Ultimate Freedom

Free speech, free country, free people, free spirit. What is it we need to be free of really? Is it perhaps our own self? Often we think freedom is the ability to do as we please, to say what we please and above all else, to think as we please. This freedom should be our birthright, not our life’s purpose. Who can stop us from thinking as we please? Who stops us from doing anything, from saying anything? 

It is fear that makes us bound. It is our conditioning that makes us fearful. We live in a world based on conditions. It is a conditional world. The Course in Miracles says, “There are only two experiences, love and fear.” If you are not experiencing love, it is because you are fearful. You can’t experience fear and love at the same time. It’s an either or. Love cancels out fear. Unconditional love is such a blissful, joyful, inspirational, desirable concept; however, we can’t experience unconditional love. We cannot because unconditional love is beyond conditions and our experience is based on conditions. We only know unconditional love from the unconditional part of us. Conditional love is an experience and much better experience than fear. The more we love, the less we fear.

It is this unconditional part of us that can know Ultimate Freedom. Ultimate Freedom is unconditional freedom, meaning I still know I am ultimately free whether I am having the experience of freedom or not. We cannot experience unconditional freedom anymore than we can experience unconditional love.  We can experience the freedom to say what we want, to do what we want and to think what we want, but what we want to say, do and think is based on our conditioning. It stands to reason then, the problem starts with conditioning. We are conditioned to be fearful and therefore, conditioned to be bound, so how do we get from bondage to Ultimate Freedom?

The solution is to go beyond our conditioning. First step is we must discover what it is we really want to say, do and think and then start saying, doing and thinking those things. Sounds very simple but not always so easy for us to know what it is we really want; And number two, not only must we know what we want, we must take action on that knowing. Most of our conditioning is just programming from our culture, our family, our peers, etc. To discover our True Nature in all this, we have to drop all of it. For some it may be as easy as a snap of the fingers to drop conditioning that does not align with the truth of our self. For some it might be quite a long and arduous process. For others, some conditioning is easily dropped but the conditioning that is more deeply imbedded in us is most difficult to even discover. We not only need to step outside the box, the box must be destroyed.

Destroying the box does not mean, we kill the ego or kill the mind or kill anything. Our body/mind system operates through conditioning, so we don’t even want to kill our conditioning. Ultimate Freedom is not about killing anything. Ultimate Freedom is the realization of what IS. And what IS, is what is unconditional. What IS exists beyond conditions. It only appears to us through conditions in this conditional world. Ultimate Freedom is the realization I am not this doer living under conditions in a conditional world. I am THAT, which is the everlasting formlessness that is the essence of everything.  I am the Awareness that is aware of  the doer, it’s conditions, it’s fears of what is says, thinks and does; but I am not them.  

How do we arrive at this realization then? We must deal with our conditional parts first. We have to understand them. We have to deem them worthy or unworthy of our attention, accept them or reject them.  Conditions are made up of our beliefs.  Eventually our beliefs must become convictions or they should be tossed out. We can’t forget the second part and that is, acting on the truth of what we know.  That’s how beliefs become established as convictions. When we begin to act in accordance with what we say and think, we start to live truthfully. When we start to live truthfully, fears are dealt with. Fear only wants our attention, not our power. If we keep denying fear exists, it’s like saving it for a rainy day. If we just go ahead and accept fear as it is, fear is exposed for its illusory and transient nature. It is only then we can transcend it, and we only want to transcend fear, not kill it. 

A huge stumbling block on the path of freedom is making the mistake of confusing conditional freedom for Ultimate Freedom.  A common fear is the fear of giving away our power to someone else. A common goal is to take our power back. First we must examine the fear of losing our power. What is this power someone can take? Power is conditional.  If we feel someone has taken our power, it is usually because we feel they have restricted our freedom to say, do and think as we want. Again, the problem isn’t in the other person. The problem lies in our conditioning. 

There are certain “bargains” we make with each other. Here’s a most common one, “You take care of me and support me, and I’ll say, do and think as you wish.”  Now, it is not common for people to make this kind of bargain upfront. It is often a given, or an expectation and not usually discussed until someone does not like what someone else says, how they act or the way they think. We all have a tendency to want others do as we want them to do, to speak as we want them to and think as we want them to and depending on how far off they miss the mark, determines how much time and energy we give to that other person.  Those who please us more get more from us. It’s a power play. We give. We get. It’s a simple equation that just goes back and forth.  If you expect too much from me and I withdraw, who has the power now?  It is always hard to say who holds the power in relationships, because it is based on ever changing conditions. We need to just accept this for what it is.

If I am living in my parents’ home, regardless of my age, I must abide by their rules. If I can’t, than I am free to go. If I choose to stay and abide by their rules, am I not free? Yes, I am free. It is not the abiding by someone's  rules or desires that keeps us bound. It is the misunderstanding that lasting freedom will come through some condition. If I am unhappy with the rules or my parents and feel that I am not free to say, do and think as I please, why would I continue to stay? I would stay because the benefits I get from it outweigh the lack of freedom I experience or because I am afraid to really say, do and think as I please. Either way it’s based on conditions and conditional freedom. We are always giving our power away, and taking it back. It’s just a game. 

When we have taken our power back, when we have stood up to our parents, our teachers, our spouses, our friends, our culture, etc.; when we have found our voice, our minds and our hearts, when we have grown tired of paying the game of conditional freedom, we start to hunger for something more. We hunger for something permanent, something that is not a passing experience. Ultimate Freedom is not an experience. It is a truth to be realized that requires a radical shift in perception. Power has never been ours to give or to take. Ultimate Freedom reveals our powerlessness. Power is only there for us to use, as with everything else in existence. Power, abundance, strength, courage, love are all positive conditions. Use them freely. Play often, but play good games. Like attracts like. 

There is a saying, “Do one thing a day that scares you.” I think this a good practice for realizing Ultimate Freedom. Ultimate Freedom is freedom from the fears that keep us in the same old psychological grooves we have had for the aeons. Face your fears and break the chains that bind you.  Your conditioning will naturally change to reflect your new awareness. You’ll find a new groove and love more and fear less. Ultimate Freedom is already ours.