James Wood Teachings

Saying you want to be free is like saying you want a bell to ring. And yet, the tighter we hold on to it, the less it rings. It’s not allowed to freely be, so it has a limited range of possibility. It’s even kind of ugly or pedestrian. Dead, like something you can’t feel. Like when you get an injection of lidocaine. Numb. Dead. Shut down. Less alive, less happy. Maybe even less sad, in a way. Like someone who’s drugged, who has a limited range, not allowed to feel, not allowed to express. So we have to let it go. What we let go of is a sense of self that’s at odds with what is.

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