“Know the world as your own creation and be free.”
“You are the maker of the world in which you live; you alone can change it, or unmake it.”
— Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
These two sentences have become companions on my morning walks, my meditation, and my sketching.
When I first read them, I resisted. I didn’t create the trees, the clouds, the people I meet, or the events that fill my day. How could I possibly be the maker of the world in which I live?
Then I began to notice something subtle.
I don’t live directly in the world. I live in my experience of the world.
That experience is shaped by memory, expectation, fear, desire, habit, and countless interpretations that arise almost automatically. Two people can stand in the same place and live in entirely different worlds because each is seeing through a different set of filters.
That realization changes everything.
If my experience is continually being created, then I can become aware of the process. I can notice the stories before I believe them. I can return to the breath before I react. I can sketch what I am experiencing instead of becoming trapped inside it.
The world outside may remain exactly as it is.
The world I live in begins to change.
Perhaps that is what Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj meant. Freedom is not escaping the world. Freedom is recognizing that the world we experience is continually being shaped from within. The moment we see that, we are no longer completely ruled by habit.
We become conscious participants in the making of our lives.
And if we are the makers, then we also possess a quiet and remarkable freedom:
We can change it.
Or unmake it.
Sketching is a door into your own mind.
Spiritual Gravity 