The real "merdeka"

This year our beloved nation celebrates her 51st year of independence. Yet, my body and mind donot feel the slightest liberation at all. Maybe this is due to my interpretation of the word "liberation". In my personal opinion, the real "merdeka" that I am going to have is the time I achieve freedom from samsara. Yeah! That will be the day someone can shout "Malaysia Boleh!". Do I get a Datukship for achieving that? Heeheehee... I am just kidding, I won't achieve it anyway, if I still crave for such titles....I am so bad.... :)

Anyway, who is the person that inhibits us from achieving our spiritual freedom? Well, before he achieved enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree, the Buddha got a shock when he saw for the first time who his "inhibitor" or "colonialist" was. This person "looked exactly like him, smell like him, walked like him, talked like him" but he didnot think he was this person he saw. This "colonialist" conquers the five aggregates and subjected him and us to all kinds of delusions and karma.

But when the Buddha realised that this "person" who "looked like him, smell like him, walked like him and talked like him" was but only a projection and a label he had imputed, the "colonialist" disappeared. And he realised his SPIRITUAL LIBERATION. This reminds me of the analogy of the rope in the darkness, that a person had mistakenly thought of as a snake. Actually the snake was not even there. So, similarly, this person that we thought is ourselves that "looked like me, smell like me, walk like me, and talk like me" is similar to the imaginary "snake", we will be able to see through our distorted concepts of ourselves as empty, we will achieve the real spiritual MERDEKA.

But it is not that easy, is it? So, here's wishing every one, every sentient beings - May ALL be able to see through their own projections and conceptualisations and realised the real MERDEKA!