Freedom is where the self is not

 When you are bi-polar you suffer from a neurological and hormonal imbalance. You don’t interact with life as is, you interact with life as you perceive it to be under the influence. You either talk too much or too little; you either buy too much or nothing at all.

 

When you are an addict, you are similarly under the influence. Your loved ones know when you are triggered beyond repair, and they also know that it is better to leave you be for the next 24 hours to work off whatever it is that got the better of you.

 

Most of us cannot accept to be slave to anything. Not to random mood swings, not to substance abuse, nor compulsive behavior. Yet, think about it, freedom ends whenever we put blinders on and see the world as we like it to be and not how it actually is.

 

Anger, envy, greed, lust, etc., slavery to conditioning and emotions is even bigger than the seven sins. Conditioning includes every striving to be other than how we actually are. Every motivation, every agenda makes us see a world as we wish it to be and not as it is.

 

What then is freedom? It’s the freedom from what we perceived as us. Oneness speaks for itself. “Life as is” calls the shots and we show up as the enabler, the creator, the observer of what is. No need for self improvement because we are at our best moment by moment.

 

“Don’t be an ego” is the battle cry our spiritual community maintains. Yet, how can it be done? We are the self, are we not. Freedom comes when we are willing and able to watch the “me” with the same curiosity and equanimity as life as is. That’s when Oneness prevails.

 

Freedom is where the self is not.