Spiritual Freedom

Spiritual Freedom I call that mind free which masters the senses,

which protects itself against animal appetites, which

contemns pleasure and pain in comparison with its own

energy, which penetrates beneath the body and

recognizes its own reality and greatness, which passes

life, not in asking what it shall eat or drink, but in

hungering,thirsting and seeking after righteousness.

I call that mind free which escapes the bondage of

matter, which, instead of stopping at the material

universe and making it a prison wall, passes beyond it

to its Author, and finds in the radiant signatures

which it everywhere bears of the Infinite Spirit,

helps to its own spiritual enlargement.

I call that mind free which jealously guards its

intellectual rights and powers,which calls no man

master, which does not content itself with a passive

or hereditary faith, which opens itself to light

whencesoever it may come, which receives new truth as

an angel from heaven, which whilst consulting others,

inquires still more of the oracle within itself, and

uses instructions from abroad not to supersede but to

quicken and exalt its own energies.

I call that mind free which sets no bounds to its

love, which is not imprisoned in itself or in a sect,

which recognizes in all human beings the image of God

and the rights of his children,which delights in

virtue and sympathizes with suffering wherever they

are seen, which conquers pride, anger, and sloth, and

offers itself up a willing victim to the cause of

mankind. by William E. Channing

 

Hey,

Do you consider yourself to be spiritually free? How would you define it in your own words?

 

Hi, It's been awhile. I guess we really do know how to relate without attachment. This is kind of an answer to your question about spiritual freedom. Through effort and discipline I can become deeply involved with someone without attachment or in other words without entrapment. Most people practice non-attachment by substituting one attachment for another which ends up in entrapment eventually.

Channing wrote this article on spiritual freedom over a hundred years ago and he really did explain the concept very well intellectually. Of course nobody puts his ideas into practice anymore, except me, lol

 

I written a poem about something similar to what you're expressing about a month ago. I'll share it.

I don't form attachments to people very easily. In my case it has nothing to do with spiritual freedom.

Oh really??? .....

 

I'm surprised at how deeply we understand each other.

 

Here's an example of spiritual freedom;

There was a line of men in front of a firing squad. The last man in line was trying to say something but was having a difficult time of it because his tongue had been cut out. Now the captain of the firing squad noticed this and thought to himself, "What could this man possibly have to say at this point in his life. So he delayed the order to fire and sent one of his soldiers to find out what this man was trying to say. The soldier went to the man and reported back to the captain that the man with no tongue was trying to say the word, "FREEDOM",

 

That's a very emotive and extreme example. Most of us will probably not end up in such a deplorable situation. Also, the man could have been acting out of sheer defiance rather than spiritual freedom.

 

It seems we all whip our intellects and egos trying to avoid such deplorable situations only to produce them for someone else. Which seems to be an acceptable way of dealing with our own bad karma in most cultures. Thanks for the input.

 

Surely if we're producing such situations for others, we're simply accumulating more bad karma?

Human rights abuses occur - our governments like to support regimes that carry them out such as Saudi Arabia, as long as it suits their sick little games. A person would have to be somewhat stupid not to seek to avoid such a fate for themself, but that isn't to say it's OK when it happens to others. I don't think my post gave any indication I think that. Personally, I've been a human rights advocate for many years.

What I said was that a gesture of defiance like you depicted could come from other than a spiritual consciousness. I wasn't saying it's ok to torture or execute, or that we should feel comfortable about the fact that such things go on. If many people simply don't care, it's probably because they're half asleep, or their views are distorted by the toxic cultures in which they live.

 

This is my point exactly. And if the man with no tongue was just acting out of defiance he would be trying to say the other F word, lol

 

since i do not believe in the goodness of wishing to be feared, i see my spirit as being as free as the universe is diverse.
only binding myself to consideration of and for everything and everyone i am able to take into account,

since i don't see anything physical as my identity, i don't see myself as bound by social roles, only again, consideration.
there are limitations imposed by being in human form of course, the brain is only as big as it is.

i don't see how anyone is not spiritually free, except as they convince themselves, or are convinced by others, to not be.

spirit to me = independently and objectively existing in a totally non-physical manor, so maybe if something else is being meant, i'm misunderstanding the question.

 

hi themnax, This is a great description of where I'm trying to be. The problem for all of us is getting here.

 

well i don't think you're ever going to see everyone in one place.
almost sure that wouldn't be a good thing if they were.

thing is, it isn't spirit that isn't always free,
its just how some people look at it that isn't.

 

I think spirit allows our ego and intellect to believe we are not free. But if we make an effort to over come our ego and put our lives in the hands of spirit, we will find that freedom is a God given right for everyone.

 

if spirit had hands, it would not be mystacism. the spirit is not a personality. it is the universal wonder of strangeness.
you're right about the ego being in the way. but not just your own ego. any and all ego just the same.

there is no logic in trusting anything that wishes to be feared.

 

Would you have any problem with the idea that we are here to experience life?

If not, then consider this, if spirit is as powerful as we make it out to be, and we are in essence--spirit--then it would make sense that we do not know our own power.

When I use the term ego, I use it as defined by Jungian psychology--that it is a psychological structure that serves as a filter with the purpose of maintaining a consistent personality. It represents who we believe ourselves to be, because it maintains this consistency and it therefore reflects who we are at a conscious level. But it does this by filtering our experience of life--filtering out all those nonsessential things that we do not need to remain consistent. This can include things around us in the physical world--sounds, things around us, etc that we are not paying attention to (and don't even know we are experiencing), as well as influences and things from oue subconscious. In this regard it would also mask our true nature, our true freedom, and who we are at a level transcendent of physical reality.

There is a very controversial side to science that suggests that we each play a part in 'creating' the physical reality we know. If this is true than it could shatter the whole scientific idea that there is nothing more than physical reality. So at one level science tries to dismiss it. But there is a series of well-documented experiments performed at MIT that clearly demonstrate that humans are able to change physical reality through intention. The religious refer to this as faith or belief. Obviously, if such an ability is something that we have to 'believe' to make use of, then it must also be hidden from us by our own ego. This would, after all, be the source of our own true freedom--our existential freedom. SO why hide it?

Because, if we could, in truth, do anything, be anything, change the world around us to be anything, then in the end, why even bother living? We would be like the gambler in the old twilight zone series, who found himself in a casino where he always wins. At first its great--he always wins! But then it becomes boring, and finally he realizes that it is meaningless--'why even bother gambling,' he says 'I'm only going to win.'

If we are spiritual beings, than it is not hard to assume that we survive physical death. Imagine how incredibly boring eternity would be if we had no challenges, if life was meaningless because we knew how powerful we truly were, or that physical death was not a true death, if we truly knew how free we really were.

 

Yes I agree with most of what you said and I think I understand where you're coming from. If you look at the world through the lens of ego and intellect then yes, boredom is a problem. I wrote a blog dealing with this idea so I'll just post it here;
I just learned the other day that when you get in touch with your God self and let her out to play, you also release the God selves of the people in your world. I always thought this was a great and wonderful experience filled with joy. So I could never understand why almost everyone is very reluctant to let their God self come to the surface. The answer, of course, is because as the God self rises to the surface, She takes control away from the intellect and ego and shines Her light of truth into the dark places of the personality and exposes the ego and intellect as usurpers to the thrown of the kingdom of God.

So this explains why there is so much fear and pain as you let your God self come out to play. Most people are very attached to their ego and intellect and when I meet someone or even write my blogs, people can feel the stirring of their God self crossing the lines that their ego and intellect have worked so hard all their lives to lay down. And so the un-spoken and un-written agreement is, "Let's not disturb our God selves." But I find that once the God self is out of the bag, it's impossible to stuff Her back in again.

And I find the longer she stays on the surface, the stronger She becomes and the more the little egos and intellects of the world become afraid of Her. I guess, dear friends, this is just part of our evolving nature. The cry of the ego is might is right and the cry of the intellect is the smart should dominate the stupid. But it's in among the weak and stupid that this God self is most likely to be brought forth into this world.

 

I'm finally spiritually free after leaving Christianity and stopped pursuing other "religions," and just carved my own path to personal peace. That said, I have found a lot of wisdom in a number of belief systems including Christianity but just don't feel called to adhere to one strict set of beliefs, if that makes sense.

 

I guess I should clarify that I am not defending the ego (in the spiritual sense). I am also not saying that we should continue to maintain the illusion that we are physical beings without any power or transcendence.

Letting your God self, as you say, come out to play is part of spiritual growth. Trying to turn off the ego, or break through it---to take off the mask---is also part of that growth. But I will add that most likely, as physical beings, living here on this earth in this life, we will never completely unmask the truth--we will never truly see what amazing beings we are, for that is for after death. We can rationalize it and try to believe our true powers, but I don't think we will ever, within our physical lives, allow that god self to actually change reality and therefore remove all our own challenges (besides that would be the absolute of self-centered greed and selfishness). But we can unmask enough to, for example, heal someone or heal oneself of cancer, to create miracles, to alter small aspects of reality, or to communicate with the spirits...

We are all on our own path and the path itself is the real adventure. There is pain, and suffering, but they are temporary, just as physical life is temporary. Therefore I even question if we ever break the chains of karmic suffering as is believed in the East. I won't say that anyone who believes so is wrong, because that is their path, their journey, to believe so. But for me, I question if someone who has achieved that highest spiritual self that they can in this life, that they then re-merge with that cosmic spirit--the Absolute. Perhaps instead, they start the whole journey over again, with a new path, and new challenges. For it is the path itself that teaches us so much, and that gives meaning to an eternity of existence.

There is a zen buddhist saying that could be interpreted to suggest such an existence---'Having eaten your rice, wash out your rice bowl.' Eating rice is symbolic of having achieved enlightenment, and it basically suggests that after you have achieved enlightenment and have this deep understanding, forget it and start over---in otherwords, don't allow your enlightenment to be the end, or think that you now know it all. SO perhaps that great being who passes into buddhahood, may very well go into the beyond, sit back and reminisce over his/her journey, then respond, That was cool, and then decide, "Ok, which way should I try it now...?"

 

It seems you have discovered some great truths. Keep keeping on girl!