The extent to which a true state of personal freedom exists depends entirely upon the degree to which one's mind -- the medium through which we sense, feel and think -- has been emptied of self-consciousness. For a man may be free to express the full depth and breadth of his nature only to the extent that the indwelling "I" -- the self-existent, unconditioned state of pure being which gives rise to man's sense of reality and existence -- has ceased its conscious identification with the mind and the alienated world of "self" and "other" it unknowingly creates. This, even though the relative existence one is so subject to is but a trick of the mind -- a psychological illusion made real by one's unquestioned belief in its reality; a self-imprisoning dream whose first cause may be traced to dualistic thought and the inherently divisive state of self-conscious being it gives birth to. For as difficult as it may be for those who now live in a world of relative thought to accept, the conditional life they lead springs directly from their own intellectually induced blindness to the implicit unity of the absolute ground upon which both their logic and lives must stand.

 

Yes, for whosoever identifies with his mind so too condemns himself to live in its relative world of self-limiting conditions and circumstances; to live an innately circumscribed existence whose root is dualistic thought and the fragmentary manner in which it functions. For born of that simple binary process is a mode of consciousness congenitally blind to the original unity of all that it divides -- a blindness which fosters an inherently irrational belief in separation as the fundamental reality of each man's life; a faith in division and personal limitation clearly implicit in all self-conscious attempts to seek lasting happiness through the attainment of that which one sees himself as presently lacking. So too in all actions which indicate any reliance on circumstance as the true source of emotional well-being. For through deed and act does one's denial of the originative power of his own nature -- his own consciousness and being -- bespeak a belief in his own alienation from the rest of nature and so from its infinitely creative source as well. 

 

So it is that the ground from which self-conscious man's solitary and lonely existence springs is an ever-changing patchwork of "bits and pieces" that he alone creates -- a false reality evoked by the inherently myopic and limited perspective he tends to assume. For his is a simple case of being unable to see "the forest for the trees" and so too the common ground from which they grow. A case of being trapped in a relative mode of consciousness which must ever manipulate reality so as to maintain its pretense of essential rationality; ever forced to defend that false premise in the face of the intellects own obvious inadequacy to comprehend that which transcends its own processing capacity or capability. A state of mind and being never able to admit the inherent limitation of the mental process which gives rise to the self-conscious thoughts which its mistakenly believes itself to be, even though ever faced with the most absurd by-products of its relative and partial perspective. For such a man can never see that he is not truly his thoughts; that all thoughts concerning who and what he is are simply more of the pieces and half-truth the minds creates -- the sum total of which can never capture the full extent and totality of one's being. For all are merely finite and relative products of his limited perspective; his inability to see the "big picture".

 

Yes, man's current self-consciousness and the alienation it brings is a direct result of a "bits and pieces" mentality which must fragment to function -- a mode of consciousness and being which ever ignores the obvious truth that nature is a movement in both time and space, and that to hold either constant is to see her as something that she is not; to see her only through one eye and thus lose one's perception of her infinite depth; to become preoccupied with a partial view of life's height and breath and in so doing to lose any possibility of beholding its totality. For life and existence cannot truly be so frozen in the "still photograph" that our dualistic senses and mind makes of the present moment. It's obvious movement convenient rationalized away, forever pigeoned holed in an abstraction called time -- a mental construct which enables one's relative intellect to maintain its assumed premise of complete rationality. Neither can any part of nature so isolated from its source truly be taken out of the context of its unique place among and interface with all other parts, nor its relationship to the whole, without losing meaning and relevance.

 

So it is that the conditional life which self-conscious man now leads emanates from a a relative process of thought which can in no way directly transcend its own inherent relativity. The relativity so spawned simply the illegitimate child of mankind's implicit, although innately irrational assumption that the pieces one's intellect creates may stand alone; that there can be any true and permanent separation of the part from the whole, the finite form the infinite, the relative from the absolute. Thus it is that ones identification of the self-existent, unconditional portion of his being with his thoughts is all that now keeps man from attaining to a state in which he may be completely free to fully express all that lies within his own nature. But a case of mistaken identity which necessarily makes any of his conclusions or judgements as to what is real and true, equally relative and suspect. But as darkness has life only in the absence of the flame, the night existence only so long as the sun is blocked by the earth, so too does man's conditioned, limited and relative existence live only in the absence of the unity and oneness which his belief in division brings. Thus it is that true independence and freedom from all condition lies in one final separation, that being a parting of the innermost "I" in each of us -- the indwelling spirit if you will -- from the intellectual process which now blocks it from the light and so enslaves its action. For out of the ashes of the self-consciousness that such identification brings will arise a life conceived and born solely of a recognition of the truth. A freedom from all condition and circumstance arisen simply from ones having realized his own self-existence being apart and distinct from the mind and its tyranny. A saving grace whose only condition is a submission to the truth. To the law of ones own being. To that which remains a law only so long as one believes himself to be apart from, in opposition to or constrained by it. A shedding of selfishness and its implicit affirmation of ones faith in limitation, its denial of the wholeness innate in ones own being. A state of atonement (at-one-ment) that need only be recognized and believed to be made manifest. For it is only by so altering his inverted view of reality that man may finally be free to follow the dictates of his own nature.

 

Free at last. No longer a slave to a dualistic state of consciousness and the lonely, impermanent, fallible, alienated existence which the mind bequeaths. A petty state of relative being which must ever frustrate the innate longing for stability and permanence which it denies all those who live in it. A living denial of their own heritage, the source of their own being. A legacy of the lost which must ever be the lot of those who implicitly assume, through act or thought, that the finite can truly exist apart from the infinite. A being blind to the inherent futility of pursing that which it seeks outside itself. Of seeking lasting happiness in temporary conditions and things and in so doing assuring the unhappiness and frustration which must ensure from their absence. Of pursing pleasure in relative circumstances whose preordained absence must bring pain and suffering. Of seeking life and liberty in a dead world of past experience and/or a future ever contaminated by expectations grounded in the past.

 

For he who has ceased to identify with his mind is no longer so chained to the ghosts of past failure or the specter of future inadequacies. Neither does he remain bound to the mind's habitual attachments, its instinctual desires, or its inherently self-defeating pursuit of "the living among the dead". Free at last from the "squirrel cage" that is the true reality of all his futile chasing after that which lies within himself, after that from which he has never been truly separated. Yes, he who has finally attained to the ultimate separation -- that of the indwelling "I" from mind and the diseased (dis-eased) state of self-conscious being it brings -- is truly free. No longer enslaved by his own bodily cravings and emotional impulses, his own compulsive patterns of behavior and outmoded thought, for he has once more attained to mastery in his own house. 

 

Yet so long as one continues to believe that he can have no consciousness, no being apart from that of his mind is forever trapped in a world of self-imposed limitation, and so condemns himself to live in the prison of "half-truths" that his life represents. For he has placed himself in the absurd position of limiting that which he intuitively knows to be limitless and beyond intellectual conception. Of judging that which the intellect itself tells him must be unconditioned, self-existent, absolute and indivisible, by the relative standards of his own intellect; and in so doing subjects himself to a reality constrained by the limits of his own intellect ; subjects himself to a reality constrained by the limits of his own present knowledge and intellectual capacity. For self-conscious man acts, not only as his own judge, jury and executioner, but as the designer and builder of the very prison that holds him; and thus is never able to stand aside and see the mind for what it really is. Simply another evolutionary tool which has been grown by man in order to further manifest the ever expanding creative energy which lies in varying stages of dormancy within his own nature.

 

A boundless store of creative energy which only awaits mankind's conscious cooperation in order to bring itself into ever fuller degrees of self expression. For the essence of man's life and being must truly be one with the driving force which lies behind all external form and the evolutionary progression which he now heads. An eternal movement whose only motive seems to be one of an ever expanding thirst for creative self-expression and the self knowledge which that creation affords. A timeless odyssey of self-discovery in which the creator explores the infinite qualities lying dormant within his own nature through the medium of his creations -- much in the manner of a man who explores his own face through the medium of a mirror. Thus it would seem that the universe finds its very roots and ground in a timeless evolutionary movement towards ever higher states of consciousness. 

 

The Omega of creation being that point at which perfect knowledge and perfect love join and become one. For implicit in either is a state of consciousness and being in which all duality has been transcended. In which consciousness becomes one with that which occupies it. A state in which subject and object, knower and known, lover and loved, creator and created all rejoin in the wholeness that comes with perfect conscious union. A state of perfect oneness which presupposes total selflessness and thus assumes a complete absence of self-consciousness. A state of absolute self-sacrifice, of dying to ones self and in so doing giving birth and freedom to that which is one's true nature. A perfect reflection of the sacrificial act of self-denial and limitation made by an absolute creator in granting free-will to his creations. For once having set the wheel to spin, such a creator could in no way avoid a proportional sacrifice in his own absolute freedom to act, nor in any way assure the fidelity of such creations to his original intend or purpose; even though they could never have any "real" interest apart from his own inherently creative tendency towards self-expression and increasing consciousness. 

 

Yes, the generic movement of evolution and the boundless creative energy which lies behind all outward form is truly one of ever expanding consciousness and so too evermore abundant life. For what is life if it is not the degree of sensitivity and responsiveness which an organism exhibits with respect to the environmental stimuli it receives and becomes conscious of from moment to moment. So to the quality and quantity of the bi-directional interplay and data exchange which occurs between consciousness ant that which comes to it from the world in which it lives. Thus may it not also be said that the degree to which one is aware of being as it is reflected back to him through the medium of his environment, the degree to which one has attained to a conscious recognition of the full extent of his being through the vehicle of his surroundings, can be the only real measure of the extent to which any being, human or otherwise, is alive. That terms such as dead and alive do not truly represent mutually exclusive states of absolute being as we normally suppose, but rather are expressions intended only to describe the relative state or condition of that which comes into our field of consciousness (so too with all other states of relative being purportedly described by such dualistic opposites). 

 

Consequently, the extent to which any manifest state of being is alive must rest upon the degree to which whatever quality used to define it is present.Thus, if it is agreed that to be conscious is to be alive, it must follow that to be less conscious is to be less alive -- less able to manifest life -- and that to be unconscious is to be dead to reality, to the world in which one lives. For is not unconsciousness that state of being in which one no longer has any awareness of the extent of his own existence? Thus it is that some men are more alive than others. That some live in a small, narrow world, while others live in a limitless kingdom whose horizons and potential for ever expanding degrees of vitality and live are endless.

 

So it is in this context that as a man expands and grows in consciousness of his environment and surroundings, as he resides less and less in his mind, less and less among and upon the ghosts of his past and the fears of his future, live less among the dead; and more and more among the living, more and more in the present -- the eternal here and now --- the more alive he will become. So too will he more perfectly express and bring forth the infinite potential lying dormant within his own nature and the eternal energy which lies behind it. An absolute force awaiting only man's conscious recognition of its being one with the essence of his own being. A boundless flow of life giving creative energy, blocked to a greater of lesser extent, only by a self-conscious mode of being and the selfish existence it brings. An energy whose nature is inherently creative and ever seeking more perfect avenues and forms through which to express its own innermost qualities. 

 

But to the extent that its flow is blocked and its tendency towards growth, creativity and expanding consciousness inhibited, so too will the organism through which it is manifesting experience a lesser degree of vitality and life, until such time as it ceases to grow and expand at all. For as that tendency and movement is retarded, the life force and energy behind it will begin to seek more fertile ground in which to plant its seed and express its nature. Thus there can be no middle ground, no standing still, no permanence, except that of life itself -- the common thread upon which the pearls of self-exploration, discovery, expression, awareness and knowledge are strung. For life itself is a never ending process of positive self expansion and becoming. An everlasting movement untouched by disintegration, decay or death -- all negative states brought into being by an inversion of that same process, a reversal or draining of the life principle which has been blocked from further expression and seeks a more perfect form through which to manifest. Thus it is that the moment man ceases to expand and grow must also be the moment in which he begins to decay and die.

 

Although this is not to say that death and decay are preordained. Rather that they are expressions of generic law only so far as it relates to relative states of being un-subject to any specialization beyond present bounds -- even though such limits may only be self-imposed. Not to say that a specific organism or being could not go on living and expanding indefinitely. For as consciousness grows, so too does creative opportunity, and with each succeeding creative act and the outward form it takes, comes a self-perpetuating opportunity for further exploration, self discovery, and so too an additional expansion of one's consciousness and being. For in so doing would one also draw ever increasing amounts of the life and energy underlying all being, as it is ever seeking more perfect avenues through which to manifest and express its nature. 

 

Therefore, it might be well argued that man's present state of self conscious being is all that stands between he and everlasting life. That in ceasing to expand as a vehicle or medium suitable for expressing that life's movement towards ever expanding creativity and consciousness, he cuts himself off from evermore abundant life. For is it not man in his mental blindness who really determines the extent to which he may be alive, may be conscious, and also quite likely that he himself brings about his own demise by failing to manifest the innately creative energy which lies at the very root of his being. For such is the life affirming movement which lies behind and within all outer form. Even though man's failure to abide in its law, and so follow its evolutionary dictates of growth, creativity and expanding consciousness, must necessarily result in its being less and less present in his being, until such time as physical life ceases to be manifest at all.

 

Thus the only law man is truly subject to is the law of his own nature and innermost being. But it will remain a law only so long as self conscious being and the "mind life" it creates keep him apart from and so in conflict with it. So long as he sets his own relative will against the absolute will as it expresses itself in nature and its evolutionary tendency toward ever advancing degrees of life and liberty. So long as dualistic thought and the world of bits and pieces, self and not-self, I and other, which it creates inhibits and blocks that nature. For it is man alone who sentences himself to a world of self imposed solitary confinement, a state of being which keeps him ever blind to all things so divided, and the common ground upon which the universe stands. But as with all jailers, man also holds the key to his own release, to the cell who's bars of conditioned thought and belief now hold him prisoner.

 

Yes, it is man alone who condemns himself to live in a world of self-conscious being and the self imposed isolation it brings -- a world of mental illusion made real by his belief ii its reality. A state of being whose first cause may be traced to a trick of the mind perfectly analogous to that of an optical illusion, for both are the result of the minds erroneous interpretation of reality. A misinterpretation of sensory input stemming from certain assumptions made by the intellect which do not hold in all cases. the result of its blind reliance on half-truths, on that which may be relatively true -- true only so long as certain relationships and conditions hold -- but which can never be universally or absolutely true. So it is with man and his unquestioned premise of separation and division as the basic assumption of his being; so too his implicit belief in a conditioned, isolated and limited existence as the basic fact of his life. It is thus in this manner that a man unwittingly built his life upon the ever shifting "sands of relativity" instead of the "bedrock" of self-existent, unconditioned creative being that is his birthright and the very root of his existence. 

 

Yes, in this way do the life and deeds of such a man become a living affirmation of his belief in separation and so too an implicit denial of the unity and oneness underlying all. For is it not in each man's implicit assumption of his own limitation, his own incompleteness, that the root cause of all selfishness and self serving acts -- be they positive or negative -- lies. Not also clear, that the negative conditions which men so fear are the natural and necessary result of his own belief in separation and the selfish state of being it gives rise to. That the negative conditions and acts that have so plagued mankind down through the ages -- all greed, frustration, doubt, anxiety, fear, anger, hate, violence and conflict, individually and collectively; all man's inhumanity to his fellow -- may be traced to this one source. That being dualistic thought and the self conscious state of mind it gives birth to. To the mental illusion that results from ones identification of his true being with a relative state of mind -- the intellect and all its inherent limitation. To the erroneous assumption that man's mind is the master of his being instead of merely a servant which has usurped the throne that would otherwise be unconditioned and self-existent. 

 

Could there be any other logical reason for mankind's inability to learn from its mistakes than a continuing failure to identify a common, singular source? Than a failure to see that the very ground upon which self-conscious man stands -- his premise of separation and the self conscious existence it brings -- is false and that all judgements based upon it as it relates to universal or absolute matters must be equally false. For the identification of anything less as the source of all the ills which so plague mankind is to remain ensnared in the same web of illusion which caused them; ever tangled in a mental jungle -- a conditioned world of secondary cause and effect in which each clearing cut in the underbrush merely results in its growing back with renewed vigor, denser than ever (the obvious be unseen solution being simply to leave the jungle). Each such effort to rid oneself of the fruits of his own ignorance, simply another futile attempt to treat symptoms while overlooking the diseased consciousness from which they arise. To prune only one dark bloom and thus leave the poisonous existence of self conscious being -- the source from which all such black flowers spring -- firmly rooted in the fertile ground of each man's soul. Therefore, it is in the recognition of the root cause of all his torment and suffering that each man takes a step of immeasurable importance. For he must first realize the true extent of his predicament -- truly know where he now stands, his present position -- before he may constructively contribute to his own rescue.

 

But having done so, the riddle which remains to be solved is how one caught in such a predicament is to go about escaping the prison that his own belief in limitation has become. How the trap which now ensnares the thinker in his own thoughts may finally be sprung. How the "double mind" which is ever the lot of he who would escape from that which he truly believes himself to be, but whose only apparent means of doing so is through the very medium he seeks to transcend. A seeming absurdity akin to that of attempting to climb out of a hole into which one has fallen by standing on one's own shoulders or of being locked in a trunk whose only key is inside with you. For the way out can never be in continuing one's blind struggle to free itself. It must finally see the futility of its present circumstances. Must finally see all of the pieces the mind creates in their true relationship to the whole from which they were derived, from which the intellect arbitrarily extracted them, and in so doing recognize their true relation to all other pieces. Must finally use the mind constructively, to build up and reintegrate the world of "bits and pieces" that its uncontrolled and undirected rambling has created; instead of destructively, to tear down and disintegrate that which would otherwise be an essential unity. Must finally seek sufficient rational and logical ground to change its fundamental belief in separation and limitation to a belief in the unconditioned freedom which will come only from realizing its inexorable bond with the self existent ground of all being. Pursuing that ground either intellectually or experimentally, wither within or without until such time as the self existent, unconditioned portion of man's being is finally free to manifest its true nature. 

 

For one need not continue to seek a ladder with which to climb out of a hole he has dug with his own mind, but rather to recognize its illusionary nature, to realize that it is only his belief in its power to hold him that actually holds him. To realize that it is his own faith in his inability to originate conditions that enslave him to the very conditions he is ever seeking to escape.

 

But how does one really go about changing a lifelong, age-old belief in man's limitations, his incompleteness, his dependence on external circumstances for happiness? Simply by a conscious application of the very same process by which that original belief come into existence. By personal observation, study, experience and knowledge. By watching one's own sensations, emotions and thoughts as they interact and interrelate among themselves and with one's environment.

 

Yes, by simply observing yourself in the context of your own life and thus proving to yourself firsthand whether that which has been put forth here makes sense. Whether it holds so far as your own life goes, so far as your present understanding of what is real and true goes. To see if all the pieces don't begin to fit? To see if that which was previously murky and cloudy does not become clear and obvious? To see if all the complexity of living does not begin to vanish with a recognition of the unity underlying all things? To see if this seemingly "senseless" world -- senseless only so long as one live ins his mind -- of cruelty, hate and violence does not finally begin to make sense?

 

If so, you have finally begun to build the house of your life upon the "bedrock" of self existent, unconditioned being, for you have begun to change your belief in separation to a belief in unity, to change your faith in limitation to a faith in unconditional freedom. Thus it is that each man must prove it to himself. Must test its logic as it relates to his own life. Must test the ideas which have been presented to see if they do not clarify and expand his own unique and individual understanding.

 

Copyright, R.F.Hay, 1978