It is tendencies and dislikes which among other things stand in the way of perceiving and receiving truth. It is being bound to these things at the deepest level of personal thought and feeling which keeps the aspirant ignorant. If instead of being held by them he would shift his position and simply hold them quite loosely, he would then be freer in himself for the truth. Because he is a person, an individual, he possesses certain colourings peculiar to himself. He is an ego functioning in the body and in the world. He has various possessions because he has to live among and use the various objects needed for his life in the world. The change which enlightenment brings is not necessarily to throw them out. He can not throw his body out, he can not throw the personal colouring out, but he can--and this is what enlightenment does--free himself from being bound to them. This is what nonattachment really signifies. Too often an aspirant misunderstands this point. If he lets himself be deceived by books, however ancient and authoritative, or by gurus, however knowledgeable, reputed, or esteemed, into pursuing inner freedom in the wrong way, he may end either in disappointment and frustration or in self-deception and deception of others. The conditions under which he lives have been dictated by karma in the largest possible meaning of the word. Those conditions can be modified and perhaps changed only to a limited extent, for there are limitations within himself and within the karma which prevent his going any farther. In understanding this and in accepting the actualities of life and self, he can claim and find the only true freedom that is findable. All else is clamour or illusion.
-- Perspectives > Chapter 9: From Birth to Rebirth > # 58
