Patterns of consciousness define us. Consciously and unconsciously, we are forming patterns in behavior and thinking every moment of our lives. Some of these patterns contribute to internal freedom and creativity of spirit. Some contribute to states of internal bondage and suffering.

By the use of inner awareness, we can become conscious of what patterns are predominant in our minds. To paraphrase the great physicist, David Bohm, if we are caught in a pattern of internal fragmentation and self-destruction, with awareness, we can bring it to an end.

Everybody craves freedom. But those people caught in self-created patterns of limitation, when unconscious of it, are destined to continue living in the same pattern.

In this state of being, there is no freedom. If the pattern brings suffering, the person continues to suffer, just as if they were listening to a CD on a CD player programmed to keep repeating the same selection over and over.

The drunk stays a drunk, the thief stays a thief, and the coward stays a coward. There is no way out as long as the limiting pattern is controlling consciousness.

But the drunk isn’t really a drunk. He is just playing out a pattern of drunkenness. He can step out of the pattern when he realizes that at his source of being, he is so much more. He is not meant to live life in a ditch, but in the infinite canvas of the universe. Instead of living in a state of impaired consciousness, he can enter a state of heightened consciousness.

I remember having a speech defect in college. I stuttered. It became a pattern. When I realized I wasn’t the pattern, I was able to get free of it. Shortly after that period of time, I became an award-winning speaker in Toastmasters International. Speaking became effortless and enjoyable.

If we fall into a rut, it behooves us to find a way out of the rut. This should be obvious. For instance, if someone drives a car into a ditch, he or she will not hesitate to find help to get the car out. Why? Because it is obvious that the car is useless as long as it is in the ditch.

But when our thinking falls into a ditch, too often we don’t see the limitations of the predicament. More often than not, when a person falls into a rut of conditioned thinking, there is no effort to get free unless the suffering becomes too much to endure. Then help is sought. Then a person says, “I am more than this.”

If you are tied up in a rope, you will stay tied up until someone helps you undo the knots, or helps you cut through the knots with a knife. This is the work of spiritual masters.

Meher Baba, a very great master, appeared in several of my most significant dreams over the last 30 years, unraveling some of my biggest inner knots. Sometimes he did this with words of advice and sometimes with an infusion of love and bliss.

That is what the great masters do. They free souls from inner bondage. For a complete exposition on this subject, you might want to read the Discourses of Meher Baba. He describes there in great depth this inner knot cutting work of spiritual masters.

He refers to these knots, these bindings of consciousness, as mental impressions. In Indian mysticism, they are called sanskaras. In essence, they are obstructions of inner light; they are obstructions to knowledge of what we really are.

Do we have it within our power to be free of patterned thinking? Do we have it within our power to transcend limitations and align ourselves with the infinite?

We do and we don’t. We don’t so long as we live life on the surface. When we can summon the courage to dive within and exercise awareness of what patterns are operating within, then we have a chance. To be perfectly free of the limitations of the past we have to command within us the full light of consciousness. It implies a death to the false self so that a free and creative self can flourish. It is a denial of fear and an affirmation of love in its most unbounded state.

In the degree that we attempt to use consciousness do we continually become able to use it more effectively. Progress is slow at first, more rapid as we proceed. Power grows by using it.

On the spiritual path, it is said that for every step a person takes towards the Infinite, that the Infinite takes 10 steps towards him or her. In other words, the Divine Beloved is longing for us more intensely than we longing for the Divine.

A soul on fire with longing for the infinite is a soul free from the ruts of conditioned thinking. It’s like the drop of water making its way down a ditch, to a stream, to a river, to finally reach the ocean. And in doing so, discovering that it is the Ocean itself.