“Freedom” might contain many different concepts in many different areas. The Freedom that is being talked about in this article is mainly a state of the ultimate desire in the world of spiritual practice. It’s just like the “Unified Consciousness” that is being talked about in Ascension or Transcendental Meditation, the “Buddha Nature” or “Spiritual Fulfillment” in Buddhism, “The Greatest Achievement” in the mystical Buddhism; in other words, it is the ultimate experience of “Freedom”, which is the final desire of every spiritual practitioner.
It has been said that in every hundred million people on Earth there will be one who has the experience of Freedom. Which means that among the hundreds of thousands of people who are walking the path of spirituality (those who are in search of the direction of true inner silence and enlightenment), there might be only fifty or sixty people who have the real experience of Freedom.
So in theory, Freedom should be a very hard state to achieve. It might require a lot of conditions; a lot of hard work, the accumulation of a lot of enlightened experiences, a lot of blessings from the heavens and saints, plus a lot of good luck in order to achieve it. What kind of conditions does Freedom require? How do we work hard for it? And what is the experience of a person who truly experiences Freedom? These are the questions that are going to be discussed in this article.
To the general spiritual seekers, often times there will be some expectations and some desired experiences regarding Freedom. In terms of the conditions, it might require:
1. Very constant experience of the Ascendant (Enlightenment); better to be able to stay in that unbounded Awareness 24 hours a day and not being effected by emotions or thoughts.
2. There has to be an experience of the creations being unified with me. I am the tree, I am the earth, I am the house, I am the sky… everything I can sense has to be one with me without any separation.
3. Having constant peak experiences. There has to be indescribable joy rising from within; all creations are shining with brilliant light; the whole world is so silent and peaceful…
4. Can easily sense other people’s emotions or thoughts. Having a perfectly healthy body. Or maybe to have some powers that others don’t have; for example to see the lights or shadows that nobody can see, hearing sounds that nobody can hear…etc.
5. The kind of presence that people want to follow; the kind of presence that makes people wants to get close to.
But the Teacher said, “Freedom only happens now”. Yet all of the experiences or state that you think Freedom requires are all some projection of Freedom in some future conditions. It is impossible for Freedom to happen in the future. If you rely on Freedom in some future moment, it will never happen. In which case, what should the conditions of Freedom be?
We can take a look at an example that everyone is familiar with regarding Freedom:
Buddha’s process of gaining Enlightenment:
We know that Buddha had once practiced meditation very hard under a bodhi tree for six years before he started teaching his Teaching to the world. Considering his intelligence and his desire for enlightenment, plus he had visited a lot of great Teachers before hand. We have no doubt in his stability (the constant experience of enlightenment); he could go through hours even days not having a single thought and stayed unwaveringly in the Ascendant. He should have great experience of enlightenment, but he was still hesitating to come out and teach it. What was he still seeking for? What kind of experience was he desiring that he had never had before?
Until one day, he made a huge decision. He said, “Today I sit down, and will never rise until understanding the True meaning of Tathagatas” (the actual wording can no longer be traced). And after a few hours, he stood up and said, “Every creation is actually contained with the essence of Tathagatas.” And after that he went down the mountain and started teaching.
We have no doubt that he experienced “Freedom” during those few hours. The experience that he hadn’t experienced during the six years of hard practice, he experienced in a few hours. Of course we won’t make this event about being guarded by the semi-gods semi-devils, or being blessed by all bodhisattvas of heavens to achieve enlightenment. The actual fact is he is just like us normal people, with the same desire, the same quest, and the ultimate achievement after a lot of hard work.
However, we are wondering; Buddha already had a very deep and stable experience of the Stillness, but he couldn’t achieve Freedom after many years of seeking, and achieved it finally just after some short few hours at the end. What happened in those few hours? What kinds of conditions are required to have this kind of experience? And how do we make this experience happen to us?
If we take a look at this process; there are basically two parts in Buddha’s experience of gaining Enlightenment (Freedom).
1. Having very solid experience of Enlightenment (stable Stillness).
2. A great, final decision (never rise until it is achieved)
He did it in a few hours. What happened in those few hours? It should be a simple breakthrough and instantly gained experience. What is it?
“Actually, he discovered that he was holding onto his last thought” - “The need to understand the true meaning of Tathagatas in order to be Free.” Someone might ask, considering his stability in Stillness, he could be void of thoughts for hours, even days, why were there still thoughts that he was grabbing onto?
Actually, for the people who haven’t experienced freedom yet, there has to be some thoughts that they are holding onto, it’s just the matter of becoming aware of them more or less. And when Buddha realized that “the need to understand the true meaning of Tathagatas” is only a thought, he broke through and said, “Actually every creation has the essence of Tathagatas, I am actually already Free, what else would I need to seek for?” He was already experiencing infinity and eternity. Do I need to seek for some greater experiences? That was why he stood up immediately and went down the mountain to teach.
Freedom is letting go of the last belief. Even though it is only a thought, but the effect is immense. It has broken through the separation between thoughts and the Ascendant, the conflict between Truth and illusions, and the fences between Buddha and normal people. It has ultimately allowed everything to happen. There is only one and not two. The false illusion is also a part of the Truth, the sound is also a part of the Silence, the thoughts and the emotions are a part of the Ascendant. There is no difference between the saint and normal people, Buddha and creations. Being in Buddha Nature and being in creations is equal and non-dual.
Letting go of that thought has caused the mind to truly stop. All seeking of becoming saint or Buddha has thus ended. All creations on Earth are perfect existence in this present moment. The greatest desire of one’s life has truly ended, left with the experience of unbounded relaxation and freedom.
So, reading till this moment, what is the condition required for experiencing freedom? Or what more of the experience is required? Actually there is only one condition to be free: a clear, stable experience of the Ascendant (Enlightenment, the True Self, the original essence…).
All your other ideas of what Freedom is like or what kind of experience it should be could all be the obstacle of experiencing Freedom.
Let’s first talk about the difference between Enlightenment (perpetual consciousness, cosmic consciousness, original essence…) and Freedom (Unified consciousness, Buddha Nature, Greatest Achievement…).
When you’ve experienced “who I am”, and can constantly and clearly rest in that unmoving space in any moment, that is what we call “Enlightenment”. In this moment, most of the people, even when experiencing the infinity and the eternity of the “Ascendant”, still wish to experience something more advanced. Hoping to experience more peace and joy, more freedom, less effected by the illusive thoughts or emotions, more experience of feeling one with the creations and unified with the universe; wanting the experience of absolute truth, kindness and beauty in all things around you, wanting the experience of becoming the Buddha or the saint, which is the desire to experience Freedom.
There might be some meditation practitioners who work hard and have those much-desired experiences mentioned above, when they are having very still experience of Enlightenment, but there will always be a question in their hearts: Is this “Freedom”? Have I become Buddha? The experiences mentioned above are fleeting; even though they are wonderful, but after a while they will disappear or change to another kind of wonderful experience. Yet the experience of Freedom shouldn’t change or go backwards, should it? Therefore there should be another kind of experience that I haven’t experienced yet, which is called “Freedom”.
What kind of experience doesn’t go backwards or disappear? What is the kind of experience that only happens in the present moment, and not after you have done something or had certain kinds of experiences in the future? Why is it that the Teacher said that the experience you desire the most, you’ve already got it now?
Within the experience of Enlightenment, you know that the only unchanging Truth is that unmoving Ascendant; the fleeting thoughts, sounds and emotions are illusions. Thus you need to put most of your attention here in order to experience a deeper level of joy and peace. However, have you noticed in the process of seeking, we will think that it is right to put our attention on the Ascendant, and it is wrong to grab hold of the illusions of thoughts or emotions, which is the source of all struggle. So often times we work pretty hard, even straining sometimes, trying to make our attention dwell on the “Silence”. This seems un-debatable. We think that the illusions and the Truth go completely the opposite direction; just as the small self and the True Self should not be placed on a par. But have you realized that you have unconsciously fallen into the mind-created duality of right and wrong!
Actually the illusions are also a part of the Truth; the small self is also a part of the True Self. Everything that’s been revealed in the present moment is perfect existence. It’s all the Truth. Only the involvement of the mind will create the conceptual duality of right and wrong, good and bad.
So, to a person who experiences Freedom, even being in the duality of the mind is also a part of the Truth; every creation on Earth, let it be eternal or temporary, are all just happening. No doubt that they are all the expression of the Truth.
The Ascendant, the thoughts, the True Self, the small self, the Truth, and the illusions are all the most perfect existence in the present moment. They are all one without any conflict. Till this moment, all the seeking in the past has suddenly stopped. All of a sudden you realize that seeking for Freedom is only a concept; the real me in the present moment is already free. After experiencing infinity and eternity, how can there be any greater experience?
Freedom is already there in the first place. There is nothing funnier than leaving freedom trying to seek for Freedom.
Once you experience that you are already free, there is no possibility of going backwards or for this experience to disappear. Thoughts, illusions, the small self, the True Self, and the Ascendant are all a part of Freedom. How is it possible that you could leave Freedom again?
If you still can’t experience “Freedom” at this moment but you still desire it badly, then try making a huge decision like Buddha did (even though it isn’t necessary, but a lot of cases succeeded by doing this), for example: “I sit down today, and will never rise until I’ve experienced Freedom”… etc., may all the best wishes be with you all.
Questions and Answers:
1. If “Freedom only happens right now”, it doesn’t require any conditions, then why is there a condition of “a stable experience of the Ascendant”?
Answer: The very moment when a seeker experiences Freedom, the world around him will also be freed instantly. All creations are Free in that present moment. There is no condition required. But most people don’t have a personal experience of Freedom.
This one only condition is point towards the seekers of Freedom. If you are a seeker, but don’t know what your “original Self” looks like, and just mentally believe that “I am already Free”, “I am already in liberation”; even though a lot of the time you may feel free and happy, but when there are challenges or judgments or any other occasions, deep inside you will always be doubting “am I really free?”, “Am I really able to be completely liberated?” “Am I not going to make mistakes?” Once being controlled by the mind, there must be the dual concept of right and wrong, and thus more or less you will have doubts appear. Even though you may seem brave and confident on the surface, but before experiencing “a clear experience of the Ascendant”, that little doubt in your heart will show itself once in a while.
So this condition is more for the seekers, for those who want to experience Freedom in person.
2. Why is it that some of the people that are free don’t look like they are? How come they look very different from what I think Freedom should look like?
Answer: Earlier we’ve mentioned that there are some ideas from the general public about how a Free-person should express him or her self; or what kind of experiences he or she should have. These are all just different images or expressions from some of the enlightened people, people in deep meditation or people who have super powers that are different from normal humans.
In Buddhism, “The highest Tao is not difficult, the difficulties are the choices; if one is void of both hatred and love, one will self-realized” - This is the experience of an enlightened person.
“Those who you see as the most conscious beings, they don’t think, neither do they seek the Truth.” – This is the experience of a person who is free.
A Free-person is purely liberated no matter whether they are in the Ascendant, in thoughts, or in emotions; and an enlightened person will request himself to try staying in the Stillness for as long as possible. That is why the expression of a person who seems less enlightened than the person that is enlightened.
3. What are the similarities and the difference between Enlightenment and Freedom?
Answer: In General the experience of Enlightenment and Freedom are not very different. The moment you become enlightened you can also experience Freedom. But within the ancient concept of the seeker, even when one experiences what “the original self” looks like, within the heart he or she will always feel that there is something much greater that is called “Freedom”; it needs to be experienced in order to be counted as the ultimate achievement, the true liberation. And as this person progresses further into a deeper search for a while, at some point of a state, suddenly he or she will realize: What I have been seeking is only a concept, a thought, an illusive existence. Everything about everything is actually already complete. Not being content about what is, has made me spend more energy and time trying to seek Buddha on the outside, which is virtually impossible. Freedom is actually a ridiculous thought that I am seeking. Freedom is actually at the door of my home, but I had gone the long way around, outside the door. The moment of this realization is actually the returning of the real home; returning to the original state of Enlightenment. So the fact is, the moment you become enlightened you can actually experience Freedom; the difference occurs when you are able to completely let go of all your concepts about Freedom.
4. Does the experience of “Enlightenment” and “Freedom” go backwards?
Answer: The concept of going backwards basically can be broken into two parts: The subjective part and the objective part. The subjective part means whether the person feels himself going backwards; the objective part is the observation from other people to see whether this person’s expressions or behaviors implying that he is going backwards.
For the enlightened person, experiencing the Ascendant in person, always reminds himself to put his attention on the unmoving Ascendant, reminds himself not go be affected by the changing of the thoughts and the emotions, and do it with all his might to experience being touched by the Peace, the Joy and the Silence. But because of the life-long habits, it is not easy to change in a short period of time. So the person is often being affected by the emotions and the thoughts, or taking what’s happening seriously, or even having some huge ups and downs of feeling joy, anger, sadness and happiness. At this moment, both other people and the subjective person would consider his Ascendant to be going backwards.
However, for the person that is Free, thinking is a part of the Truth, thoughts are a part of the Ascendant, voices are a part of the Silence, how can there be a problem of going backwards? Yet in the observation of the other people, they might think, “I heard this person is free, but he still has got so much feeling of joy, anger, sadness and happiness. Is his Ascendant going backwards?” They will doubt the Free-person very often. This might be true, but for a Free-person the inner liberation is unchangeable. How is it possible that the experience of Freedom could go backwards?
5. Would the person that is Free (also free from desires) be losing his purpose of life?
Answer: The ending of an intensive search, the ending of expectations and seeking, in the short term does give the Free-person a huge sense of joy and liberation. Try to think of a person without any desire, how can there be anything that is able to control him or affect him? And yet, what happens when the waves of joy have passed? What else could possibly be my next goal that I could fight my life for? To put it in a not-so-good way: “why am I still living?” To put it in a better way: “even if my body disappears in the next second, I will not have any regrets.” In which case, would there be anything like the emotions of lost or depression being observed by other people?
You’ve experienced True Freedom; you’ve experienced that this world that you use to take it so seriously for so long is actually just like a theatre play, and the real you is just the audience of this play. But sometimes you get caught in the play; sometimes you get affected by the emotions of the players in the play; yet it doesn’t affect the fact that you are just an audience. You are already very clear that you are only an audience, so even in the moment when you are really caught in the play, you can become aware and come back to become an audience at any time. What’s the problem with being too caught up in the play anyways? The play is going to end one day after all.
Resting in the Ascendant in the present moment might be void of desires, everything might seem complete and perfect, but following the emotions and the movement of the thoughts are also perfect. Even though most of the Free-people, either intentionally or unintentionally, will be in the Stillness and play with all different kinds of experiences, to enrich all kinds of experiences, but sometimes when getting caught in the play, they will also have the desires to eat good food and play with fun things. Yet most of the time they would like to rest in the most relaxing and comfortable state. In the state of the mind, few desires or intentions still exist, there are still choices in every moment. But for a person that is Free, in terms of the daily life, most of the time he will choose to walk the easiest, most relaxing path. Even though there will be desires, but there will no longer be any desire as strong as the previous desire to seek Freedom; no longer the intense searching of the future. Everything is about making the present moment more comfortable and relaxing. Just that.
So in theory, Freedom should be a very hard state to achieve. It might require a lot of conditions; a lot of hard work, the accumulation of a lot of enlightened experiences, a lot of blessings from the heavens and saints, plus a lot of good luck in order to achieve it. What kind of conditions does Freedom require? How do we work hard for it? And what is the experience of a person who truly experiences Freedom? These are the questions that are going to be discussed in this article.
To the general spiritual seekers, often times there will be some expectations and some desired experiences regarding Freedom. In terms of the conditions, it might require:
1. Very constant experience of the Ascendant (Enlightenment); better to be able to stay in that unbounded Awareness 24 hours a day and not being effected by emotions or thoughts.
2. There has to be an experience of the creations being unified with me. I am the tree, I am the earth, I am the house, I am the sky… everything I can sense has to be one with me without any separation.
3. Having constant peak experiences. There has to be indescribable joy rising from within; all creations are shining with brilliant light; the whole world is so silent and peaceful…
4. Can easily sense other people’s emotions or thoughts. Having a perfectly healthy body. Or maybe to have some powers that others don’t have; for example to see the lights or shadows that nobody can see, hearing sounds that nobody can hear…etc.
5. The kind of presence that people want to follow; the kind of presence that makes people wants to get close to.
But the Teacher said, “Freedom only happens now”. Yet all of the experiences or state that you think Freedom requires are all some projection of Freedom in some future conditions. It is impossible for Freedom to happen in the future. If you rely on Freedom in some future moment, it will never happen. In which case, what should the conditions of Freedom be?
We can take a look at an example that everyone is familiar with regarding Freedom:
Buddha’s process of gaining Enlightenment:
We know that Buddha had once practiced meditation very hard under a bodhi tree for six years before he started teaching his Teaching to the world. Considering his intelligence and his desire for enlightenment, plus he had visited a lot of great Teachers before hand. We have no doubt in his stability (the constant experience of enlightenment); he could go through hours even days not having a single thought and stayed unwaveringly in the Ascendant. He should have great experience of enlightenment, but he was still hesitating to come out and teach it. What was he still seeking for? What kind of experience was he desiring that he had never had before?
Until one day, he made a huge decision. He said, “Today I sit down, and will never rise until understanding the True meaning of Tathagatas” (the actual wording can no longer be traced). And after a few hours, he stood up and said, “Every creation is actually contained with the essence of Tathagatas.” And after that he went down the mountain and started teaching.
We have no doubt that he experienced “Freedom” during those few hours. The experience that he hadn’t experienced during the six years of hard practice, he experienced in a few hours. Of course we won’t make this event about being guarded by the semi-gods semi-devils, or being blessed by all bodhisattvas of heavens to achieve enlightenment. The actual fact is he is just like us normal people, with the same desire, the same quest, and the ultimate achievement after a lot of hard work.
However, we are wondering; Buddha already had a very deep and stable experience of the Stillness, but he couldn’t achieve Freedom after many years of seeking, and achieved it finally just after some short few hours at the end. What happened in those few hours? What kinds of conditions are required to have this kind of experience? And how do we make this experience happen to us?
If we take a look at this process; there are basically two parts in Buddha’s experience of gaining Enlightenment (Freedom).
1. Having very solid experience of Enlightenment (stable Stillness).
2. A great, final decision (never rise until it is achieved)
He did it in a few hours. What happened in those few hours? It should be a simple breakthrough and instantly gained experience. What is it?
“Actually, he discovered that he was holding onto his last thought” - “The need to understand the true meaning of Tathagatas in order to be Free.” Someone might ask, considering his stability in Stillness, he could be void of thoughts for hours, even days, why were there still thoughts that he was grabbing onto?
Actually, for the people who haven’t experienced freedom yet, there has to be some thoughts that they are holding onto, it’s just the matter of becoming aware of them more or less. And when Buddha realized that “the need to understand the true meaning of Tathagatas” is only a thought, he broke through and said, “Actually every creation has the essence of Tathagatas, I am actually already Free, what else would I need to seek for?” He was already experiencing infinity and eternity. Do I need to seek for some greater experiences? That was why he stood up immediately and went down the mountain to teach.
Freedom is letting go of the last belief. Even though it is only a thought, but the effect is immense. It has broken through the separation between thoughts and the Ascendant, the conflict between Truth and illusions, and the fences between Buddha and normal people. It has ultimately allowed everything to happen. There is only one and not two. The false illusion is also a part of the Truth, the sound is also a part of the Silence, the thoughts and the emotions are a part of the Ascendant. There is no difference between the saint and normal people, Buddha and creations. Being in Buddha Nature and being in creations is equal and non-dual.
Letting go of that thought has caused the mind to truly stop. All seeking of becoming saint or Buddha has thus ended. All creations on Earth are perfect existence in this present moment. The greatest desire of one’s life has truly ended, left with the experience of unbounded relaxation and freedom.
So, reading till this moment, what is the condition required for experiencing freedom? Or what more of the experience is required? Actually there is only one condition to be free: a clear, stable experience of the Ascendant (Enlightenment, the True Self, the original essence…).
All your other ideas of what Freedom is like or what kind of experience it should be could all be the obstacle of experiencing Freedom.
Let’s first talk about the difference between Enlightenment (perpetual consciousness, cosmic consciousness, original essence…) and Freedom (Unified consciousness, Buddha Nature, Greatest Achievement…).
When you’ve experienced “who I am”, and can constantly and clearly rest in that unmoving space in any moment, that is what we call “Enlightenment”. In this moment, most of the people, even when experiencing the infinity and the eternity of the “Ascendant”, still wish to experience something more advanced. Hoping to experience more peace and joy, more freedom, less effected by the illusive thoughts or emotions, more experience of feeling one with the creations and unified with the universe; wanting the experience of absolute truth, kindness and beauty in all things around you, wanting the experience of becoming the Buddha or the saint, which is the desire to experience Freedom.
There might be some meditation practitioners who work hard and have those much-desired experiences mentioned above, when they are having very still experience of Enlightenment, but there will always be a question in their hearts: Is this “Freedom”? Have I become Buddha? The experiences mentioned above are fleeting; even though they are wonderful, but after a while they will disappear or change to another kind of wonderful experience. Yet the experience of Freedom shouldn’t change or go backwards, should it? Therefore there should be another kind of experience that I haven’t experienced yet, which is called “Freedom”.
What kind of experience doesn’t go backwards or disappear? What is the kind of experience that only happens in the present moment, and not after you have done something or had certain kinds of experiences in the future? Why is it that the Teacher said that the experience you desire the most, you’ve already got it now?
Within the experience of Enlightenment, you know that the only unchanging Truth is that unmoving Ascendant; the fleeting thoughts, sounds and emotions are illusions. Thus you need to put most of your attention here in order to experience a deeper level of joy and peace. However, have you noticed in the process of seeking, we will think that it is right to put our attention on the Ascendant, and it is wrong to grab hold of the illusions of thoughts or emotions, which is the source of all struggle. So often times we work pretty hard, even straining sometimes, trying to make our attention dwell on the “Silence”. This seems un-debatable. We think that the illusions and the Truth go completely the opposite direction; just as the small self and the True Self should not be placed on a par. But have you realized that you have unconsciously fallen into the mind-created duality of right and wrong!
Actually the illusions are also a part of the Truth; the small self is also a part of the True Self. Everything that’s been revealed in the present moment is perfect existence. It’s all the Truth. Only the involvement of the mind will create the conceptual duality of right and wrong, good and bad.
So, to a person who experiences Freedom, even being in the duality of the mind is also a part of the Truth; every creation on Earth, let it be eternal or temporary, are all just happening. No doubt that they are all the expression of the Truth.
The Ascendant, the thoughts, the True Self, the small self, the Truth, and the illusions are all the most perfect existence in the present moment. They are all one without any conflict. Till this moment, all the seeking in the past has suddenly stopped. All of a sudden you realize that seeking for Freedom is only a concept; the real me in the present moment is already free. After experiencing infinity and eternity, how can there be any greater experience?
Freedom is already there in the first place. There is nothing funnier than leaving freedom trying to seek for Freedom.
Once you experience that you are already free, there is no possibility of going backwards or for this experience to disappear. Thoughts, illusions, the small self, the True Self, and the Ascendant are all a part of Freedom. How is it possible that you could leave Freedom again?
If you still can’t experience “Freedom” at this moment but you still desire it badly, then try making a huge decision like Buddha did (even though it isn’t necessary, but a lot of cases succeeded by doing this), for example: “I sit down today, and will never rise until I’ve experienced Freedom”… etc., may all the best wishes be with you all.
Questions and Answers:
1. If “Freedom only happens right now”, it doesn’t require any conditions, then why is there a condition of “a stable experience of the Ascendant”?
Answer: The very moment when a seeker experiences Freedom, the world around him will also be freed instantly. All creations are Free in that present moment. There is no condition required. But most people don’t have a personal experience of Freedom.
This one only condition is point towards the seekers of Freedom. If you are a seeker, but don’t know what your “original Self” looks like, and just mentally believe that “I am already Free”, “I am already in liberation”; even though a lot of the time you may feel free and happy, but when there are challenges or judgments or any other occasions, deep inside you will always be doubting “am I really free?”, “Am I really able to be completely liberated?” “Am I not going to make mistakes?” Once being controlled by the mind, there must be the dual concept of right and wrong, and thus more or less you will have doubts appear. Even though you may seem brave and confident on the surface, but before experiencing “a clear experience of the Ascendant”, that little doubt in your heart will show itself once in a while.
So this condition is more for the seekers, for those who want to experience Freedom in person.
2. Why is it that some of the people that are free don’t look like they are? How come they look very different from what I think Freedom should look like?
Answer: Earlier we’ve mentioned that there are some ideas from the general public about how a Free-person should express him or her self; or what kind of experiences he or she should have. These are all just different images or expressions from some of the enlightened people, people in deep meditation or people who have super powers that are different from normal humans.
In Buddhism, “The highest Tao is not difficult, the difficulties are the choices; if one is void of both hatred and love, one will self-realized” - This is the experience of an enlightened person.
“Those who you see as the most conscious beings, they don’t think, neither do they seek the Truth.” – This is the experience of a person who is free.
A Free-person is purely liberated no matter whether they are in the Ascendant, in thoughts, or in emotions; and an enlightened person will request himself to try staying in the Stillness for as long as possible. That is why the expression of a person who seems less enlightened than the person that is enlightened.
3. What are the similarities and the difference between Enlightenment and Freedom?
Answer: In General the experience of Enlightenment and Freedom are not very different. The moment you become enlightened you can also experience Freedom. But within the ancient concept of the seeker, even when one experiences what “the original self” looks like, within the heart he or she will always feel that there is something much greater that is called “Freedom”; it needs to be experienced in order to be counted as the ultimate achievement, the true liberation. And as this person progresses further into a deeper search for a while, at some point of a state, suddenly he or she will realize: What I have been seeking is only a concept, a thought, an illusive existence. Everything about everything is actually already complete. Not being content about what is, has made me spend more energy and time trying to seek Buddha on the outside, which is virtually impossible. Freedom is actually a ridiculous thought that I am seeking. Freedom is actually at the door of my home, but I had gone the long way around, outside the door. The moment of this realization is actually the returning of the real home; returning to the original state of Enlightenment. So the fact is, the moment you become enlightened you can actually experience Freedom; the difference occurs when you are able to completely let go of all your concepts about Freedom.
4. Does the experience of “Enlightenment” and “Freedom” go backwards?
Answer: The concept of going backwards basically can be broken into two parts: The subjective part and the objective part. The subjective part means whether the person feels himself going backwards; the objective part is the observation from other people to see whether this person’s expressions or behaviors implying that he is going backwards.
For the enlightened person, experiencing the Ascendant in person, always reminds himself to put his attention on the unmoving Ascendant, reminds himself not go be affected by the changing of the thoughts and the emotions, and do it with all his might to experience being touched by the Peace, the Joy and the Silence. But because of the life-long habits, it is not easy to change in a short period of time. So the person is often being affected by the emotions and the thoughts, or taking what’s happening seriously, or even having some huge ups and downs of feeling joy, anger, sadness and happiness. At this moment, both other people and the subjective person would consider his Ascendant to be going backwards.
However, for the person that is Free, thinking is a part of the Truth, thoughts are a part of the Ascendant, voices are a part of the Silence, how can there be a problem of going backwards? Yet in the observation of the other people, they might think, “I heard this person is free, but he still has got so much feeling of joy, anger, sadness and happiness. Is his Ascendant going backwards?” They will doubt the Free-person very often. This might be true, but for a Free-person the inner liberation is unchangeable. How is it possible that the experience of Freedom could go backwards?
5. Would the person that is Free (also free from desires) be losing his purpose of life?
Answer: The ending of an intensive search, the ending of expectations and seeking, in the short term does give the Free-person a huge sense of joy and liberation. Try to think of a person without any desire, how can there be anything that is able to control him or affect him? And yet, what happens when the waves of joy have passed? What else could possibly be my next goal that I could fight my life for? To put it in a not-so-good way: “why am I still living?” To put it in a better way: “even if my body disappears in the next second, I will not have any regrets.” In which case, would there be anything like the emotions of lost or depression being observed by other people?
You’ve experienced True Freedom; you’ve experienced that this world that you use to take it so seriously for so long is actually just like a theatre play, and the real you is just the audience of this play. But sometimes you get caught in the play; sometimes you get affected by the emotions of the players in the play; yet it doesn’t affect the fact that you are just an audience. You are already very clear that you are only an audience, so even in the moment when you are really caught in the play, you can become aware and come back to become an audience at any time. What’s the problem with being too caught up in the play anyways? The play is going to end one day after all.
Resting in the Ascendant in the present moment might be void of desires, everything might seem complete and perfect, but following the emotions and the movement of the thoughts are also perfect. Even though most of the Free-people, either intentionally or unintentionally, will be in the Stillness and play with all different kinds of experiences, to enrich all kinds of experiences, but sometimes when getting caught in the play, they will also have the desires to eat good food and play with fun things. Yet most of the time they would like to rest in the most relaxing and comfortable state. In the state of the mind, few desires or intentions still exist, there are still choices in every moment. But for a person that is Free, in terms of the daily life, most of the time he will choose to walk the easiest, most relaxing path. Even though there will be desires, but there will no longer be any desire as strong as the previous desire to seek Freedom; no longer the intense searching of the future. Everything is about making the present moment more comfortable and relaxing. Just that.