But why? Why do you need prophets to tell you how you ought to live? Why do you need anyone to tell you how you ought to live? ~ Daniel Quinn

It’s getting harder and harder for me to write anything. I have come to realize through my many journeys and numerous life experiences that the more I come to know the less I actually know. This is a good thing, a very good thing. For me, it provides me with the satisfaction that I am succeeding in the choices that I have made to fully be myself on a path of freedom, free from the patterns and expectations, content to just observe this amazing world unfold. I don’t have as many opinions anymore because I have come to know that everything is true, right and correct, at least from the perspective of the person who holds those beliefs. And that’s okay; it is, after all, their world and we can’t possibly know what they’ve been through or what they are doing to maintain it. And unless they ask, there is nothing we can tell ‘em.

We humans become so fixated on how we need to be or what we need to become, always seeking something outside of ourselves to believe in, to give our power away to. We are obsessed with awakening, enlightenment, and doing it right and are hard on ourselves when we are not in “balance” or living up to the ideals of the “masters”. We cling to our ideas of what “enlightenment” and “freedom” is, based on the teachings of the Buddha, don Juan, Jesus Christ, Zen Masters, etc… We compromise each other’s state of being by assuming to “know” where someone is at and what they are experiencing. We cast doubt upon each other by questioning where another has been, what they’ve seen and what they seek to know. And then we have the audacity to tell them that what they believe in is a lie.

We work so hard to become aligned with our perspective of “transcendence” through the teachings of our favorite master that we rarely consider or seek or are open to that which resides outside of even those boxes. We judge each other’s progress, evolution and levels of awareness sardonically and are audacious enough to think we know when, how and why someone needs to experience growth, do more work, have a healing, choose a different direction, stuff their emotions, etc. And we judge ourselves.

The only thing I know with certainty right now is that the things that are buzzing around in my mind are there because of what I’ve experienced or created and how I perceive. And in our individual perceptions it is just fine if we are not wrong or right, if we are wounded or whole, if we are enlightened or non-enlightened. There are no labels, dualities, illusions, delusions, descriptions or goal posts that can define or limit an individual’s freedom. And, we cannot possibly make anyone understand what we see or what we know, we can only share it and stand as a witness to another individual’s seeing or knowing and be open to each other in order to have the conversations about it that will ultimately allow us to cultivate, nurture and honor our own unique, diverse and beautiful, individual visions.

Once you learn to discern the voice of Mother Culture humming in the background, telling her story over and over again to the people of your culture, you’ll never stop being conscious of it. Wherever you go for the rest of your life, you’ll be tempted to say to the people around you, “how can you listen to this stuff and not recognize it for what it is? ~ Daniel Quinn