The ultimate freedom

I have always known that I am a free spirit. I have cherished dreams of independence since I was a child. My imagination has always been filled with thoughts of adventures and travel. I have always wanted to learn a language that would allow me to communicate with everyone and I remember being disappointed when I came into contact with Esperanto because I did not understand how this project of a universal language that brought us all closer could have failed. I have never been afraid to do things alone if I did not find someone who wanted to accompany me or share the experience with me. 

Yet it took me more than 50 years to realise and understand what true freedom is.

For a long time I believed that feeling free to choose, without being forced or conditioned by others, was the premium expression of this value and experience. For a long time I was convinced that I was capable of expressing my freedom broadly and deeply. I am strong-willed and determined, independent and confident; it is difficult for something or someone to stop me when I know what I want, even at the cost of being alone in pursuing it.

But only recently have I realised that the ultimate freedom goes beyond all of this.

The ultimate freedom is an understanding that transcends all of these characteristics. It is the freedom to overcome the need to exercise my free will. I finally understand that such free will was just a tool, a rule of the game.

It is a beautiful gift, a powerful and also very dangerous tool, but only a necessary element for a certain type of experience. The ultimate freedom is understanding that my true nature doesn't need it. When I return to connect with my deeper identity I can be any experience at any time and in any form. I don't need to choose anything anymore. I can return this immense gift to Who gave it to me and surrender with joy and satisfaction to any test. Everything is well. I can infuse any experience of value, of understanding, of growth, of evolution.

I can transform every experience with the love that I am and make it the greatest it can be.

Ultimate freedom is understanding the nature of my essence and stopping confusing it with the physicality I interpret. It is recognising my absolute sovereignty and seeing physical reality for the illusion it is: a game, a hologram, a program, an experience, a dimension where free will is the tool that allows me to select the elements of what I want to experience and accomplish.

But I don't belong to this reality, just as I don't belong to anyone and no one can make me a slave except in the roles I accept as a slave.

I am amazed by the expansion that this understanding has provided to my life. It has completely eradicated any resistance, made every event and encounter interesting and curious. Of course I can choose and continue to do so, but from a higher level of awareness. And when something I did not imagine or could not foresee enters my life now I observe it with curiosity because I want to understand its purpose rather than judging its characteristics.

I can honestly say that life lived from this perspective has a richness and completeness that I have never been able to savour before. And now the words of that great master who we know by the name of Jesus truly acquire full meaning for me:

"The truth will set you free." 

(pic credits Rowan Heuvel for Unsplash)