The Prisoner’s Escape
Written by Edna Lake
Wisdom is the opposite of ignorance and it is by developing the innate wisdom we have that we can come to a full understanding of the way things are. Wisdom is different from knowledge, although that is included in wisdom. Knowledge can be obtained by external means, from another person, for example, but wisdom comes from within one’s own mind and is not the result of logical thought. The Buddhist way forward is by meditation and insight. When the mind is free of joy and sorrow and of the obstacles which prevent it from seeing clearly, then insights into the nature of reality arise.
Insights may arise in unexpected circumstances; they are not necessarily the result of long hours spent sitting in the meditation hall. There is a good example of a wonderfully liberating insight obtained by a political prisoner who was kept in solitary confinement, in most inhuman conditions, for several years. He describes how he raged and despaired, longing to escape, even by death, from the tiny, bare cell which contained nothing for his comfort. From the small window high in the wall he could see a section of sky and this was the only thing which provided any variety over the years. It seemed impossible that he could endure such deprivation.
His mind was full of anger, hatred and all the defilements which contribute to suffering. Of these the main one was the idea of self. He felt himself to be a person to whom this should not happen, who was being intolerably treated, who was entitled to something better and who did not know how to endure such pain. The feeling of frustration was intense. The prisoner recalled how others in similar situations had passed the hateful time by watching the spiders or beetles which were their only companions, and had became almost like friends. Another prisoner, a lady, had spent time knitting her own hair. Such activities must have provided temporary relief, but the mind would always return to the feeling of horror that any human being should be trapped in these frightful conditions. One day the prisoner’s mind reached the level of complete abandonment of hope and expectation which is the basis of knowing reality. He suddenly found himself looking at the wall of his cell and seeing not a prison wall but only bricks. He mind was flooded with peace as he no longer saw himself as a prisoner but as simply a temporary grouping of materiality and consciousness, occupying space, existing in this particular setting, but without any permanent entity or ego. The walls were only walls and the window only a window It became clear that it was his concept of an individual person, entitled to, and longing for, freedom, which was his enemy, and causing his pain, if he accepted things as they were, there was no problem. This is in conformity with the Buddha’s teaching on cause and effect – ignorance and craving cause dukkha – and the prisoner had discovered the truth for himself by intuition and not by reason. From that point on he was able to remain calm and even felt a kind of joy because of his mental liberation.
Few of us will experience intense pain, I hope, but it is the wish to escape dukkha in its various forms that turns the mind towards the Dhamma. If it were possible to find something in this world which would make us permanently happy for all of our life, why would we need to look for anything else?
