Freedom of , freedom of the heart; seeking freedom, attaining freedom; peaceful freedom, capable freedom. What is freedom? It is simply residing in freedom. Many people ask how they can attain true freedom. To this, I always answer: 'To be free, you must reside within freedom itself.' How can this freedom be attained? The truth is that this freedom has always existed within your own heart. It is not something you need to go out and find; it is something you have simply forgotten.
In the chaotic process of living, we have all lost sight of the freedom we once possessed. In reality, attaining this state is quite simple. If you could let go of your attachment to this physical body, you would be free. Every person originates from the birth of a spirit. Before this physical form was ever shaped, the spirit existed in a state of absolute freedom, without any demands or cravings for the body. Why, then, do some spirits continue to live in such a state of unease? It is because they remain fixated on their past physical forms. When there is attachment to the body, or when there are lingering expectations, the spirit naturally becomes bound. It loses its freedom. This is a powerful force that traps the spirit within a world of illusion. What was originally free becomes, through our own doing, forever bound.
The Illusion of the Physical Form
Regardless of which space or realm you inhabit, if your heart is not at ease, your body will never be at ease, and your spirit will certainly never attain true freedom. This lack of freedom often manifests as a form of pressure, a lingering tension, a sense of insecurity, or the sorrow of unfulfilled ambitions. Everyone harbours certain expectations for their own physical body, yet one cannot truly control everything that happens to it. Because of this, the constant cycle of gaining and losing makes people feel unstable and anxious.
Sometimes, you may feel an urgent need to pursue your desires, while at other times, you feel exhausted and wish to let everything go. This is the contradiction of human nature and the root of our attachments. Whether it concerns your personality, your habits, or your emotions, the reasons for your lack of freedom all stem from having too many and too many points of interaction with the external world. Because of this, it becomes difficult for you to perceive the freedom that is already present.
The Heavy Chains of Attachment
You may seek freedom, you may seek liberation, and you may seek purity. But within these states of mind, how much satisfaction can you truly achieve? How much effort must you expend in your pursuit before you feel you have succeeded? Every person in this human world is living actively, striving to fulfil their dreams and hopes. This drives people to move forward constantly, always wanting to advance toward their ideals. Yet, in this constant state of striving, you forget that you have already lost your freedom. You push that sense of liberty further and further away.
You burden yourself with so many desires and demands: the ideals you cannot complete, which you carry as a heavy weight upon your shoulders; the ideals you are currently executing, which you constantly worry about and overthink; and the ideals you have already completed, which you grasp onto with desperate intensity. People in this world are heavily polluted because they want so many things, and they are even more unwilling to let go of what they have. This accumulation is so great that it causes you to lose your sense of freedom entirely.
Breaking the Cycle of Rebirth
If we return to the beginning, we find that we originally possessed nothing. That state of clarity and simplicity is the most pure and free relationship one can have. However, after experiencing the cycle of rebirth, almost no one can maintain this state. Every spirit carries a long history. Throughout your many lives, you have accumulated emotional entanglements and karmic debts from past Causal Conditions. These attachments and the resulting , including everything you cannot let go of in this world, follow you.
When people lose their physical bodies and become spirits, it would seem they should return to a state of freedom. Yet, because of their attachments, they pull themselves back into this space, continuing to pursue the same things they did when they were alive: emotional entanglements that bind the heart, the pursuit of wealth and material possessions, and the desire for status, reputation, and worldly ideals. Even though the person has passed away, they cannot return to freedom. The power of these attachments is terrifying; it is enough to keep one trapped in the cycle of rebirth for countless lifetimes. They are willing to suffer and endure the consequences of their karma within the cycle of rebirth, unable to wake up. If you cannot wake up from the cycle of rebirth, you naturally cannot return to the clear, liberated state of true freedom.
The Path of
This is the confusion of the cycle of rebirth. You clearly desire to pursue purity and freedom, but when you understand the truth, you realise that the reason you cannot be free is because of yourself. You were born free, but later lost that freedom because you became too clever for your own good. If you did not know how to pursue so many things, perhaps your heart would be much cooler and more tranquil. You should not place too many demands on the world. Practise letting things take their natural course, and be more natural in your approach. It is worth reflecting on this, for finding your way back to freedom is far more important than anything else.
What you want and what you possess will not necessarily satisfy you. Even the states of mind you pursue through your practice may not satisfy your heart, because the desires you chase will grow without end. Only when you have no desires and have let go of all your demands will your heart be free of burdens. Life originally possesses nothing; why then must you chase after everything? Everything that does not belong to your true self is false, illusory, and ever-changing. It is something you can never truly grasp.
Diligent practice is not about seeking; it is about having no-seeking. It is a state of natural freedom where you are not attached to anything. This is by no means a sign of laziness; on the contrary, it is the manifestation of a sincere, free, and no-self state. In this way, you will rediscover your true self and directly realise the state of no-self. .
