Our Quest for Freedom: Becoming

[This is from my latest book Our Quest for Freedom and other essays]

When we look around us, or even within us, we may find it improbable that from these inadequate individuals there might emerge the power to rise up against the giant Leviathan and bring an end to his rule over us.

It is a common claim made by those who would thwart our rebellion, in fact, that human beings are not capable of acting righteously, bravely and selflessly and that they will never be able to live together harmoniously, peacefully and happily.

The absurd flaw in this argument is that it is based on the mistaking of contemporary human beings with the natural variety.

We know the damage that has been done to us by this system. It has uprooted us from everything that we were born to be, blinded our finer senses, pitted us against each other in envy and hatred so that it might better dominate and control us.

It has turned us into limited egotistical beings whose only purpose in life is to gather around them the empty symbols of material wealth and status, in the despairing hope that this will somehow enable them to stave off the reality of their eventual death.

But this is not who we really are. We do not have to remain forever trapped in that lower state of being and each of us can take steps, on the individual level, to shed the grey skin of modern mediocrity and emerge in triumph as a man or woman born of nature.

You do not need me to tell you how we might do this. The process is at the heart of all traditional thinking and, indeed, at the heart of the innate archetypal wisdom within you.

Firstly, you realise who you are. You realise that you did not come from nowhere but that you are the continuation of a large organism, the ephemeral blossom on the eternal tree of life.

As such, as part of a larger entity, you have a purpose, a role to play. Part of that purpose is simply to live, to be the way in which that great being breathes and sees and feels and touches and loves.

That will always be so. There is no real living without joy!

In better times, your purpose would also be to add to the happiness, creativity and health of the parts of that organism that you can influence – your family, tribe, community and culture.

It could be to anchor that society; to help provide food and shelter, substance and stability; to care for others; to nurture, teach and protect the young.

But today, at this moment of unprecedented existential crisis for our species, your purpose lies elsewhere.

Your purpose is to play your part in the uprising against evil.

And in order to play your part, you are going to have go deep into yourself and become the person you need to be.

You are going to have to go even further than knowing that you are part of the Whole, with a purpose to play.

You are going to have to understand that this purpose is infinitely more important than you are.

You are going to have to re-imagine yourself in terms of the purpose.

You are going to have to leave behind you all the childish comforts of “me” – of “my” hopes, “my” habits, “my” tastes, “my” fears and “my” hesitations.

You are going to have to strip yourself metaphorically naked and step into the golden sun-water of purification.

All that you are now is the purpose you serve and the beating of your heart.

They are no longer even two separate things, being combined in a jubilant ecstasy, a timeless present moment, of sublime self-giving.

True life is self-being and self-giving. You give yourself life by being what you have to be. You become spiritually beautiful by being true and natural and free and courageous.

You no longer fear death and have thus become as powerful as it is possible for a human being to be.

[Audio version]

Our Quest for Freedom and other essays can be downloaded for free here or purchased here.