Arriving Home

There are two paths to ultimate freedom and happiness. Only one arrives at the destination.

The way I see it, there are two paths to arriving at freedom and happiness.

FREEDOM IN THE WORLD

The first path is an attempt to organise the world in accordance with particular images that have formulated in my mind. These images may include particular physical, relational and emotional components.

Perhaps it is having a particular amount of money or owning a house in a certain location. Parhaps it included being seen by myself and others in a particular way. Having particular forms of relationships. Having knowledge on a set of topics that I can easily articulate to others. It may also include my mind appearing a certain way to me—having thoughts of a certain kind or feelings of a certain form. Positive emotions more often than not. Less painful states, more pleasurable ones.

Freedom here requires mastery of the world. To feel at home, I need to be able to organise my thoughts, feelings, body, relationships, surroundings in a way that achieves my desired conditions. I also need to be able to maintain these conditions in order to remain at home.

Is this possible? Go into it for yourself.

My experience tells me that this is a fruitless path for achieving total freedom.

When I associate freedom, happiness and home with certain conditions, I build a home on shifting sand. I am deluding myself about the amount of control I have over the world. About the amount of permanence in the world.

Fully seeing the impermanence, it quickly becomes obvious to me that chasing freedom in the world is a foolish, insincere and unserious endeavour.

Life is constant change.

Sometimes I feel positive, excited, open and engaging. Other times I feel sad, contracted and lonesome.

I acquire objects, achieve goals and arrive at destinations. But I also lose objects, fail and get lost.

I often feel connected to others and attain their respect, appreciation and validation. But sometimes those connections fade and I feel disrespected, rejected, outcast or ostracised. My actions and views invalidated.

Sure I can squeeze out a little more positive feeling if I do x or y. Sure if I follow a certain plan or really dedicate myself to a particular practice, I can achieve z. But for how long?

Things change. Situations change. Dreams and desires change. My stories change.

To see freedom, home or happiness as an imagined situation with predefined conditions and accompanying psychological states, is to dream of the ideal jail cell to lock myself in. And to scream and shout when life inevitably pulls me out of prison.

FREEDOM FROM THE WORLD

The second path is one of surrender and acceptance. Instead of organising the world in a particular order to attain freedom, home and happiness, I move towards finding home in the here and now, no matter the situation or state of being.

Instead of trying to escape a situation or feeling, I ask myself why I don’t feel at home here? What story about what is good, bad, right or wrong I am attached to that is stopping me from feeling at home in the present?

With the first path, the world is the problem stopping me from arriving home. Home being a particular story I am attached to.

With the second path, I am preventing myself from arriving home. I realise that there is nothing bad or wrong with the particular situation or state I find myself in. I am simply attached to a story that currently deviates from the ways things are.

Suffering, in this sense, is the result of understanding, or a lack thereof, rather than particular features of the world I find myself in.

The way home is the process of removing all the obstacles that stop me from seeing every moment as divinely perfect as it is. In doing so, I arrive at the ultimate freedom.

I arrive home.

Take care,
David

---

Share the love: If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing or forwarding it to family members, friends and colleagues. Are you that family member, friend or colleague? You can sign up for free here.

Let’s start a conversation: If you have any questions or thoughts on the content discussed in this post, let’s start a conversation. If you’re in your inbox, you can reply directly to this email. If you are on the Substack post, you can add a comment below.