Radical Revolutionary Freedom

It is our deepest natural impulse to be free so it should not alarm our deepest sensibilities to see perpetual struggles to attain it. The impulse to self determination and liberation are at the heart of the protests we now witness in the Mideast.  The violence, which garners attention on the world stage, is only an externalized response to this deeper impulse, and can divert an appreciation of the innate and ubiquitous desire for self mastery and personal choice that underlies it. We all want to be free. Free from the oppression and tyranny of external powers that would wield unjust power over our lives and deny us the fruits of freedom - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Because we enjoy peace in our land, it is easy to forget that radical revolutionary behavior was central to our nation's genesis.  Because we live in relative freedom today we may have forgotten the reality of the bitter bloody battle; the extraordinary costs paid to wrest liberty from an autocratic King that once ruled unjustly over Americans choices and lives. The intrepid men who drafted the Declaration of Independence stepped boldly across the line of personal safety and put it all on the line to achieve the inalienable right of freedom. So what we see in Egypt and surrounding nations is the outpicturing in their people of the same core value that once rallied Americans to battle oppression and gain freedom. Unfortunately, achieving true freedom is more complex. In truth, freedom is not won through successful wars, deposed dictators, or even governments by the people. True freedom is an inner condition; a state of mind that can overthrow the power of external conditions to affect one's peace. Like the King of England, our ego mind often reigns supreme over our thoughts and affairs and we have suffered the tyranny of a long train of (its) abuses and usurpations.  We have placed the crown of authority upon our senses that they might have the last word on reality.  In return, we receive a meager appraisal of life's possibilities.  We are taxed by levies of fear and doubt.    Yet the truth is that we have assented to these oppressive practices, even while railing against them.   True freedom is self-evident when we come to know our true spiritual nature.  Created in the image and likeness of the Great Perfection, we have always had the inalienable right to self-determination. Free will empowers us to cast the deciding vote on every issue. We are at liberty to find peace and plenitude in the very ground of our being. When we realize the source and course of true freedom, we may be driven to our knees as much as to the streets. We will realize that non-resistance is the most effective approach to inner freedom as protest is to the external kind. Having gained what many people in the world are still fighting to achieve, our revolution is inner evolution.  It may cost us our lives, as we have known them, to cross the line of entrenched beliefs and illusory expectations. Beyond forms, conditions, preferences is peace without condition. To be willing to sacrifice all these treasured but false ideals is to make way for the true and lasting freedom that lies undisturbed within our very Being.