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You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. - Jesus
When we think of freedom as citizens of a democracy our thought goes to those hard won rights that launched this independent nation. We enjoy many human freedoms that for so many people around the globe are only frustrated impulses for self-determination. Here we are free to live where we want, move about without restriction, free to vote in open elections, free to speak our mind and decide on issues and leaders that affect our lives. Freedom of choice rules in the marketplace, where there is such a smorgasbord of choices that selecting a tube of toothpaste can be a dizzying exercise of free will. This is cause for recognition, grounds for profound appreciation, and most definitely calls for the annual, if not more frequent, pause to celebrate the life and liberty we enjoy in this country.
That's all good. However, if that's as far as we go, are we truly free? I would suggest that we are not truly free no matter how many civil liberties we enjoy, unless we free our minds and our hearts as well.
We may have the right to "pursue happiness" but a right does not guarantee that we'll experience happiness. We can set up the foundations for a free society and guidelines to protect its liberties, yet no law or external mandate can liberate the mind and heart that is imprisoned by fear, locked in guilt, shackled by shame, or buried in resentment. Such freedom is wrought only through the inner work of each individual citizen who chooses to take up their individual cause for personal liberty.
In every moment, of every day, we come up against the headwinds of circumstances that threaten to derail our sense of well-being. If the set point for our well-being is aligned with our preferences for life, then we will find ourselves shackled by unhappiness most of the time. As Jesus and Buddha both noted, our human journey will be riddled with trials and sorrows, along with joys, and that there is an overcoming power within us that can remain free from suffering through all that arises.
We relinquish our inner freedom, and suffer, when we see ourselves only in partial truth, as mere mortals, at the mercy of circumstances and other people's opinion. This identity crisis underlies the pain I feel in this world of appearances. But there is a greater truth about you and me. Jesus said you are the light of the world; that heaven resides within you, and St. Paul said you live and move and have your very being in God. The Buddha said our true nature transcends suffering, and that well-being is possible regardless of circumstances.
Let these perennial teachings remind you that there is a path to true freedom. It is a spiritual path that turns our attention from the outer conditions that might restrain us, and illuminates the inner chambers of the heart and mind that are spacious, compassionate and bear all things with equanimity. May we also remember that democracy was (and is) a work in progress that was not fully formed by a declaration of independence but by the trials and errors along a path toward full realization. May we see our journey to freedom with equal understanding and patience with the process. This is the nature of spiritual growth, the ongoing and progressive realization of our true spiritual nature, that yields an ever-widening view of the you/me that God created us to be.
In the faith that frees,
Rev. Larry
When we think of freedom as citizens of a democracy our thought goes to those hard won rights that launched this independent nation. We enjoy many human freedoms that for so many people around the globe are only frustrated impulses for self-determination. Here we are free to live where we want, move about without restriction, free to vote in open elections, free to speak our mind and decide on issues and leaders that affect our lives. Freedom of choice rules in the marketplace, where there is such a smorgasbord of choices that selecting a tube of toothpaste can be a dizzying exercise of free will. This is cause for recognition, grounds for profound appreciation, and most definitely calls for the annual, if not more frequent, pause to celebrate the life and liberty we enjoy in this country.
That's all good. However, if that's as far as we go, are we truly free? I would suggest that we are not truly free no matter how many civil liberties we enjoy, unless we free our minds and our hearts as well.
We may have the right to "pursue happiness" but a right does not guarantee that we'll experience happiness. We can set up the foundations for a free society and guidelines to protect its liberties, yet no law or external mandate can liberate the mind and heart that is imprisoned by fear, locked in guilt, shackled by shame, or buried in resentment. Such freedom is wrought only through the inner work of each individual citizen who chooses to take up their individual cause for personal liberty.
In every moment, of every day, we come up against the headwinds of circumstances that threaten to derail our sense of well-being. If the set point for our well-being is aligned with our preferences for life, then we will find ourselves shackled by unhappiness most of the time. As Jesus and Buddha both noted, our human journey will be riddled with trials and sorrows, along with joys, and that there is an overcoming power within us that can remain free from suffering through all that arises.
We relinquish our inner freedom, and suffer, when we see ourselves only in partial truth, as mere mortals, at the mercy of circumstances and other people's opinion. This identity crisis underlies the pain I feel in this world of appearances. But there is a greater truth about you and me. Jesus said you are the light of the world; that heaven resides within you, and St. Paul said you live and move and have your very being in God. The Buddha said our true nature transcends suffering, and that well-being is possible regardless of circumstances.
Let these perennial teachings remind you that there is a path to true freedom. It is a spiritual path that turns our attention from the outer conditions that might restrain us, and illuminates the inner chambers of the heart and mind that are spacious, compassionate and bear all things with equanimity. May we also remember that democracy was (and is) a work in progress that was not fully formed by a declaration of independence but by the trials and errors along a path toward full realization. May we see our journey to freedom with equal understanding and patience with the process. This is the nature of spiritual growth, the ongoing and progressive realization of our true spiritual nature, that yields an ever-widening view of the you/me that God created us to be.
In the faith that frees,
Rev. Larry
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