“Just as the great ocean has one taste, the taste of salt, so also this teaching and discipline has one taste, the taste of freedom.”
— The Buddha
What is it like to be free--to be free of the bondage of our past, to emerge as the authentic, independent individual that you are inside and meant to be, unencumbered by society's pressures or the expectait like to be free--to be free of the bondage of our past, to emerge as the authentic, independent individualtions of your parents, romantic partner, professors, or friends, to be unique in every way? I think one who has escaped slavery should know.
I came across a story about Harriet Tubman:
Harriet Tubman was enslaved and around twelve years old, when a fellow enslaved man attempted to run away. After he was found and brought back, Harriet and a few others were ordered to help tie him up to be whipped. She refused, and when the man attempted to run again, she blocked the doorway to help him escape. An overseer threw a two-pound weight at the man but hit Harriet instead, fracturing her skull. Throughout her life, she suffered from severe headaches and narcolepsy from this incident.
“Freedom lies in being bold”
— Robert Frost
A petite woman of only about five feet, Harriet was strong-willed and courageous, and as she grew older, she became determined to escape to the North. Upon learning in 1849 that she would be sold, Harriet, now in her mid-20s, decided the time was right. One night, she, along with two of her brothers, ran away. Her brothers soon turned back, and for the rest of her journey, Harriet was alone without friends. She walked at night, hid during the day, and didn't know who to trust, or where to eat. At times she had shelter; often she slept outside on the ground overlooked by the stars. After about ninety miles of travel, she crossed into the North to freedom! Reflecting on reaching the North, she said:
“I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person now that I was free. There was such glory over everything. The sun came up like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in heaven.”
— Harriet Tubman
And like a true Bodhisattva; a free being who has put off entering their permanent freedom to help others attain it for themselves, Harriet went back into the South to help family members escape. After getting them North, she went back to the South again to help more family members; then she went to help others. Harriet would make many trips over the years, rescuing approximately seventy people. Of the experience, she would say, "I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say — I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger."
“It is only when the mind is free from the old, that it meets everything anew, and in that is joy.”
—J. Krishnamurti
Our strivings for freedom do not carry the weight and horror of physical human slavery, yet the those who have suffered through slavery show us the insight, faith, strength and courage that freedom demands. Can we be inspired by this woman (as I have!) to throw off our bondage, a slavery to the past, to conditioning, to fears, to uncertainty and dare to travel through the wilderness to freedom? Can we even have the courage to come back and help free our Sisters and Brothers?
From the Little Shack: YES, WE CAN!
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Sources: http://www.harriet-tubman.org / Women of Achievement by Benjamin Brawley, 1919, Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society / Portrait of Harriet taken circa 1868 by Benjamin F. Powelson / Wikimedia Commons / https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman / Women's Words : The Columbia Book of Quotations by Women (1996) by Mary Biggs, p. 2