience of our Natural State of enlightenment. These habits are sometimes conscious, sometimes unconscious, and very often quite subtle. They prompt us into: numbness and unkindness (toward ourselves and others); pretense/falsehood; fear and shutting down; arrogance/self-aggrandizement; rigid anger; false “nice-ness”; self-pitying; and notions of “friends” and “enemies” (i.e., people we care for, and others we have no interest in, and/or wish harm).
In the view from which OCHA DHARMA practices, these distorted “states” or “habits” are not innate; they are not “natural” (the way this word is used in Buddhism). They are distortions of the Natural state, which is open/wise and kind/compassionate (wielded with intelligence).
Such Freedom flows effortlessly with generosity, patience, honor, bravery/courage, a loving heart, ingenuity, resilience, positive regard, and well-wishes and action for and with others. (And it seeks to recognize and make amends when we fall short of these capacities.) It “protects” by expressing uncontrived radiant light for the benefit of all. It is fearless in vividly engaging with all circumstances and conditions, to promote the most healing and liberating outcomes for everyone and everything.
There can be degrees of such freedom. Practice in OCHA DHARMA is so that “all beings may realize greater and greater degrees of freedom, and remain” (a phrase used by one of my Buddhist teachers, Tröma Rinpoche).
For many people, such Freedom is mythological; it is unheard of; it is something that cannot be fathomed and has never been seen (except maybe in wisdom beings / deities, revered ancestors, or elders who may be far away). We often think such Freedom – (if it exists) – may be possible for “somebody” at “some point” (usually in the distant past), but not “for me,” or for “us,” or for “our people,” right now. We may think we are too broken, too much has happened, or that there is a pain or a wound that is so great, it cannot be healed. In the view of our approaches to practice, there is no such thing as something that cannot be healed, at its root.
Sometimes we have felt or seen degrees of this Freedom in ourselves or in other people or beings. This is great! But we may not have a notion that there is a state of complete blemishlessness that we can realize in this very life, in this body, on this earth, in “this” country, under these conditions, with these people, with this past, with what we’ve done/seen/heard/felt/known/experienced.
This is the Freedom for which OCHA DHARMA was founded: To share resources, approaches and tools from the limitless African-based & Buddhist storehouses – that can support us to realize such a state, our innate goodness, and be of greater service. In this way, we might all realize the fullness and joy of our lives, this precious world, and further share our gifts for the benefit of all…
