Exploring True Freedom: The Paradox Of Liberation

This talk explores ideas of liberation. There is no such thing as liberation. To be liberated you have to be bound by something. Having never been bound, the Self is ever the freedom itself! Find out why in this lively and transformative talk with John.

Transcript

Liberation.

Where we say liberation has already happened,

You can't actually be liberated,

Because to be liberated you have to be bound by something.

So in actual fact,

Reality is that we're not bound by anything,

Other than ignorance,

Okay?

There's nothing but ignorance binding everyone,

8 billion of us,

Okay?

So it's like the idea of liberation,

The idea of enlightenment,

All these things,

That spirituality kind of has been making a chutney out of,

I'll say that,

Because really,

Enlightened already,

You know,

Already everybody's enlightened,

Just being alive,

Being already present,

You can't be absent,

You know?

All you can be absent in is a thought,

And 8 billion of us are absent in a thought we call ourselves,

I is the thought.

So now,

The Upanishads,

The Vedas,

The Vedic Upanishads have always taught,

Who is this I that we keep and all get lost in,

In this particular creation,

This particular atmosphere,

Right?

And that's the bottom line,

You know?

Self,

You find out,

Is the alpha,

The omega,

The endless,

Timeless destination,

It's actually,

You know,

This is the thing,

You already are self,

How can you be separate from yourself?

It's impossible.

So the only thing separating us from ourselves is an idea that we have of ourselves.

It's a very crazy catch-22 situation that we're living in,

And 8 billion of us are living in it,

And the only thing creating crisis and conflict in our lives is our notion that we are separate from ourselves,

Right?

And how do you ever be separate?

It's impossible.

So no matter how much we practice meditating,

And I'm not against,

Of course,

I'm not saying anything against meditation or any of these spiritual practices,

No matter how much we do that,

Nothing is going to bring us to ourselves,

Because we already are,

Not just with self,

We are that.

And this is what yoga,

Spirituality has always told us.

So looking for completeness,

Looking for meaning in everything in the world,

We don't realize that looking is already the meaning and the completeness itself.

And what the teachings have always done is just point that out.

It's a very simple thing.

Because what happens is we bring the meaning with us.

When we start getting into crisis and conflict and so on,

Because of a thought,

Generally the tendency is to go and find something that can explain what we're going through.

So traditionally you go to your teacher,

And traditionally the teacher,

When you say,

You know,

I've done everything in my life.

I've got qualified,

I've done my degrees,

I've done everything I can,

As much as I can,

But still there's like something missing.

You know what the teacher says?

In all that you've been doing,

All that you've done,

No matter how successful or unsuccessful or complete you've been in your application of yourself,

You know,

You are missing in all of it.

You are the missing piece.

So what you find out is,

In this whole universe,

Looking for meaning,

You recognize that you have always been the missing piece in the whole universe.

Because one word makes us forgetful.

Ah.

One word makes us absent.

To what?

To the truth that is already ourselves.

So practices,

What practices do,

Is prepare the mind.

Having taken ourselves to be everything else other than ourselves,

Right?

Names,

Degree,

Qualifications,

Positions,

Relationships of all kinds.

Having taken ourselves to be all of these,

In crisis we discover we can't be any of these things,

Because the thing that drags us down in crisis is the very thing that we depend on.

Right?

The more we depend on something,

Getting into crisis,

We recognize that is the very thing dragging us deeper and further into crisis and conflict.

You know?

And that's natural.

There's nothing wrong with crisis.

Crisis is the turning point of our lives.

And the whole,

You know,

You can't,

Everybody's born ignorant.

You can't get born knowing what's going on here.

So it's a game that creation,

Call it creator,

Creation,

Call it whatever you like,

Is busy playing with itself.

And all that's getting lost here is creator,

Creation getting lost to itself.

And then,

So how do you find yourself?

You don't have to.

The teacher just points out,

You already are the self.

But what the problem is,

We don't know what self is.

Right?

Having taken it to be a name,

A word,

I,

All these relative,

Relative being the operative word,

Things,

We are used to habitually identifying with the relative world of things.

We're not used to looking at the identity,

The one getting identified,

Right?

Ourselves,

Consciousness,

We're not,

We haven't got a clue about who's looking,

Who's identifying.

We don't know anything.

So the teaching has always been there,

That wherever we see a distance between us and ourselves,

The teaching comes along and removes the distance.

The distance is only created by one thing,

Ignorance of myself.

And the only thing that can remove the distance,

This idea of separation from myself,

Is knowledge.

It's very simple.

Born,

So,

Back to liberation.

Already liberated.

Already we are the liberation itself,

The freedom itself.

But we don't know that.

We think we have to,

Because we are used to being told we have to do something to get something,

We think we have to do something to get freedom,

Do something to get moksha,

Do something to get liberated.

What we don't realize is,

The one looking is already the liberation itself,

Already the freedom itself.

So when Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita says,

You know,

There's a journey of life and you are the journey and the destination and point of departure,

What is He actually saying?

By saying you are the beginning of the journey,

The journey,

As well as the destination,

Can there be any journey?

From where to where?

So this is the whole point.

This is the whole conundrum.

This is the catch 22.

What He's telling you is,

And He does say that right in the beginning of the Gita,

He's like,

There is no destination,

There is no journey.

You are the journey.

And destination,

Beginning of the journey,

Call it whatever you like.

So what it is,

Is a destinationless destination.

How do you get there?

You see,

This is the beauty of this existence,

Guys,

That there's always been oneself and never will be anything but oneself.

And so reaching the destination,

All that needs to happen is it has to be pointed out.

What is the destination in this journey?

What is the journey?

What are we all doing here?

Nobody knows.

Why?

Because everybody forgets the one travelling.

The journeyer.

Who's on this journey?

Can it be anybody but yourself?

And what can the destination be?

What can the outcome be?

Can it be anybody but yourself?

I shared something this week.

When you get into an amusement park,

Right,

Who gets on the ride?

You.

So the journey begins with who?

The amusement park or in you.

You decide you're going to go on that ride,

Okay?

So you get onto the ride and then when you're on the ride,

Where is all the excitement and thrill taking place?

In the ride or in ourselves?

The thrill is happening because we are present.

Because we are happening.

Then once you reach the end of the ride,

Where does the ride end?

In the park or in oneself?

In oneself.

So it's the same in this whole adventure we call life.

Where does the adventure begin?

In ourselves.

In you.

Who does the adventure belong to?

Ourselves.

Reaching the destination,

What is reaching the end of the journey,

Let's say?

Where is this adventure going to end?

Can it end anywhere but oneself?

No.

The best thing is,

While you're on this journey,

Get to know yourself.

And how do you do that?

No matter how many exercises you do or practices,

No matter how many books we read,

Right?

If we're reading in Sanskrit or whatever language we're reading in,

No matter how much we do,

How many yoga postures we can do,

How long we can meditate or whatever we do,

If the one meditating,

If the one reading the texts is still a mystery,

If the I,

If I am still a mystery,

My whole life's a waste.

The whole creation is here to facilitate this journey.

And it's always been.

So,

The whole idea,

Ultimately,

Is to remove all conflict and all confusion in our lives,

Is to remove our ignorance of one thing.

Ignorance of ourselves.

That's all that's creating all our conflict.

Why?

Because taking myself to be anything that I'm not,

The whole universe challenges me.

Because it can't be true.

Because before I can have an idea of myself,

Already I am myself.

And then what happens?

I'm getting lost in the idea.

I start creating all this beautiful notion of who I want to be in the relative world.

Yes,

Perfect.

No problem.

Go and get the degree.

Get the qualification.

Do the jobs.

Do everything.

Get married.

Fall in love.

Do it.

The whole thing is there to be enjoyed.

Alright?

It's not a whole renunciation thing.

In fact,

Once you renounce your ignorance,

Everything becomes enjoyable.

Completely enjoyable.

There's nothing you cannot enjoy.

Including,

It's a crazy thing to say,

But pain doesn't become enjoyable,

But you can tolerate anything.

Suffering of all kinds.

Because you know,

I am the completeness itself.

I don't have to worry about all this stuff.

Alright?

All that's getting lost is the thought.

An idea.

Alright?

Before I can have the thought and idea,

Am I present or absent?

Of course,

I'm already present.

I'm already here.

Before I can have any thought of myself,

Already I exist.

So to take a thought to be real and the truth of what is existing here doesn't work.

It can never work.

All that can work is what's working already.

Self-consciousness.

In which everything is happening.

So all our lives are happening in the presence of the reality itself already.

Not a destination or a beginning.

It's just happening all the time spontaneously as ourselves.

So this has been the nature of human existence since who knows when.

How long has this teaching been going on?

Since man first questioned himself.

Post self.

Questioning our existence.

Right?

And in questioning our existence all we want to know is who am I?

What am I doing here?

Yeah?

So what is the most important word there?

I.

Who am I?

What am I doing here?

So what do we want to know?

We want to know the nature of this I.

But in doing that we first have to know what the nature of thought is.

Because I is nothing but a thought.

So please remember.

Okay?

Already liberated.

You don't have to do a thing to be liberated.

If you in fact have to do anything,

The pilgrimage I guess is to find someone who can help.

Someone who knows.

But what happens is when we get into crisis and go on all these quests,

Looking,

Going to Bali,

Going to Costa Rica,

Doing all sorts of retreats on different islands where self apparently got to before us.

Luxurious.

Self is just on the most luxury destinations.

Okay?

When did we give self permission to go to Costa Rica or to Bali?

Did we ever give permission?

No.

Self is always with us.

Just thinking now I'm going to go to this desert island or exotic island or whatever to find myself.

What we get lost in is all these teachings and practices and what are we doing?

And I've done the same thing.

When I was 21 I got into yoga practices and I've been doing them ever since.

Religiously.

Yoga becomes like a religion.

I'm meditating and doing everything.

Until someone said to me,

Hey,

I thought actually what I said to you earlier,

You know,

I feel there's something missing.

And I found somebody and they said to me,

You know what's missing?

You.

You've been missing all the time.

So how do you find that missing piece?

It's invisible.

Self.

Can we see self?

We're able to see everything else.

This is the whole conundrum.

We can see everything else,

Right?

We've got perfect five senses.

We can see,

Taste,

Touch,

Smell,

Hear.

Five senses to see the whole relative world that we exist in.

But we can't see the seer.

Not a taste to be tasted.

Touch to be touched.

Not a sight to be seen.

Not a smell to be smelt.

Not a sound.

Not something to be heard.

Right?

Self is the hearer.

The listener.

Self is the taster.

Self is the seer.

Right?

The smeller of all the fragrances is nothing but self.

Who is this self?

Travelling through all of us.

And we find out through the teaching.

What it does,

The teaching does,

Self-Knowledge,

Atma Vidya,

Takes you through all the options.

Right?

Challenging this I.

That's all we can do.

Challenge this I.

Having taken ownership of everything,

This thought,

Ego,

Has taken ownership of all of our lives.

Right?

It's taken ownership of everything in our lives too.

And for what purpose?

So I can resolve the thought of ourselves.

That's the ultimate goal.

Right?

So the ego's job is to resolve itself.

But nobody knows that.

So getting lost in individuality,

Lost in all the relationships of all kinds,

Infinite kinds,

We forget the one enjoying,

The one getting lost,

The one that is ourselves.

We forget and take our own existence for granted.

Taking everything else to be more important than we are,

Of course what's going to happen?

When those things are no longer available,

No longer there,

What happens to us?

We're into crisis.

So it either happens during our existence,

During our lives,

Or,

God forbid,

It happens right at the end.

When you're about to,

Like,

Breathe your last breath,

What else am I doing?

You know?

Everything that's born in time ends in time.

Everything comes to an end,

Relatively.

But what you find is,

Self,

Having never been born,

Never ends in time.

Consciousness.

The example I use sometimes is where,

When you get on a plane,

Right?

And you're travelling to a nice place,

Destination,

Whatever,

You're going on this trip.

Before you get on the plane,

You look at your seat number,

Right?

You see,

Okay,

My seat number is like 29C,

Whatever.

Okay?

And then when you get on the plane,

And you arrive at your seat and you find someone's taking your seat,

Whoa,

What happens?

Mayhem,

Right?

Eventually you get in your seat,

You sit there,

You fly,

You take the journey and you go on the lovely journey and you get to your destination,

Right?

Get off the plane,

Pick up your bags,

Do you ever remember that seat number?

The same in this,

Enjoying the joy of the journey,

When it comes to an end,

And you reach the destination,

What's the problem?

If you know who's travelling,

If you know the destination,

Then it's not a big deal coming to the end of the journey.

But if you don't know,

And you think this is all there is,

And you are all there is,

And all there is is individuality,

All there is is like what we own,

All our bank accounts and blah blah,

All the attachments,

Right?

Those all drop.

When the body drops,

Everything has to drop.

But self never drops.

Self,

Consciousness,

Continues,

Timeless,

Ageless,

Beginningless,

Endless.

You want an example?

The wave in the ocean,

Appearing to exist for some time,

Appearing to separate itself from the ocean.

Is the wave ever separate from ocean?

Never mind ocean,

Is the wave ever separate from water?

How can the wave ever escape ocean?

You can have a lot of fun,

You know,

When you go sit down by the ocean,

Try and see if any waves escape the ocean.

No wave can escape the ocean,

Nor can any wave escape being water.

So water is just a metaphor.

Ocean is just a metaphor of consciousness.

We can't escape being conscious,

Can we?

Can anybody stop being conscious right now?

Impossible.

Try.

Yeah?

Already there.

Already conscious.

Already present.

Already we are that presence in which everything is present.

And in that existence,

In that presence,

We have a choice in the relative world,

What we do and what we don't do.

But when it comes to ourselves,

As conscious beings,

We have no choice.

When it comes to ourselves,

Whether we are liberated or not,

We've got no choice but to be the freedom itself,

The liberation itself.

Already,

Before we even think of being liberated,

Before we even think of being enlightened,

In inverted commas,

Already we are that.

Can't be anything else.

Try being something relative.

Everything relative dies.

But to be yourself,

What do you have to do?

To be conscious,

To exist,

What do you have to do?

Absolutely nothing.

Effortless.

At the end of the day,

When you sit in and you learn in this tradition,

Everything else takes effort.

Anything else taking effort,

Forget about it.

When it becomes effortful,

You are working against the flow.

When it becomes effortless,

It's a blessing.

So you are the blessing already in our lives.

When it's a whole effort going on,

Forget about it.

It's our choice.

We choose to do something,

To get involved in something.

And when it goes effortlessly and it's happening,

There's nothing you can do to stop it.

But when it becomes effortful and it becomes a grind,

Nothing you can do can make it happen.

But already happening is oneself.

All you've got to do is work with that consciousness.

And you become your own wish-fulfilling tree.

So life will tell you what's the right way to go or not,

Whether you're blessed or not.

If I keep trying to go this way and it keeps ending up in a mess,

Then it's telling me,

Hey,

Pack it in,

Man.

Stop.

Find something else.

And then when you find something else and it all goes beautifully,

Fantastic.

You keep going that way.

So these are just small little things.

Already the freedom itself.

We don't have to do anything to be free.

All the practices and meditation and yoga and everything it's doing is reminding you that you are the freedom itself.

But if you don't know what freedom is,

You don't know what the destination of life is,

You don't know any of these things,

Then what is it reminding you of?

Nothing.

I was sharing yesterday how when I first went to yoga,

Someone said to me,

My teacher said to me,

You are the truth itself.

Already.

Okay,

Fine.

I was 19.

But that doesn't tell me what truth is.

That doesn't tell me what completeness is.

Telling me I'm the universe doesn't tell me what the universe is.

Telling me I am the destination doesn't tell me what the destination is.

All right?

Well,

Let's just finish off there and close our eyes.

We'll do a short little meditation,

Contemplation.

Just closing the eyes doesn't mark the beginning of meditation.

Doesn't mark the beginning of anything.

Closing the eyes is just like closing the curtains.

Already present.

Already you are yourself.

Not needing a thought,

An idea,

A concept,

A notion.

Needing nothing.

Already the full freedom self.

Feeling bound is a thought,

An idea that I have about myself.

I cannot be the thought I am having.

I cannot be anything that I have.

Already the completeness itself.

Already the meaning of presence.

The very meaning of here and now.

There is no other meaning anywhere.

Looking for it,

I never find it.

Because the one looking,

Seeking,

Looking for meaning in everything is the meaning itself.

Without doing a thing.

Without lifting a finger.

Be the meaning which we all are already.

The changeless,

Stillness,

Ever still,

Ever present.

The peace itself.

There is nothing but peace.

Nothing but bliss.

Nothing but completeness.

Be that which you really are.

Without effort.

And have the bliss now.

Hallelujah.