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Freedom is a State of Mind

by Rev Sallie Fox

With Independence Day, we are reminded of how blessed we are to enjoy the many freedoms that our democracy affords us, particularly, freedom of belief and worship, and freedom of speech and press.  However, I wonder how many of us really feel free, despite these luxuries that we have. 

Perhaps our truest freedom comes as we learn to let go of our strangle hold on the material things of our lives – our possessions, our worldly identities, our beliefs and judgments, our loved ones, our youthful bodies, and ultimately, our very physical existence in this world of form. 

I love the story of the Sufi holy man and wise fool, Mullah Nasrudin, who was sitting and eating a poor man’s diet of chickpeas and bread.  Meanwhile, Nasrudin’s neighbor, who also claimed to be a wise man, was living in a grand house and dining on sumptuous meals provided by the emperor himself.

That day, the neighbor came to Nasrudin and said, “If only you would learn to flatter the emperor and be subservient like I do, you would not have to live on chickpeas and bread.”  To that, Nasrudin replied, “and if only you would learn to live on chickpeas and bread, like I do, you would not have to flatter the emperor and live subservient to him.”

In her influential book, Lessons in Truth, Unity author, Dr. H. Emilie Cady writes about our choice to either remain in bondage or claim our freedom.  “Every man believes himself to be in bondage to the flesh and to the things of the flesh. All suffering is the result of this belief.” (p.2) “Do not be under bondage to false beliefs about your circumstances or environment. God is in everything that happens to you.” (p.11)

In The Revealing Word, freedom is defined as, “The quality or state of being without thought of restraint, bondage, limitation, or repression…. Liberation from bondage comes as we seek first the perfect Mind of Christ.”

The words to Janet Bowser Manning’s song, in our Unity hymnal, Wings of Song, express perfectly the very affirmation that we can use to claim our freedom every day: “I am free, I am unlimited.  There are no chains that bind me.  I am free, I am unlimited right now.”

In Angels Sing in Me, Unity poet and author, James Dillet Freeman, writes about the paradox of freedom, saying that so often in this life, we confuse the notions of being free from something and being free to do and be something.  Freeman says, “to be free means to be free from everything that keeps us from achieving our maximum potential, everything that weakens us, everything that tends to make us less than the most we are capable of being.  And [to be free also] means to be free to grow, to achieve dominion over our self and all the forces at work in us, to develop and express our creative powers.” (p.236)

This kind of freedom is a state of mind, which is ours when we consciously decide to place our faith in the one true source of all life – God, the ground of our being – everywhere present, within and without.  Let us claim the truth of our freedom right now, and express that truth in every thought, word and deed!