I got a reminder the other day—I need lots of reminders—by one of my spiritual sisters who, like my myself, had walked the path of brokenness. She said that true freedom comes from simplicity and connection.
God alone knows I’ve spent half a lifetime going my own way, striving for this or that, in the ever-elusive search for personal freedom. I firmly believed that if I could just get enough power, prestige, and money—the unholy trinity—which seems to be the main offering of the Western world, I’d be free. Yes, free as a bird I’d be, then I would surely find the authentic me. Little did I know, much less did I see, that pursuing this dubious formula would be an unmitigated disaster that left me in complete bondage, not free.
The French philosopher Albert Camus wrote:
When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. ― Albert Camus
In this beautiful quote, we find the modus operandi for gaining the much-coveted personal freedom that everyone innately desires. Simply put, we find our own freedom by awakening the light of happiness in the other, every other.
Every great spiritual sage that has ever walked among us ultimately arrives at this selfsame formula for gaining freedom. If we want to be free, comrades, we must bring our indwelling light to the other! Without this light bearing connection, freedom will be little more than a flimsy illusion. And the source of this inner light is none other than the living God. The remarkable thing about this is that when we bring this light to the face of the other, our own inner light becomes oh so bright!
It is also not insignificant that the great sages of whatever time or hue nearly all call for simplicity, renouncing unnecessary worldly trappings. They knew, mostly from their own struggles, the ego-centric bondage that we humans fall into when we get seduced by worldly goods. Clearly, this has always been an issue. It is not just in Western culture, or our time, where folks have got duped by the self-centered ego into believing that freedom and worldly possession are inextricably linked.
Other-centered love is a central theme in my misfit mystic pondering and writing. This is really just another way of talking about connection, bringing the indwelling light to the other. It is without doubt an absolute game-changing, must have, and must do, in any authentic spiritual life. If practiced, however falteringly—after all, we are all ego prone—It will bring unending depths of freedom. Freedom that no amount of the unholy trinity of power, prestige, and money could ever give.
Keep it simple, comrades, practice connection, bring your inner light to the other, and your own light will shine bright. Then free as a bird you will surely be.
But let’s leave the last word to a great spiritual connection man:
It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, made into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly. ― Martin Luther King Jr
Great writing. Inner peace is what I seek and only by giving myself completely to God and sharing his love, poer and way of life can I seek to achieve this.
Yes indeed Eileen, inner peace seekers, both you and me. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. Cormac