The Desire for Freedom

There is an innate desire for freedom within each and every one of us.  For some of us it manifests grossly as the desire to achieve some temporary goal like a new car or a better job, in others it is more matured and the desire is for unending peace, joy, or love.  But the desire to be free is simply part of human nature.  Some are locked in physical prisons with metal bars and crave to be free of that, but nearly everyone is locked in the mental prison of the mind and absolutely craves, sometimes unknowingly, to be free of it.   The reason is this: any moments of being free from all limitation in any instant of time—simply stopping the chaos for an instant and being still—are and were the happiest moments of an individual's life.  Unending peace, joy, and love are the natural state of the human being, but we get in the way.  We engage in all sorts of thoughts that have nothing to do with the Presence of the present, but with ideas related to the past or the future. 

There exists in every moment this pure, infinite river of grace, love, and peace within.  It may seem difficult to access but actually is the simplest thing in the world.  All that is required is to let go.  There is nothing difficult about letting go; we just have an incessant habit to hold on.  It takes so much energy to hold on; it takes no energy to let go.  Life is like a river, fluidly moving from one point to the next.  When we attempt to hold on to the brambles along the shoreline, to our judgments and ideas, it is painful.  When we simply drop whatever is not serving us, freedom occurs.  We go with the flow.

There is a beautiful example of letting go that everyone has experienced.  It has occurred with the fulfillment of any burning desire.   Have you ever wanted something so badly that you just aren't sure what you'll do if you don't get it?  What happens when you get that thing?  I'll give my own experience with this.  One time, more than anything I wanted to win a video game tournament.   I won.  There were then a few brief moments of happiness when I had won and my mind was in a state of desirelessness—of freedom—because I had achieved my main desire at the time and there was a period of just being content that it was fulfilled.   But what happened within the next few moments?  I wanted to conquer more; I had more greed for the joy of winning.  How often does this happen in our lives?  There is something we "just can't live" without, be it a new car, a better job, a new romance, or new clothes, when that thing is obtained, almost instantly we want something else!  Our society is mad with a disease called future happiness.  There is so much emphasis on being happy at some point in the future, when the only chance for happiness happens in the present moment, right now.

What is there to do about this madness?  Dedicate every moment to experiencing freedom right now, to experiencing peace right now, if your greatest desire is some form of happiness.  Discover what it is that creates peace. Discover it for yourself, don't do what I did which was to adopt someone else's ideas of where peace comes from.  Learn and use a spiritual practice which will direct you to that peace—a finger pointing to your heart—but then stop looking at the finger and look in your heart.  Stop looking outside of yourself for fulfillment. It only ever comes from the inside.  We are all Gods and Goddesses who sometime in our lives decided believe in lack and limitation.  There is much, much more to be experienced than is commonly believed.   It all starts from letting go.  And you deserve it.