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APPLICATION
THE NOTION OF GROWTH
may start, yet higher stages of development will only unfold when the karma that blocks their access is removed.
Unfortunately this flawed conventional interpretation often leads to much pointless world-renunciation, selfpunishment and intense ascetic behavior.
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The Five Freedoms are basically a method of dynamic growth that has nothing to do with sacrifice, self-denial or renunciation of the world. On the contrary feelings of remorse, self-punishment, mortification etc., (which are often associated with sacrifice and renunciation) not only hinder our path to liberation, but may block it altogether. Selfdenial, remorse etc. only indicate a negative bond to the objects denied and not a fundamental freedom from them. As hate is just proof of a highly emotional attachment to the hated person - only in a negative way - so also remorse, selfdenial etc. only indicates a negative attachment to worldly objects. This negative attachment by itself will not bring any freedom or detachment from the objects resented. As long as any object of which we want to be free still plays a role in our life, we are not yet free from it.
Furthermore any kind of self-denial or remorse always orients towards past experiences. It forever looks back to atone for deeds, emotions or thoughts gone by. It never inspires dynamic impulses towards future progress. But as long as we only strive for a freedom from something rather than aspiring a freedom to do something, true freedom is not yet found.
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Jain Education International
The Five Freedoms are never directed towards the sacrifice of elements of life, but always towards attaining new, more fascinating and broader levels of life. We are reaching this new state because it attracts us more than the old one. That the old state becomes obsolete in this process and falls away, is a side-effect, not the main aim. One example: When
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