Whenever we fear rejection, we will fear revealing our Truth to others in case they abandon us. We fear laughter, ridicule, and being mocked. We fear attempts to reconcile divisions in case we are hurt again or hurt others. We fear not being good enough. We fear being rejected by God/the Holy for not having lived a perfect life, or for not having the right beliefs/practices. We hold ourselves to such exacting standards that guilt, shame, and judgement permeate our bodies. At the same time, we will gift others the Grace to be themselves, to name their Truth, and to make mistakes. We want for them all that we will deny ourselves. 

The Liberated Life is one where the narrative of fear is replaced by a story grounded in Love. With this story, lives are freed from fear. People live differently. It can be a strange new world to live life fearlessly. So strange in fact that it can be deemed unnatural and rejected as such. Fear also comforts people. It protects and normalises things. Fear of the unknown and fear of change keep everything the same. 

Fearless ones do things and live lives beyond the capacity of most to comprehend. They reside on the edges. They question boundaries and test the limits. They challenge normative modes of thinking and what it means to be human. They transform ordinary consciousness into something extraordinary. They lead people to reimagine their lives in new ways. They are prophets, change-makers, and heroes celebrated across time and space. They are also fools who set out on journeys most would consider reckless, dangerous, and unwise, as when people live fearlessly, they usually do so in the shadow of Death. 

The Liberated Ones claim victory over death. Death is many things. Physical death ends life in this world; the world is never the same when a life ends, and neither are those whose lives are affected by it. Death is a disruptor. Yet when death is part of the normal flow of things, it can be seen to be natural. All living things will die. Death is unnatural when a life is ended prematurely, when the living are not ready to succumb to it. To overcome the fear of death, it must always visit the living within the normal flow of things, when they are open to receiving it. Living in a world where people are not open to dying creates an unwelcome fear of death. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hatred, and hatred leads to violence. Death will follow. Fear of one’s true self can also become a source of death and dying. This is why we avoid anything that leads people to live in fear. Fear is the root of all kinds of death.

The Liberated Life is a call to live free of fear. The ego encourages fear-based thinking and behaviours. Whilst our ego protects and functions as a natural defence mechanism, keeping us alive, sometimes the fears we have are imagined. The ego does not discriminate between the real and the unreal in this respect. So we need something to disrupt the flow of consciousness to uncover the Truth that is being submerged under an accumulation of egocentric beliefs, opinions, and experiences that have shaped and formed our thought processes and responses. This is why the first casualty in any conflict is Truth. 

Like onions, we have many layers of [super] imposed meaning that hide Truth from us. Life is lived vicariously through others. What has been done to us and taught us has created who we are today. All this creates a false sense of self. This is why grounding our lives in the Love of God/the Holy allows us to break free of old ways of thinking and to discover our True and Authentic Self as well as other people’s. Dying to oneself is foundational to The Liberated Life. Only by giving up all that we are can we recover our Truth and live free of fear. 

The death of self for its own sake leads to isolationism. For some, this has resulted in their actual physical death. To feel so alone in the world that one no longer wants to live is the result of needing a different story to live by. Do not shame or judge those who have ended their life for this reason. Instead, lament that they were not able to immerse themselves in a different story. This is why we have a responsibility to tell the best story we can about our lives here. We need a story that those isolated from others and contemplating ending their life will gain a new sense of Identity, Hope, and Purpose. This needs to permeate our individual and collective consciousness. 

The Liberated Life: Part Six