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Seeing the Prison-Builder: Freedom from Ideas, Perceptions, and Feelings
Freedom is the liberation from ideas—including ideologies, notions of birth and death, and beliefs in “good” or “evil”—which act as prisons that generate suffering. Thay illustrates how even noble-sounding causes (war to end terrorism, ideals of an immortal soul) can imprison us. True freedom begins with recognizing that ideas create feelings and perceptions, binding us in a cycle of mental formations.
Three primary prisons are:
- Ideas (concepts and beliefs)
- Perceptions (wrong views of self, others, the world)
- Feelings (emotional states produced by ideas)
Thay points to the mantra of Prajñāpāramitā (“great understanding”)—recited after the bell’s sound—as the magic formula that can destroy these self-made hells. While devotion may calm us, only looking deeply with mindfulness and concentration can reveal the inner structure of our prisons and free us.
When Siddhartha reached enlightenment, he saw “the builder of the prison” and declared himself released forever. To practice this freedom today, Thay invites us to:
• Examine the true causes of our suffering—our own ideas, perceptions, and feelings—rather than blaming others
• Undertake a supported seven-day solo retreat to look deeply into our suffering
• Emerge as a free person, having uprooted the prisons we carry with us wherever we go