Freedom
Freedom is born from the inner realization of what is real and what is not. And regardless of the great involvement that humanity has with the physical world, true Freedom has nothing to do with it but all to do with our consciousness.
Ego does not know Freedom because its entire existence is based on boundaries and conditions. In order to know Freedom as a living Reality, a choice must be made to step though the boundaries and binding identities that we had built during the course of our life.
As always, the simplicity of actualizing this is astounding. The same approach reveals us the source of Freedom, the source of all Love, the source of all Intelligence, the source of all Energy. All good in life is manifested through the inward focus. We simply establish this inward movement of Ascending as our continual choice and mode of operation. And naturally we grow beyond the boundaries of our known world. The child becomes an adult with greater freedom and ability to manipulate the world; consciousness expands from the ignorant state of knowing only the manifest creation into knowing the unbounded Ascendant One. We are used to seeing children grow up but we are not so used to seeing adults grow into full consciousness of who they are and evolving into enlightenment as a natural course of events.
This is the promise of this age. This is the potential of this age. There is much to convince us otherwise but wise are those who see through the appearances and seek the kingdom of Spirit. That is the only way to end strife, war and conflict inside and outside.
In my life I have come to see that the boundaries and the limitations have been entirely self-made. Through the Ascendant awareness another way of being has opened up inside of me. And as the inner changes and evolves to experience the fullness of the unbounded awareness, so do the limitations naturally dissolve. The freedom of spirit rises from the depth of my own being. Not conditioned or dependant on anything in the world but completely established in the Ascendant. Centered in the present moment there is nothing out of reach or anything that could stop Consciousness from dancing with Itself in Itself. It has taken some time and practice to let this natural process become a more living experience in me, although it seems absurd that it would need to take any time at all. How hard it is, after all, for a bird to fly when there is nothing but blue sky and a soaring spirit?
Nataraja Ishaya
Experiencing True Freedom
There is only one true independence and that is enlightenment. There is only one true freedom... People die fighting for relative freedom. It's very silly because there is only one freedom. There is only one independence. There is only one - and that comes from the inside out. You can have it on the inside, and it matters not what is going on with the outside, in the environment or even in your body. It makes no difference. Those that worship bodies might think it's important, but it is not.
There is no freedom apart from the Ascendant One. Either you know it - or you don't. If you don't, you are a slave. You are bound. You are caught by the boundaries, which is ignorance. You are not aware of the Unbounded. Not being aware of the Unbounded, not living the Ascendant, you suffer when the boundaries collide with you, one after the other. There is no freedom in the field of boundaries.
How could there be? You get free from one boundary and you impose another one. You throw off one government and then immediately build another one over your head. It's ever been so... particularly when the one you build today is worse than the one you had yesterday. Freedom is real. It's not to be had by anything on the outside. There is no external impulse of life that can give freedom. There is nothing, nothing on the outside that can give freedom.
Freedom comes from the inside. If you have that, you have everything. If you don't have that, you have nothing. All the wealth of the world won't give you freedom. It might make your movement through the boundaries easier, but that is not the same as freedom. Freedom lies exclusively in the dominion of consciousness. Consciousness knows no boundaries in its pure state. The boundaries of life are on the outside. They are, without exception, illusions. There is no reality in them. There is no reality to them. The boundaries of life are fantasies, are dreams with no truth. For one who knows the Ascendant One, there are no limits, there are no restrictions. There is nothing one cannot do. You can stay alone on a mountain or move to a far away place or never move.
If you know the Ascendant One, there are no limits. There are no restrictions to the fully enlightened. That is where freedom lies. I remember the story that Yogananda used to tell about a sage in India who was so free from boundaries that he never saw a point in wearing clothes. So the police decided they had better lock him up because, after all, he was never wearing any clothes. So they locked him up every day and the next morning, he'd be found floating above the top of the prison. It's hard to lock up the Ascendant and hard to make it obey the rules of the waking state. Finally, they decided they couldn't do anything about it, so they let him wander off stark naked.
A truly enlightened being makes no noise about it. Doesn't make a big show, doesn't perform a lot of second-hand miracles. Such is for the incredulous. Such is for those who are influenced by such things. There are many such people in the world today; but without exception, they are following the Path of the Gods, not the Path of the Sages.
The Path of the Sages is ruthless. It accepts no boundaries. It's not interested in flashy little miracles here and there. It's very interested in the Truth, in the relentless pursuit of the Truth on the inside which is the only place Truth can be found. It astounds me how people travel half-way around the world to pursue somebody that manifests pictures or watches out of the air. What a silly thing. You can watch their act, but they can't do anything for you. The principle is basically the same. There might some manipulation of subtle law for such people but that doesn't mean they are enlightened.
Enlightenment is awareness of the Ascendant - permanent awareness of the One. It has nothing to do with flashy little things on the outside. You could say that George is fully enlightened because he could pull good cards out of the air and George would attract quite a following if he could do that regularly and consistently but he might be more ignorant than your dog.
Freedom is something internal, not external.
MSI
All the Way Home
There is only one true freedom, only one way to live life that is not compromised in some way, that is not made up of trade-offs of some kind. It is only by moving the awareness away from the 'I need this, I need that' mode of life that one can become truly free. Until that happens we continually make bargains with our world and there remains, at least on some level, a degree of fear that we won't get what we need. Getting to the point where our identity has become that of Unconditional Love makes life a whole new ballgame. Unconditional Love only gives. It is the Infinite Source creating its world. From that level of experience, there is no need, there can be no lack, of any kind, ever.
THIS CANNOT BE DONE BY THE MIND. The mind must surrender its ideas of how life works and what it needs to do to take care of itself to the greater experience of Life that naturally develops by ascending. The mind cannot surrender until it has a real experience of what it is surrendering to. This develops by ascending regularly also. The mind begins by using the Ascension Attitudes. Awareness expands and life changes. The increasing charm one experiences impels one to continue. Areas of compromise come up for review.
If one is willing to choose for the truer more expanded desires that are surfacing rather than retreat back into the old familiar patterns of life, then life progresses. It's a positive feedback loop that at some point becomes a cycle of ever expanding bliss. But one must be willing to play the game. Many say they want to get to the goal but they don't like the part of the game where they become aware of how they create the suffering in their lives and must make the changes that will bring something different. This need not be a difficult path, but it does require unflinching commitment to personal integrity and movement toward truth.
Sankara Ishaya
Pada II, Sutra 25
Freedom means being able to move through the characteristics of the world without losing the stability and integrity of consciousness. Slavery means being overshadowed by every experience, forgetting joy, forgetting peace, forgetting love, forgetting everything that is of the Real, the True or Good and being left with nothing but a handful of broken dreams, a castle of sand, a phantasmal mirage of life.
MSI, Enlightenment!
Holy Trinity
Freedom is the only gift you can offer to God's sons, being an acknowledgement of what they are and what He is. Freedom is creation, because it is love. Whom you seek to imprison you do not love. Therefore, when you seek to imprison anyone, including yourself, you do not love him and you cannot identify him. When you imprison yourself you are losing sight of your true identification with the Father. Your identification is with the Father and with the Son. It cannot be one and not the other. If you are part of one you must be part of the other, because they are one. The Holy Trinity is holy because it is One. If you exclude yourself from this union, you are perceiving the Holy Trinity as separated. You must be included in It, because it is everything. Unless you take your place in It and fulfill your function as part of It, the Holy Trinity is as bereft as you are. No part of It can be imprisoned if Its truth is to be known.
ACIM
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This is the 21st edition of the Ishaya Foundation newsletter.
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