If you are still reading this then it’s probably because you want something. All the material concerning this goal that I have read in my life was read, in the end, because it seemed to be leading me to something that I wanted to attain, or be; so perhaps you can believe me when I say I do understand this drive.
And by now you, dear reader, might be saying, ‘well, this is all very fine—but what can I do to achieve freedom?!’
Well, OK, let’s see what can be done.
Here, it took about 40 years or so from the start of being a seeker to being free of that and the self. Someone heard me say this and said to me, ‘Well I can’t wait that long!?’
That’s impatience—understandable but it won’t achieve anything.
Is freedom an attainment, a destination, a condition? Can it be sought? Can it be gained? Is it an achievement?
None of this works.
- If freedom is an attainment, then it can be unattained.
- If freedom is a destination, then you can leave it
- If freedom is a condition, then it is conditional
- If freedom can be sought after, then it can be misplaced
- If freedom can be gained, it can be lost
- If freedom is an achievement then it can be taken away
So freedom in these terms is unattainable by any motion or action. If freedom can be lost, left, taken away, conditional, then it’s not freedom, is it?
The freedom here is not freedom TO—it’s freedom FROM.
- Freedom from seeking
- Freedom from attaining
- Freedom from impatience
- Freedom from wanting to be anything other that what you are here right now.
And the biggest freedom of all:
- Freedom from having a (false) self.
Worst of all for all seekers, I have said that there’s nothing at all that the self can do to get rid of itself—eventually it is done for you and that’s that.
That’s not to say that nothing can be done.
“I fear you will never reach Mecca, O Nomad! For you are on the road to Turkestan…”
Shah, attributed to Saadi Shiraz
You can at least walk on the right road, all while knowing that there is no path!
So: how to do that?