What does it mean to be free?
Free to do what we want?
Not to have obligations?
No need to work?
Freedom is the ability to be:
Hear the S (ilence),
sense the E (nergy),
feel the L (ove),
see the F (low).
Be S-E-L-F with a simple pivot when the connection is severed.
The awareness of a single thought, the awareness of mind, are very important. In the beginning, you may not know what is what; everything feels unclear, but when awareness is present for a while, it forms a moment of sudden clarity—an instant insight.
Yet at the beginning, you will definitely feel confused: “What am I supposed to do? What does this mean?” You will have many doubts. No matter what, just keep watching, keep noticing, keep observing. One day there comes the point when you will naturally understand.
And this kind of understanding is what gives you the power to be free. No one can teach it to you. You must see it for yourself—pay attention, observe. Only then does true safety arise. Most people don’t care about this; they don’t understand it and hope to quickly get what they want or what solves their problems. Because of that, they constantly miss this insight. This is the essential point.
And so they continue to cycle through suffering. This cycle doesn’t need to wait until the afterlife. We repeat the same painful cycle over and over in this life. There is already a sense of safety within you, but your mindset keeps you from experiencing it. It is like searching for something inside a dream. You want safety, but no matter how hard you search, you can’t find it.
Why? Because in the dream, you don’t know you are dreaming. Only when you wake up do you realize it was all a dream. You were scared in the dream, not because you truly lacked safety. Now—even though your eyes are open—do you know that you may still be dreaming? When you sleep, you know you are dreaming only after you wake. But in this waking state, you don’t yet realize that what you’re experiencing is also a dream.
The moment you “wake up;” the moment you truly understand everything we’ve been talking about, just one insight—one shift—and you immediately awaken. And at that moment, you no longer need safety. That awakening is safety. And this safety cannot be taken from you, destroyed, or broken by anything. That is real safety.
When your mind is clear and aware, everything you experience becomes like a dream. I rarely dream, but on the occasions when I do, I know that I’m dreaming, and I can see the dream playing out. If you know you’re dreaming, what happens? You naturally have distance from your troubles. You don’t get trapped in them. You don’t suffer because of them. This is very important.
The difference between knowing you’re dreaming and not knowing is profound. If you don’t know, you believe your thoughts are facts. You identify with your suffering as something real, something that must be resisted or eliminated. Because you believe it is real, you fight it. But when you know you’re dreaming, you no longer identify with it. You see that it is illusory.
If it doesn’t truly exist, why fight it? This is the difference. Believing your thoughts are real keeps you inside the dream. Seeing them as illusions frees you from the dream. They are merely creations of the mind. When you stop identifying with them, their power naturally fades.
If you keep believing—for example, “I feel guilty, so I must seek forgiveness”—that energy grows stronger. It won’t disappear; it will shift into different forms, but behind every mask is still guilt. Your perspective and identification continuously create the next layers of suffering.
We think the pain is real, and so we think we must fight, eliminate, or solve it. This creates more suffering, but when you recognize it is merely an illusion—a fabrication of the mind—why fight it?
When you stop fighting, it naturally dissolves like clouds disappearing into the sky. This is effortless freedom. This is ease.
By Suzhen Liu
If you enjoy Suzhen Liu’s writings, please check out her new book, “Discover Love Within—Release Your Suffering” available on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Discover-Love-Within-Release-Suffering-ebook/dp/B0G4L29MVN
We are in Him, and we search for Him saying, “where is He?”
The little “I” wells up and does all the mischief.
Ramana Maharshi
When you are 60, your workplace overlooks you,
but you are not your work and income.
When you are 70, society sidelines you,
but you are not your name and fame.
When you are 80, friends overlook you,
but love resides within.
When you are 90, your body lets go.
but “I Am” remains.
“I Am” is accessible in deep meditation just as much as in the busyness of life. Connect with “I Am” here and now and aging is not a concern.
Perceive (Third Eye)
Sense (Kundalini)
Feel (Heart Chakra)
Know (Crown Chakra)
Student
It has been quite some time now. When we talk, we avoid making eye-contact. When he speaks, I look away, because the moment I see him, waves of negative emotions rise. I know I’m ill-tempered —impatient, sharp with my words—yet I feel trapped inside these emotions and am unable to let go.
Suzhen Liu
In every relationship where we suffer the most,
there is a vast freedom waiting quietly behind it.
But we keep circling in two directions—
trying to erase the pain or trying to run away from it.
And because of this, we cannot move forward.
The person or situation in your family
that brings the deepest hurt, anger, worry, or exhaustion
is precisely where your freedom lies.
Behind every painful relationship
lives a great and hidden love.
When we can truly recognize this love,
a new freedom opens, and joy naturally follows.
Only then can we truly influence others—
not by effort,
but through the quiet transformation of our own being.
Because once we understand the essence of love,
once we have tasted that inner state,
wisdom begins to arrive on its own.
We all feel our suffering is enormous,
but at the root, there is only one fear:
the fear of facing our pain,
the fear of resting within it.
If we can learn to stay,
to gently remain with what hurts,
we begin to discover the most sacred part of life—
the spaciousness, the time,
and the love that already exists within us.
These qualities give rise to true wisdom.
They are not learned in school,
nor taught by anyone outside of us.
They come only from resting in our pain
and listening to its energy.
When we choose not to escape it,
not to destroy it,
but simply to be with it,
we start to sense the love that has always lived in our heart.
Every one of us carries this love.
Even in the most tangled, painful relationships—
it is still there.
By Suzhen Liu
Everything that we experience daily—rain or shine—is designed to help us awaken to a state of being prior to identity, history and thought. Humanity in its current form has been around for a few millennia yet few of us have managed to break free from this identification with body, mind and world, so what can be done in order to get to this state?
Actually, knowing that “life as is” has the purpose to help us awaken from the self identification with body, mind and world is already a big step towards the dissolution of the illusion because most of us still actively strengthen that bondage. Every memory, every aspiration, every aversion—even if it appears to be worthwhile—is a strengthening of self. Modern wo(man) cannot break free from this illusion because everyone is still going after something—while subconsciously running away from something else—even if the goal is as noble as reaching enlightenment.
Is there something more specific “you” can do? Be aware when the outside events trigger a memory, aversion, desire or reaction and ask who experiences it. Soon “you” realize that the same neurological processes are self-generated on the inside. Actually it is the other way around. The “self” identification is generated by these conditioned neurological processes. Just as with outside events, we can break free from the automatization on the inside as well when inquiring, who has these thoughts and feelings as they materialize. When the neurological synapses snap and the conditioned thought-feeling energy fades, S-E-L-F prevails:
S (ilence)
E (nergy)
L (ove)
F (low) as mirrored in life as is on the outside.
Michelangelo’s angel already existed. He just had to remove the debris from the marble. Likewise, in being stewardship is present. Life as is completes the masterwork.
When we begin to see the inner obstacles, we have not yet moved through,
we may even find gratitude for the person who brought us this trouble.
Without that disturbance,
we would not be pushed to learn.
There are parts of our conditioning
that need a spark of stimulation—
and that spark is what moves us forward.
In the beginning, our inertia is strong.
So, life uses certain people and situations
to nudge us, to awaken us.
This becomes a gentle force
that guides our growth.
We release the person who obstructed us,
the one who stirred our worries,
or the event that seemed to cause our pain.
They are simply external conditions.
Through these outer conditions,
we are led inward,
into the true learning.
By Suzhen Liu
If you enjoy Suzhen Liu’s writings, please check out her latest book, “Discover Love Within—Release Your Suffering” available on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Discover-Love-Within-Release-Suffering-ebook/dp/B0G4L29MVN
