free

All men and all women are connected by an energy which many people call love, but which is, in fact, the raw material from which the universe was built. This energy can't be manipulated, it leads us gently forwards, it contains all we have to learn in this life. It we try to make it go in the direction we want, we end up desperate, frustrated, disillusioned, because that energy is free and wild.

We could spend the rest of our life saying that we love such a person or thing, when the truth is that we are merely suffering because, instead of accepting love's strength, we  are trying to diminish it so that it fits the world in which we imagine we live.

"When I grow up, I want to be ... free"

It needs a good deal of philosophy not to be mortified by the thought of persons who have voluntarily abandoned everything that for the most of us makes life worth living and are devoid of envy of what they have missed.  I have never made up my mind whether they are fools or wise men. 

It is the truth that frees, not your effort to be free.

The Self is hidden in the lotus of the heart.
Those who see themselves in all the creatures go
day by day into the world of Brahman hidden
in the heart. Established in peace, they rise
above body consciousness to the supreme
light of the Self. Immortal, free from fear, this
Self is Brahman, called the True. Beyond the
mortal and the immortal, he binds both worlds
together. Those who know this live day after
day in heaven in this very life.

Men believe themselves to be free, simply because they are conscious of their actions, and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined.

If a man considers that he is born, he cannot avoid the fear of death. Let him find out if he has been born or if the Self has any birth. He will discover that the Self always exists, that the body that is born resolves itself into thought and that the emergence of thought is the root of all mischief. Find from where thoughts emerge. Then you will be able to abide in the ever-present inmost Self and be free from the idea of birth or the fear of death.

The next night from the Flock came Kirk Maynard Gull, wobbling across the sand, ragging his leftwing, to collapse at Jonathan's feet.

"Help me," he said very quietly, speaking in the way that the dying speak. "I want to fly more than anything else in the world..."

"Come along then." said Jonathan. "Climb with me away from the ground, and we'll begin."

"You don't understand My wing. I can't move my wing."

"Maynard Gull, you have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way. It is the Law of the Great Gull, the Law that Is."

"Are you saying I can fly?"

"I say you are free."

Greatness is a natural state - A state of wholeness, a state of balance between mind, body and soul connection. In this state everything that you are is available to respond to whatever the moment calls for. You are free, you are boldly self-expressed. Greatness is not based on accomplishment - it is available to anyone right now.

Freedom from something is not freedom.