07/05/2023
What is Freedom?
I’m lying around on this hot July 4th day at my campsite reflecting on this question. On a macroscopic level, I live in a “free” country but there is still hunger, violence, human trafficking, and so much more suffering here in the US and around the world. So am I truly free if my brothers and sisters are suffering? We are all interconnected.
On a more personal level, is freedom the ability to be your authentic self? Perhaps it is to know who you really are, beyond the label of doctor, mother, athlete, or psychedelic guide? Is it the ability to meet and converse with someone without any of those masks, and without the ego stepping in to try and protect you. Is it the ability to be open and vulnerable without fear of being judged.
On the physical level, I am now 51 years old, what does it mean to be free of this old body with its aches and pains? I am more than my body and mind, yet I must live in this body while I am here on earth. Like everyone else, I was born into a family with trauma on multiple levels including racism, immigration, hunger, poverty and alcoholism. I inherited both genetics and epigenetics then had the trauma of physical, sexual and emotional abuse during this lifetime as well.
So with all that, how do I attain freedom and liberation? It is on the spiritual path that I am learning how to be free, through yoga, meditation, slowing down, plant medicines, being out in nature, good nutrition and having loving family and friends.
Jens Jarvie prays in his in song Om Sri Shanaishwaraya Swaha:
“I learn from you lessons of my life
in the darkness and fright in the truth of your light,
I pray to understand all that I must learn
but in this life I may know freedom of the soul .........I am liberated, I am free”
So who am I? I am light. I am love. I am consciousness.
Happy July 4th everyone.
