Truth will set you free

…. and the truth will set you free.
– John 8:32

There are many ways of looking at this. One is to notice that when I take a story as true, perceptions and actions are confined by it. And when it is recognized as a tool only, there is freedom to perceive and act on either side of it – aligned with the story or aligned with its reversals, or independent of them all. 

In this, there is a freedom at the level of who I am, as this human self in the world. I can find in myself what the story points to, what its reversals point to, and as someone not confined by either. And releasing identification with those stories also makes it easier for what I am to notice itself. 

So when I take a story as true, I am confined by it. And when I find what is more true for me than the story – the grain of truth in its reversals, that none of them have real truth in them – there is a release from being confined by the story. Perception and behavior is freed from it. 

As with so much I write about here, this is something we know from daily life, whether we notice or not. I have a rigid and fixed story about something and limit myself through it. I notice that it is just a story, and find the grain of truth in its opposites, and there is a sense of being released from that confinement. 

It can be quite mundane. I think I don’t like fish, so say no thanks when I am offered fish. I taste fish, realize I do like it, so am freed from my initial story and have a more open perception and a wider range of behavior available to me. 

It is freeing for who I am, for my human self in the world. And as attention is freed from getting caught up in stories, it it easier for what I am to notice itself. 

………………

Initial outline….

• the truth will set you free
  • take a story as true, confined by it
  • recognize as a tool only, free from confining oneself by it