Meanings of freedom…
- Freedom to do whatever the personality wants to do (follow likes/dislikes etc.) This one is usually moderated by limitations in our circumstances, and these limitations are resisted to the extent there is identification with the likes and dislikes of the personality. In its extreme, when there is a strong identification with the likes and dislikes of the personality, and not many limitations in our circumstances preventing us in acting on them, it becomes the Paris Hilton type freedom which can get us into trouble at our everyday human level. This freedom is dependent on circumstances in the wider world.
- Freedom from blindly being in the grips of habitual patterns. This comes in degrees, and is experienced as a choice between following or not following our impulses, patterns and so on. An impulse comes up, and there is less of a compulsiveness to fuel, act on, or resist it. This comes from a release of identification with, and belief in, the stories associated with these patterns. This is an early taste of a freedom from being dependent on circumstances in the wider world for our contentment and happiness.
- Freedom from taking stories as real, even when there is still a belief there somewhere. We recognize a belief as a belief from its symptoms of a sense of contraction, something to protect, and so on, so there is some release right there, even in the midst of believing in it on some level. By recognizing the symptoms coming from taking a story as real, and being somewhat familiar with the dynamics around it, there is already some release of identification with it.
- Freedom from believing in stories, in a thorough way. This allows Ground to notice itself and brings a freedom from identification with content of awareness, which is also a freedom to allow any content.
The first freedom, the one of the personality, is a freedom to seek some things in the world of form, and avoid – at least in the short term – other things and situations. It is a freedom dependent on circumstances in the wider world. The following two gives an early taste of a freedom from circumstances for our contentment and happiness. The final one, the one of freedom from stories in general, is a freedom from needing anything to be different from how it is.