My freedom is always available to me when I have a clear understanding of what I do and do not control.
The only thing I control is whether or not I will question what I believe about what I am thinking.
When I’m able to be completely open to the truth and question all my stressful thoughts, I cannot find any obstacle to freedom that is not imagined. I find that I AM freedom and can never not be free, except in my mind.
Freedom is an eternal truth of the universe. Being is and always will be freedom incarnate. I am all free always, until I believe that I am not.
No one else has any control over me until I decide to participate. Someone can cock a gun and hold it to my temple and order me to comply and I still have a choice. They can torture me, threaten my loved ones or shoot me dead and it won’t change a thing about the fact that it is MY choice. I am completely limitless without the false notion of a me separate from another (where is the division, scientifically?), without the false notion of pain that is not self-inflicted (who can hurt me if I don’t notice?), without the false notion of a life that must continue (when it appears that all lives end), without the idea that anyone has any power over me that I have not granted them (which is just not possible).
When I recognize this, I am free.
When I miss this, I suffer.
When I go to war with myself or others, I am confused. I am seeing separation where there is none and my reactions perpetuate the illusion. I thrash about in a dream until my suffering alerts me to the opportunity to question what I am believing about what I’m thinking.
And then I can clear up the confusion.
When I return to the truth, I can see that there is no separation. That we are all one and eternal. That what is needed is not protection but love. That love is the only thing that is ever needed.