The Path to True Freedom

We're talking about true freedom. We want to go beyond our comfort zones and our fears and into the freedom of the soul so it can be its unique expression of the One. The mind is thinking all the time and supporting us in this crazy dialogue that continues to make most of us sort of insane, so we want to remember that that's not who we are. We are not our thoughts or emotions. We are the awareness that lovingly observes them and we choose freedom by letting go and allowing life to flow.

And so true freedom is not about controlling life. It's about letting go. Some of you know I got sober about 35-36 years ago, and I think anyone with addictions can relate to this story. When I first got into the 12-step program, they talked about how people who are addicted to anything don't understand the idea of letting go. So they gave me a visual of a cowboy on his horse going around the Kmart parking lot, and he fell off with his foot in the stirrup, and he's holding on to the rains and he's hitting all the speed bumps, but he keeps going and doesn’t let go of the reins.

So that's my visual of how sometimes we get stuck in our addictive or obsessive behaviors

around what is going on in our world or our neighborhood or our relationships and not being able to just let it go. Letting go is such a beautiful idea. Sometimes just a breath helps me to let go, knowing that God's got this.

So many of us feel that if things are falling apart in our world that we have to go do something. But first and foremost we need to be something before we do something. Our doing gets in the way of our being. We want to be the presence of peace and compassion and love before we begin that peace march. We want to be the presence of inclusivity, equity and diversity. We want to hold those values in our heart and be that in expression.

There's a story of a tiger that was given to one of our presidents many years ago. It was a rare white tiger and it was put in the National Zoo of Washington DC. For many years, the tiger lived in a small enclosed cage, pacing back and forth with just the few feet that she had. Eventually the zoo keepers built a beautiful habitat with boulders and flora and fauna and trees and space and ponds and all kinds of beautiful things, but when they released the tiger into this expansive world, she walked to the corner of the enclosure and stayed in this very small fence in her mind because for years that 10 by 10 space was her life. So even though the cage was gone, she stayed in this imaginary prison.

How often do we do that when we find ourselves knowing that we're unlimited and yet we stay stuck in a limiting behavior or a pattern?

I remember a time years ago when I used to run for my exercise. It was wonderful and I loved it and I went running and on a path that I loved, and there was this one road I liked to go on, but every now and then there was a big dog that was ferocious (according to my mind). He would come out and just bark and he looked like he was going to attack me. So I would retreat and go in a different direction when that dog was out. One time I was doing this and I just decided I was going to run past and see what happens. But he never left the front yard. He had been trained that was his boundary, and so I ran past. He didn't attack me and I just started laughing because all this time I had kept myself from going down this beautiful road due to a fear that something would harm me.

So the message of the story is just to allow ourselves to expand beyond our previous experience of an inner cage, but we can know that in reality there are no boundaries, that we have unlimited possibilities when we're connected to this Infinite Source we call God.

If I'm identified as a person, most likely there's going to be lots of perceived limitations, so part of this awakening that you and I are here to have is to awaken to a greater sense of Self. To awaken to the fact that we are more than the conditions of our life, that we're more than our thoughts, that we are more than our life circumstances, that we’re not what happens to us. We’re the awareness that observes life. We are one with this infinite presence. We are not a body. We are not our thoughts. We are not our life circumstances.

We are Divine.

That is hard to wrap our heads around when we're constantly associated with being a body, being a person. Meditation can really support us by helping us to go beyond the sense of personhood. Part of our meditation can be a quiet time of sitting behind the one who's thinking. Meditation is all about getting still. Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that this life experience doesn't end and start here.

True freedom comes from letting go of resistance and surrendering to the flow of life. The season of nonviolence calls us to do the same, to go beyond our old patterns, to choose love over fear and to trust that there's a higher power guiding us.

Self-awareness is recognizing that maybe I'm living in a cage of my own making, and maybe these self-inflicted boundaries are holding me back from really expressing who and what I am. Maybe it’s about letting go and surrendering to a greater presence that works for our good. Remember that whatever is before us in our world right now, whatever situation we're in, is for us to awaken. we can use life circumstance to awaken to our Divinity. How can I use even this to awaken to who and what I am no matter what it looks like?

There are times when it just looks appalling, so we want to choose a new response to life. We want to I know that when Gandhi and King faced incredible oppression, they remained open and responsive and deeply free within themselves. They had this nonviolent action that came from a greater presence within them. They knew who they were. They knew that peace was possible in our lifetime.

I know that peace is possible in our lifetime and that we can practice peace and nonviolence. To do that we want to choose a new response whenever we see anything unlike love peace, joy, collaboration and freedom. It’s is not just about letting go of what limits us. It's also about stepping into who we truly are. Dr King said, “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

When we see hate, we can know it's not who we are. What we can do as Unity people is to choose love over fear, forgiveness over resentment, possibility over limitation. That is the ultimate human freedom. And so every time we feel reactive, judgmental or afraid, we can pause and take a moment to choose love, and we can ask, “Am I reacting from an old conditioning, an old idea of who I am?” “Am I acting as a victim of life's circumstance?” So what does true freedom look like? It's the power to choose to respond and to choose to change.

There's a great story many of us read years ago from Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. It's about clinging to old behaviors, clinging to the old self, clinging to old ideas, clinging to an old paradigm.

The story goes as follows: "Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river. The current of the river swept silently over them all – young, old, rich and poor, good and evil. The current went its own way, knowing only its own crystal self. Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and the rocks at the bottom of the river, for clinging was their way of life and resisting the current was what each had learned from birth.

"But one creature said, 'I'm tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it's going and I shall let go and let it take me where it will. Clinging I shall die of boredom.' The other creatures laughed and said, 'Fool, let go and that current will throw you tumbling smashing across the rocks and you shall die.' But the one heeded them not and taking a breath did finally let go. At first he was tumbled by the current, but in time as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom and he was bruised and hurt no more, and the creatures downstream to whom he was a stranger cried, 'See a miracle. He is a creature like ourselves, yet he flies. He's the Messiah come to save us all!' But the one that was carried in the current said, 'I am no more Messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure of letting go of our limitations.' But they cried, “Savior” all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again, he was gone, and they were left making legends of a savior."

So that's about you and I letting go of clinging on to the old way. Our world is shifting and changing, and some don't want that, but it's happening. There's a new way to be in our world and it has to do with peace and nonviolence and collaboration. There are enough resources. There's enough of everything and we're moving into the awareness of that. There will be turmoil while we're moving into that. There will be some people resisting this new idea of diversity, of equity, of inclusion and the idea that we all belong at the table of love.

True freedom is an internal state, and letting go is an inner struggle. Just to help you, imagine the cowboy falling off his horse, still holding on to the reins, hitting his head on every speed bump because he couldn't let go. Letting go is an internal process. It's a process of letting go of how life should be.

So how can we consciously respond to the world's changes from a place of freedom? When the world reacts in fear and division, we can choose love and unity, seeing beyond the differences to recognize the divinity in all. When the world shouts in anger and judgment, we can practice deep listening, responding with understanding and compassion instead of defensiveness or blaming. When the world pushes us to rush or strive or to prove our own worth, we can pause and breathe and remember that we are already whole, already enough, already free. When the world tells us to uphold or hold a resentment or to control something, we can surrender and trust that life is unfolding for our highest good. When the world seems filled with scarcity, lack, and not enough, we can affirm the abundance that is everywhere present in the One Source. We can practice gratitude and generosity knowing that we are always supported, knowing there is

sufficiency always. When the world acts with hatred or fear toward those who are different,

We can choose to see with eyes of love, recognizing that every person is a child of God worthy of dignity, belonging and respect. We can remember our spiritual teachers like Jesus and Gandhi and Dr King who have called us to embrace the “other” and break down the walls of separation. We can practice radical hospitality, listening to people's stories, standing in solidarity and creating communities where all are truly welcome. Each moment presents us with a choice.

Let's look at an affirmation:

Today I sit in the seat of awareness.

I go beyond fear and limitation embracing love, peace and freedom.

I choose love over fear and peace over conflict.

I am free and unlimited.

I invite you now to move into a time of meditation.

Just put everything aside.

Just take this holy breath and allow for your heart to fully open.

Know that the spirit of life is breathing you.

Know that you are connected to the source of infinite energy and that it is only in the mind where you can feel separate.

It is in this place, this quiet place where you allow the breath to bring you back into the state of unity, of oneness with all life.

And now call forth that beautiful light from the heavens, from God, from Universal Presence to flow into your crown chakra and to illuminate your entire being.

Open to receive this light that is filled with peace and harmony, wisdom and compassion, knowing that the same light moves through your body, flowing freely down the root chakra into the ground, into the Earth, knowing that you are stabilized in this time and space.

Allow everything to slow down, and in this moment choose to awaken.

Choose to live in conscious awareness of your divinity.

Choose to realize your full spiritual potential.

Choose to move beyond any imaginary boundaries.

Choose to be the presence of peace.

Choose to be the presence of love.