by John El-Mokadem

So what does it mean really to be liberated?  Let me tell you a story to see if I can illustrate. 

I recently went on a trip to Ghana in West Africa, something which to be perfectly frank, I felt scared to do, but at the same time I was inspired at the prospect of going somewhere so different.  Myself and my wife landed in Ghana at midnight together with a group of 10 other friends and we set about making what was supposed to be a 2 hour trip to our place of stay.  We made our way along extremely bumpy “road’s” without air conditioning and our journey eventually ended 6 hours later!  We arrived at our destination covered in muck, tired and worn out, and had already been bitten by mosquitoes.  At 6am we decided to have a shower and go to bed for a few hours.  I went into the shower, turned on the hot tap – nothing!!  I found out that generally there is no hot water in Ghana, so I was left with cold water, so I used that, until the electricity failed and I couldn’t see!! 

You may be thinking – what an awful holiday, but I promise you this was the best vacation I ever had!  Over the course of the next few days I was absolutely inspired by what I saw.  Everybody smiles, and greets you.  People with nothing, stop you as you walk past and offer you things for nothing!  The children are happy and beautiful and have an eagerness to learn, and your heart can’t help but break open amongst the atmosphere of warmth and love. 

It got me thinking – how can a race be apparently so poor, but yet so rich?  After several days around them, I began to realise what it was.  The accelerated chaos of the environment acts as a spiritual teacher, forcing you to surrender any ideas you may have about the way life should be and just rest into every moment.  Imagine, for example, if we had done a 6 hour drive in a western country.  Whilst it may have been tiring, generally the roads are well laid and signposted and for the most part you can cruise along and occasionally drift into your head.  Think about it – how many times have you been driving in your car and let your mind wander, and allowed yourself to become anxious about something?  In Ghana, such an event is impossible – if you were to lose your presence to the act of driving, you would most likely go down a ditch, get a puncture, ground your car, or hit a donkey! 

The other feature of life there is that nothing stays the same.  If you leave food out, the heat will spoil it; if you get a new car, it will get damaged by grounding against the road or someone hitting it; if you take a shower, then an hour after going out you will be hot an sweaty and most likely covered in dust!  As a result of this constant flux, the people have learned to let go of their judgements about the way things should be.  You just cant do anything about these sorts of occurrences, so you are left with a choice, will I hold on to my pain and my perception of how life should look and try and control it, or will I just surrender and let be?

I think the final answer to their happiness is this – life becomes about survival.  People are so poor that all they can do is think about every moment and really keep thinking about one question – what have I got to do right now to live?  If you don’t think about this in every moment, most likely you won’t eat and won’t live!!  This grounds people in the present, but also has them consistently facing their fear of death.  It also builds community because life is so similar for many people, they don’t see each other as any different – they work together as a large family – if one family can’t eat, then they are welcomed next door or wherever there is food. 

The whole experience made me realise how too much comfort can become a bad thing.  Firstly it keeps us in the illusion that we are somehow in control, but also shields us from facing our real, raw fears.  We get caught up in how to make more money and get bigger and better houses, and our sense of separation from everything grows bigger and bigger as we forget how little we actually need.  Now I am not saying that these things are necessarily bad, but if we become too attached to the idea that these things will fulfil us, then I believe we will never be happy. 

So what is liberation?  For me it about remaining grounded in the present, and letting go of your perceptions of what should be happening so that you can open your heart to the beauty and majesty of what is.  Are you ready to do it?  I am planning on running a retreat in Ghana in the near future.  Drop me a line if you are interested. 

Love,

John.