True Freedom

“…the truth shall set you free.” John 8:31

Sandwiched between Juneteenth and the Fourth of July, I find myself reflecting over concepts of freedom more and more. It’s interesting… you can’t think about freedom without thinking about bondage—and because there are different types of bondage, there are different types of freedom. Juneteenth, for instance, celebrates a freedom from physical bondage while the Fourth of July celebrates freedom from political oppression.

In a similar way, there are also different levels of truth. And depending on how expansive our minds are will determine the levels of truth we know, and influence the kinds of freedom we enjoy.

As I interact with all of the information being disseminated in recent weeks, I observe a lot of opinions and dissenting opinions clashing to create much of the philosophical and ideological enmity we are seeing in the media. The reason for this conflict, I assert, rests in people talking about subject matters from different perspectives assuming that everyone talking from the same one (which is why miscommunication is so widespread). Those able to traverse the gulf between these philosophical differences are better able to communicate their positions and better understand the positions of others. The biggest obstacle to such bridge building, however, is one side wanting to convince the other side to abandon its position and adopt the opposing position. Such a strategy is not only ineffective, it yields a false sense of progress (since dishonesty and deception can [and does] parrot the words of a particular position without truly adopting the meaning/ spirit of it).

Black lives matter, for instance, is a true statement. When people use it, they are normally trying to appeal to the moral consciousness of people and systems that behave in ways that harm Black life. It is chanted in an effort to either remind people of a truth that should be self-evident or persuade people to act in ways consistent with someone who values all life generally with particular attention to Black life. Black lives matter (as a statement) is a truth that should ring true on many levels (moral, legal, political, racial, and personal).

But a person who knows /GNOS this truth on a spiritual level, won’t be so hard-pressed to convince people of accepting it. Instead, they will operate in it—letting their actions speak (and teach) louder than their words. A Black person who believes that Black lives matter, for example, should value their lives to such an extent that they will do whatever is necessary to protect life and secure freedoms to express that life. When a system or a people jeopardize the life/freedoms/rights that you value, if you truly believe that your life matters, do you make a clever sign to hold up for your oppressor to see hoping he will change his mind and adopt your way of thinking?

True freedom does not come when a slave demands that his master stop enslaving him. Liberation does not come when the oppressed plead with oppressors to ease up a little. Enslavers enslave. Oppressors oppress. I say, let them do what they do. Slaves are slaves. Oppressed people are oppressed. I say, let them be what they are. Free people, on the other hand, are free and live free lives. They resist all types of bondage and defend their freedoms. When/if a struggle ensues, free people use their power to nullify the force of oppression.

Are we truly free living in a society where we chant self-evident truths (like Black Lives Matter) instead of live in them? If you want to be free and find yourself in a situation (relationship, career, system, or country) that is oppressive and harmful, get out of that situation. End that relationship. Switch careers. Change the system. Get out of that country.

At the end of the day, I agree with Stokely Carmichael, “If a white man wants to lynch me, that's his problem. If he's got the power to lynch me, that's my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it's a question of power.”

How do we transition from begging someone else to solve our problems using their power to using our own power to solve our own problems? We must declare our independence from the causal sphere.

I do not hold the opinion that a piece of paper (be it the Declaration of Independence or the Emancipation Proclamation) has the power to free a people from unjust and unnatural bondage. Though on a legal level, it may be required, on a spiritual level, it is not. I am not free because of a document. I am free because I have accepted the highest truth that I was created as a living Soul— free to explore the cosmos and learn the lessons from each Soul experience I will have from everlasting to everlasting. So when I said in the video below that we have to declare our independence, it should not only be interpreted from a political level, but put in conversation with the spiritual truth of freedom—aligning ourselves with the energy that causes and not joining the bandwagon of effects.

True freedom comes from within, not without. Shifting our focus from political to spiritual is the first step to accepting liberating truth. And this is done when you study and adopt the laws of GOD and Nature as the code by which you will live—even when if it appears to be inconsistent with policies that govern this system, the laws of the land, or popular opinion.