You're Already Free

So often the journey of awakening, mindfulness, and healing is framed as a journey to an external destination. As a pursuit of something outside ourselves that can be achieved or arrived at by striving.
But as I understand it, everything you seek, you already are.
Deep inside, perhaps forgotten, perhaps not yet awakened, is a knowing that total freedom and liberation are already here. There is nowhere to go, nothing to get, because all that you wish for you already are.

Transcript

You're already free. You're already free. You might not realize this yet, Or you might have forgotten this. You might not know it yet, But you're already free. You don't have to do anything to reach enlightenment. You don't have to strive. You don't have to work. You don't have to shed conditioning even to be free, Because you're already free. The default state of the human being is freedom. You've just forgotten this, Or perhaps you've never woken up to it. You can't reach enlightenment by striving. It's an infinite state of expansive awareness. There's no way to get to infinity one step at a time. It can only be reached in a moment of sudden revelation, An epiphany. The defining characteristic of the human experience, As opposed to any other form of consciousness on this planet, Is freedom. I'm going to say that again. The defining characteristic of the human experience, As compared to any other form of consciousness on this planet, Is freedom. We have the freedom to really do anything that we want with our lives. We have the freedom to choose bliss. We have the freedom to choose suffering. We have and are freedom at our core. The human experience is defined by freedom. Rock does not have the same level of freedom as a human being. A plant does not have the same level of freedom as a human being. An animal does not have the same level of freedom as a human being. An animal is governed by its instincts. While it may be able to move about, It's ultimately predetermined the way in which it will move about. It's going to seek food. It's going to seek water. It's going to seek a mate to procreate. Those are all predetermined. Those are all written into the genetic software of the animal. This is not so much the case with the human being. It's not predetermined with us. We are already free. You are already free. This is the great joke, Especially for those of us that are on the spiritual path, That we are seeking freedom when we're already free. I often talk about the search for liberation, The pursuit of liberation. That's what the spiritual path is, In my understanding. The great joke is that what we are searching for, We already are. Now, I don't know that that means we stop searching because unless you have a sudden and total enlightenment experience and live the rest of your days in a state of pure bliss as a completely enlightened being, Unless that happens, Which maybe it will, If that's your karma, If that's what your life is intended for, Then it will. But if it's not, Which is the case, I think, For most of us, Even if you have a moment of insight and epiphany, A peak experience where you taste the truth, Where you have a direct experience of the truth that you're already free, You'll go back into regular waking human consciousness where we identify with suffering and we forget our true power, And that's okay. I think that's some of what makes the game so fun. There's a deep part of you, A deep knowing in your soul, I believe, That knows this already, That knows that you're free. And when we know that we're free at a deep level, It gives us the opportunity to take on limitation. It gives us the opportunity to take on suffering so that we can transcend it. As I think I've said before, It's not as exciting or it's not as, Maybe it's just not as good of a game to play if that default freedom isn't there. If we truly were not free, Or if we truly were born not free but had the opportunity to achieve it, There's something about that that for me at least feels, It feels very high stakes. It feels fear-based. It feels pressurized. And I don't think that at our core that's who we are as human beings. I think that our core, We are joy, We are bliss, We are peace, We are all of it. And we are the freedom that enables all of it. So I encourage you to welcome this idea, The idea that you are already free and that you don't need to do anything to achieve freedom. You don't need to do anything to liberate yourself. I encourage you to plant that as a seed somewhere in your heart. And it may not blossom, It may not bloom right away. Perhaps this talk will go in and seemingly go out in just as many minutes as you devote to it. But if you plant the seed that you are already free, I believe that it will work on you and it will work in you. So that one day, Perhaps while you're riding a bicycle, Or maybe while you're at work, Or maybe just in the middle of doing nothing, There will be a recognition, There will be a remembrance in your being of the fact that you are already free. And I wish for you the joy, The humor, The laughter that comes in this moment of recognition. There is a true peace in the moment of remembrance, In the moment of knowing deep in your bones that everything is okay because I am already free. Hmm. I love you so much. I want all things good and beautiful for you. And here's to you recognizing that you're already liberated.