Elephant Chains - Mental Chains

A quote and small story
What they mean to me
How they can help you

“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.”
Rosa Luxemburg

For me, this means, staying in the same place and way of thinking due to something like fear. Most of the time these fears shouldn’t be there. They could have been instilled (programmed) in you as you were growing up. I’ve learned, the more you push in all aspects of life. Physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually... whatever it may be. You come to a point where you realize how stuck you were, how small you were thinking, how limited you were living. Your consciousness raises and you realize you could never go back to the old way of living or being. And therefore you start to really grow, to break those old chains that should have never held you back.

The elephant story I once heard

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them.

As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.” The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

How the story spoke to me

The big secret for me here was realizing that as humans our minds are even more powerful than our physical. And so as I searched my mind and thought of thoughts as having their own reality. Started to, in a way envision all the invisible as visible, I realized, I had all these ropes tied to me! Mental ropes! Sometimes we create them but I think most of the time, the people around us give them to us. Also I wasn’t taught to use my mind or much less the power it possesses, so I couldn’t see the chains that were put on me. Chains that have been with me my entire life.

How this might help others

The world is noisy, loud, and full of people telling us what we can and can’t do (chaining us). People running around in circles to keep an image or do something they think they should do cause it’s what they were told. Why, well they haven’t learned to listen to their inner self. It’s not easy, and at first seems like a waste of time but through your own silence, meditation, running, stretching or whatever brings you peace and quietude easiest will make, clearer, the things you couldn’t see before. It may take you years upon years of work, and people will probably look at you and say, he barely even moves. That’s only because they can’t see your inner-work.

While physical feats can be impressive and do add to your mental power. Working in the mind to undo previous programming and also just plain old strengthening it, I believe will take a person much farther. After all, one idea can change the world, including your own.

I have much inner work to do but despite the first frustrations and feelings like wasted time, I realized without the mental work I could go many lifetimes and still not reach my current level. The physical (animal-self) is a great experience but it is of the lower self I believe. One should work in the mental as if it’s real, to reach a higher level of being.

Much more will be written on similar things...