On Freedom

Most modern societies understand freedom as the absence of oppressive conditions.

To be free is to have room to live as one's chooses. A space to speak freely, to move according to one's will, to work, to love, and to pursue a life that feels like one’s own.

That kind of freedom is important. People deserve dignity and conditions that support human flourishing.

But the dharma asks a more difficult question: Even when no one is stopping us, what still binds us?

We may have all the freedom in the world, but still be driven by fear. We may have freedom of choice, but still make choices based on cultural bias and bad habits. We may have freedom of expression, but still speak from a place of insecurity, anger, or the need to be seen.

We may have the gift of a life with many options and still feel trapped inside our own mind.

Freedom is not the ability to do whatever we want.

Freedom is the capacity to meet life without being governed by confusion, fixation, fear, or habitual patterns.

This is where the path of liberation begins.

The path of liberation is the process of becoming free where bondage actually lives: in the mind, in our actions, in our habits, and in the way we meet the present moment.

We feel this kind of freedom in small, ordinary moments. We feel it in the moment we pause and choose a wiser response. We feel it when anger arises and we stay steady. We feel it when fear is present and we remain open to the whole situation. We feel it when an old identity or role appears and we respond from who we are now, not only from who we have been.

At first, freedom means freedom from.

Freedom from negative emotions. Freedom from a fixed identity. Freedom from distraction. Freedom from compulsive striving. Freedom from the old patterns that keep deciding our life before we do.

Many people are free to choose, but not yet free from the patterns that choose for them.

As our practice deepens, another kind of freedom becomes accessible.

Freedom to.

Freedom to be present. Freedom to choose wisely. Freedom to act. Freedom to respond instead of react. Freedom to rest without guilt. Freedom to live from clarity rather than compulsion.

This is important because freedom is not only the absence of something painful. It is the emergence of initiative and resourcefulness and responsibility.

When we are less governed by fear, we can listen more fully. When we are less caught up in our identity, we can learn. When we are less carried away by distraction, we can actually meet the moment in front of us.

Freedom is not an escape from life. It is the ability to participate in life without being completely overwhelmed by it.

Then, the life of freedom comes full circle.

Freedom for.

Freedom is not merely for us. It is not just my peace, my clarity, my awakening, my better life.

We become free for others.

This is where the path of liberation fully matures. If freedom only makes us more comfortable in our self-contained little world, or more detached from the suffering that we see all around us, then something has gone off course.

Real freedom makes us more available.

Available to the people who need us. Available to those suffering and in need of help. Available to the demands of love, life, and the moment before us.

In the great practice traditions of Mahamudra and Dzogchen, freedom is not only treated as a future achievement. It is discovered in the immediacy of experience. Right here, right now.

Freedom is not somewhere outside this moment. It is not waiting at the end of a better day, a perfect state, or a future version of ourselves.

Again and again, we practice meeting life with freedom.

And finally, we recognize the freedom we sought was never somewhere else.