You are 'this race', 'this religion', 'this role', 'this social class', 'this look' – the list of definitions go on. And each one can become yet another bar on our own self-imposed jail. We continue to think within these definitions until someday we realise (or become forced to realise) that it’s all an illusion of our perceptions.
One common ‘box’ is when we are in debt. It might be time or money debt, or another form of lack such as knowledge or energy – but it is a box we somehow found ourselves in and are unable to escape from without great suffering.
Some people put curtains on the inside of the box – pretty it up – bring some positivity in. “It’s not so bad in here.” But a box is still a box.