For this Journey, Freedom means simply living in Divine Presence, living in the Presence of God. In a conscious mind, this freedom can be the undercurrent of all activity—of the mind, body, and emotions.

In a way, all the previous and following Journeys are sub-sets of a Journey of Freedom. The Journeys of Purpose, Healing, Worth, Fulfillment, Heart, Abundance, etc., encourage the active, conscious strengthening of the awareness and understanding of Divine Presence through those different aspects. A Journey of Freedom is the ultimate journey—the reason for all the other Journeys, the “goal” of every journey—every journey of life, every path we walk, from our families-friends-relationships to the work we choose or don’t choose, to our health and body. A Journey of Freedom is one step, but it’s a step that puts these other steps in a larger context.

God is infinite. Love is infinite. No matter how far you’ve come, no matter how much Divine Presence you think-feel-be, there is always more. Always.

My personal evolution of becoming acquainted with my own Divine Presence and my relationship with God has shown me that the Ultimate Journey of Freedom is the only worthwhile journey there is. It’s the only thing I can bring to all my activities that assures me of Love, that helps me feel fulfilled, that shifts my experience of “negative” situations into loving ones, into Peace and Acceptance. It brings a state of mind that feels natural and easy; I feel light and unburdened, trusting and peaceful.

Bringing Divine Presence into worldly activity is a top-down approach. In meditating/contemplating Love and learning to understand that Love as the Self is the top. Bringing that Love-as-Self into relationships, work, finances, etc., is the down.

There is also the bottom-up approach. We live in a material world with habits, routines, material goods, work, and other people. This is the bottom. As we learn to evolve our material surroundings and create circumstances that are more loving and beneficial for more people, we are lifting them up so that the structures we have in our lives can express more Love.

As our mental state gains more capacity for Love, our desire to evolve our material state to resonate with that Love comes more easily and naturally. As we evolve our material state to express Love more easily and naturally, we make room for an infusion of more Love into the material state. When used consciously, the top-down, bottom-up approaches work hand-in-hand, like a cycle of release and realization.

It’s very freeing.

There are some things I will be working on during this Journey, some aspects of my own obscurations that have recently been brought to my awareness. I need to look at some things I can sense within, which I can feel affecting me, hindering me from expressing more of my Divine Presence. I can feel these things hovering, weighing me down. I feel resistant to looking; I feel resistant to seeing, I feel resistant to transforming. This is why I must look, see, and transform. Here are some of the things I know about this right now:

1. There is something about pride. I want to think I am doing something. I want to think what I am doing is important. What this translates into (for me, at the moment) is a rejection of God: “It’s all about me. I don’t need God. I don’t need help. I can do this alone.” (And… yes… a part of me is looking at myself shaking its head.)
2. There is something about fear of surrender. If you’ve followed any of these Journeys, you know I’ve been working on surrender for a while. Here it is…again.
3. There is something about fear of losing my mind. I noticed this one when I was reading In the Presence of Masters. Here is the section I read:

The Buddha taught three different approaches on three separate occasions. These are known as the Three Turnings of the Wheel, but they can be summed up in a single phrase: “Mind; there is no mind; mind is luminosity.”

The first, “Mind,” refers to the first set of teachings and shows that the Buddha taught that there is a “mind.” This was to dispel the nihilistic view that there is no heaven, no hell, no cause and effect. Then, when the Buddha said, “There is no mind,” he meant that mind is just a concept and that there is no such thing as a truly existing mind. Finally, when he said, “Mind is luminous,” he was referring to Buddha-nature, the undeluded or primordially existing wisdom.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

In the Presence of Masters edited by Reginald Ray, page 12

When I read, “there is no mind,” it was like lightning struck my body, scrambling all my circuits: What!? What do you mean there is no mind!? How does that make sense? Who am I without my mind? What does that make me without my mind??” I was in a bit of a panic. The wisdom of the passage eluded me. I felt a clinching, a holding-onto, a clinging to my mind…a fear of losing my mind.

Perhaps you can see how this relates to both pride and fear of surrender?

4. All of the above led to a recognition of a fear of not being in control.

The first step is awareness. The Journey has begun!