In October 2005, I received an email from my elder sister Teri containing a heart-wrenching story of a circus bear. The story began with a bear in his small cage, which he would encircle for hundreds of times a day. When bears took the centre ring of the circus, exhibited as exotic animals, spectators would watch them perform feats through the metal barred enclosure. Sometimes, the bear, being curious, would be lured to the edge of the ring by the smell of food and spectators would find amusement in feeding the bear with broken glass hidden in the food. The glass would cut through the digestive tract of the hungry bear causing him much pain. When the show ended, the crowd dispersed and all was silent, the bear would continue to pace round his cage.

One day, an elderly man got to know about the agony of this poor bear and was compelled to give this bear new hope of freedom and peace. The man went through all the hassle of getting the bear out of the circus and acquired a piece of lush pasture. The bear finally arrived at his new home after much anticipation.

The man watched on anxiously expecting the bear to leap out from the cage and dash across the pasture when the metal cage was placed on the green pasture and the cage opened for the first time for the bear to freely walk out of the cage, without being jolted out by sharp stakes, and set his paws on fresh green grass. However, the bear, continued to encircle the cage, oblivious of this change of events. Eventually, the bear was brought out of the cage, but the bear couldn't figure out what to do with this newfound freedom.

Soon after, the bear was plagued by illness and had to be put to sleep.

Let us pause for a moment and ponder. Are we so different from the bear? There are moments in our life when we are like the circus bear trapped within the confinements of our own conditioning. Do we not get caught up circling endlessly within the cage of our vain ventures of wealth, fame, power, love and security? Do we not go round in circles finding no way out, yet when the door is opened, we are transfixed motionless, not knowing what to do?

This is the mirror reflection of our human predicament. The circus bear's perpetual pacing round the cage is precisely Samsara . We constantly condition ourselves with conditionings, smouldering upon ourselves layers upon layers of afflictions that stem from ignorance and attachment. Many of the conditionings are subtle, gradual and insidious like oil soaking into fabric. By the time we realize it, conditioning have become the conditioned, taking roots deep into the consciousness imbedding in our mental continuum leaving imprints that requires some effort to efface. And this effacement of the Samsaric condition necessitates the tedious reversal process of peeling layers after layers of the mind, untying knots after knots of the entangled ball of yarn.

By our own fallacious conditionings we conditioned ourselves, no one imprisoned us in Samsara but we shackle ourselves by ignorance and attachment. The bear refused to exit the cage finding security and solace in imprisonment. Similarly, we cling tenaciously to the happiness and security we derive from the same imprisonment - Samsara . The bear was given the new hope for freedom and peace, but self-denial left him dying in agony within the cage that he encircled everyday. Ignorance has blinded us of the truth; wrong view has warped our vision. Like the circus bear, we do not see liberation as it is, but conceive Samsara promising security and happiness. In truth, they are only ephemeral like life slipping away every moment. Na?ve optimism coverts the realities by refusing to investigate the subtleties that lie beneath the superficiality of life in which we are vehement on all else on the external world to change but none within, a mere stagnation where no progress is possible. Actors and backdrops on stage change but not the plot of the human drama.

What sets us apart from the same tragic predicament? Wisdom and courage; the wisdom to discern and identify the fallacies of cyclic existence, the faults of our futile pursuits and the way to sever the nexus of suffering and the courage to take the step forward out of the Samsaric ‘cage', to break that chain reaction. We need to be audacious and ardent against the current of afflictions, against our habitual tendencies, against our negativities, to quiet the deafening incessant silent gossips of the mind. Aspirants of renunciation, are those who are truly bold enough to, take the step forward to get out of the confined cage of worldly life working their way across to yonder shore.

With the first step, we set in motion the reversal spiral out of cyclic existence, or else the journey out of Samsara will never begin. When and how will we end this generic chain of cyclic existence that yields only temporal joy and security? The answer lies in the application of Dependent Origination (Paticca-samuppada/ prat i tyasamutpanna) built upon the foundation of the Four Noble Truths set on the tripod of the Threefold Training (ethical discipline, concentration and wisdom) and brought to completeness by penetration into the three Universal Laws (impermanence, suffering and non-self/egolessness)

The first step is never easy, but the valiant will not be struck down, for difficulty itself is a challenge. How many times have we turned ourselves away from a new turning point in life? How many times have we let rare opportunities pass by? And how many lifetimes we have wasted away pacing round the cage of Samsara? Would you seize the moment when it arrives to step out of the cage and set yourself free?

The Dalai Lama said: “It is a misconception that Dzogchen, or the experience of pristine awareness, means just hovering right in the present, without following after the object. To clear up that misconception, we make this distinction: in the foundation consciousness ( alayavijnana ) there is still an element of unclarity or delusion this passive awareness. Whereas when pristine awareness arises it is extremely vivid, luminous, and liberating. So there's a radical distinction in the quality of the awareness of these two states, but unless you have experienced the nature of pristine awareness, you could confuse the two.” Valera, J, Francisco (1997), Sleeping, Dreaming, And Dying , p.121