Standpoint and freedom (Douwe Tiemersma)

Advaita talk of December 7, 2005

Can you make a choice for a point of view? What I experience is that I am overwhelmed by a viewpoint and that then I am stuck in it. For example, I recently said something in a meeting and later thought: oh, that was far too exaggerated. The whole evening I had a feeling of fear. I was deeply caught in that fear.

So there are two viewpoints: one there in the meeting, one [later] in the evening with that fear. And now you have a new viewpoint. Now you are talking about it without much fear. Where is your freedom? In your own manner of being, now. "Then," you say now, "then I responded like that, then the fear hit me and so I got stuck in it. Now I see it. Now I can judge: actually, I could have done it differently and now I see the fear response of that evening."

Therefore, from this point of view you see that the point of view in the meeting was conjoined to a limited viewpoint. That also applies to your fearful point of view later that evening. To the extent that there is an "ignorance" in it, the event overwhelms you. Afterwards, you take another look. Then you see that there was a limited point of view. What’s your position now? Apparently more spacious.

You can only judge from a higher point of view, with a wider horizon, about another point of view with a smaller horizon or with less knowledge, with less awareness. You determine that that position was related to a more limited situation. Now that you have this overview, you see alternatives. Where’s the freedom? Apparently in the possibility to change positions, to stand on a different point of view with a broader horizon.

That has everything to do with your own awareness. Yes, as being-awareness you apparently have these options. There is freedom in consciousness as self-being. You always have the possibility in your consciousness to distance yourself from a situation. Actually, that happens all the time. Insofar as there is an unconscious conditioning, insofar as there are views that just happen to you, that seems to be a situation of ignorance. Then you are stuck there because you do not know what is happening. Then you say: yes, that overwhelmed me. But a more spacious awareness is possible.

But do you have a choice in that?

You usually notice afterwards that apparently it went this way or that, and that it could hardly have been otherwise. The fact is that here and now you find that it could have been different - if you had had this consciousness then. Because there is more light the reality of the snake disappears and the reality of the rope appears. No one doubts that this is a higher reality. Why not? Because there is more light. Apparently there is the possibility of more light and everyone appears to have that in themselves. Experimentally you determine that. Through this you have a notion that more light can come. You have a "conscience". You've always already known that. You can open yourself up to it. You can be more attentive to it. Your own freedom sits in this orientation and in that fundamental opening.

Then the knowing gradually develops. Then you learn what it means to increasingly recognize yourself as openness. You see that you don't have to dive into a specific position. You see that you’re not stuck to that, that in this vertical perspective you are free. Just continue with that. Just radicalize that insight. Every point of view can be seen as relative from a higher point of view. Where's the end? It can’t be found. There is openness and you yourself are that openness. That was always already present as fundamental freedom from every position.