
Art by Maria Mar(c)2009
The Phantoms
of Freedom
We usually
seek freedom because we want to be free from or free for. You
may want to be free from pain or free to do what you want. In both cases,
you are running from yourself. This is not the path to freedom.
When you seek
to be free from, you are running from yourself by escaping your past.
Your perception is that something that has happened to you holds you a
prisoner. Therefore, you are relinquishing your freedom as the creator of
your life. You are not recognizing that you are your own prison. You are
giving away your power to your past. You are not free.
When you seek
freedom for, you are running from yourself towards the future. Your
perception is that something in the future holds a key to your happiness.
Therefore, you are once again relinquishing your freedom as the creator of
your life. This time you are not recognizing that the only time you have is
the present, and your choices and perceptions in the present create
or co-create that which you are trying to run towards, while neglecting the
very present that creates it. You are then creating unconsciously, by
default. You are not free.
So what is
true freedom? What should you look forward to?
Personal
Freedom
The shaman or the Person of Power seeks Personal Freedom. This type
of freedom is a state and a path. As a state, Personal Freedom is the
state of recognizing yourself as an infinite being in an infinite universe;
a being that is free to grow, create and choose in a universe that conspires
with that growth because it is an essential part of that growth.
Personal
Freedom is the recognition that your consciousness is already part of
everything and that you are meeting yourself wherever you go. In that sense,
you are dancing with yourself to choose those aspects of yourself that you
want to feed and those that you want to starve. In doing this, your choices
are the chisel that carves your Life Masterpiece.
The Art of
Release
Freedom is the art of
release. You meet something that scares you. If you are aware that you are
meeting your fear, you release that fear because the fear is the resistance,
not the source of the fear itself. By releasing the resistance you call fear
--which comes from the past loaded with interpretations and expextations--
you meet yourself in a new way. You meet an aspect of yourself reflected by
life, an aspect that you did not know or needed to own. As a side-effect you
are able to walk through your fear. In doing so, you transmute your fear
into courage. You develop your Fearless Self.
You meet
The Unknown and you want to resist or control it. If instead you
recognize that you are meeting yourself, your own mystery; you then release
the need to control because you see it as a shield against yourself. Instead
you embrace The Unknown, you surrender to its genuine truth, to discover
yourself. In doing so, you transmute mystery into mastery.
The Path of
Freedom
When you walk through fear and surrender control as in the
discipline of the Spiritual Warrior, then you walk the Path of
Freedom.
The Path of Freedom is an inner path. No matter where you are, you
are meeting yourself. You are no longer afraid of pain. You no longer run
away from your Personal Truth. You are no longer intimidated by your
deep emotional life. You are willing to dive into this vast emotional ocean,
to feel the pain and through it find the Medicine; to meet and assume
your Personal Truth.
The Path of
Freedom is a path of love. It begins with Unconditional Self-love
that allows you to stop judging yourself, giving your power away and
escaping yourself. You love all of you and as a result, you are willing to
embrace all of you. In doing so, you meet your Divine I Am and become
a fearless being in touch with The Source.
This path
has no beginning or end. It is a way of life.
What are your freedom goals?