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Liberation is the Natural Human Condition

I live in a town in southern India. In it is one of India's oldest and largest Siva Temples, a holy mountain and the ashram of one of India's greatest sages, who died in the middle of the 20th century. It is considered a holy town. Many western seekers come here yearly and quite a few live here as their main residence. So over the years I have gotten to know many people who are on a spiritual path, and not just here but everywhere in the world I have traveled when I was meeting teachers.

Something I have come to see in almost every seeker I have ever met, with few exceptions, is a lack of the real belief that liberation is for them. They may say they want liberation and that they believe it is for them, but if you look a bit closer it becomes clear that there is a deeply held cynical belief that they are not worthy. They look at these well-known gurus and sages as more akin to gods than human beings. They place them impossibly high up on a pedestal and so by default find themselves to be lower. Any insinuation that their guru is human and that what he is or has is no different than themselves is met with huffs of an air of sacrilege.

And although every authentic master throughout history, including Buddha, Jesus and Ramana have said that liberation is their birthright they scoff and feel that, "No, I will never be you." Well, that's right, you will never be Ramana. And that is part of the problem. If you look at the form or demeanor of a great teacher and think that this form or demeanor is what liberation looks like, you are in trouble. Liberation does not look like a statue of Buddha. If liberation dawns you will almost definitely not start wearing a loin cloth, living in a cave and staring off into space for hours on end like Ramana did. Ramana was a completely unique manifestation of the one divine source, and so are you. He could no more be you than you could be him. Do you want to know what liberation actually looks like? It looks exactly like you!

Liberation is not for Jesus, Buddha, Osho, Ramana or whomever you might consider a fully enlightened sage. Liberation is for you. It is completely understandable that you may feel somehow unworthy; it is through no fault of your own. Why? Because, this is what you have been taught. If, for example, you are a Christian, it has been pounded into your head that you are separate from God, that there is only one Jesus, the son of God, and that you are not it. And if you should even think that you are, you are a blasphemer fit for hell. And it is not only in Christianity that this belief is instilled in you, it is prevalent in all religions, that is how a religion stays intact. If the main figurehead of a religion is not deified, like Buddha, how could a religion stay in tact? It would fall apart. And if you do not deify your guru he will fall off of his dais.

In the first year of my seeking days when I was with my first spiritual teacher on a weekend retreat I had a really powerful epiphany. As the teacher was speaking it dawned on me in very profound and poignant way that I, who I am, was no different from this teacher sitting up there. I and he, and everyone were essentially the same. Excitedly, I raised my hand to share this experiential insight with him, thinking he would be happy that his teaching was working and one of his students was really seeing something clearly. I don't remember exactly what I said but something like, "I can see clearly that I am not different from you." His response, with a snickering laugh was, "Well, you have to set your sights high." I was really shocked to hear him say this and felt that he was trying to keep me down. Not only was it the beginning of the end of my relationship with him but it also made me realize, both from the epiphany itself and with his response, that whatever he might have had was also possible for me and that I would not rest until it happened.

Liberation is your birthright. Why? Because it is the natural human condition, your natural condition, already. It is not because you are going to attain something that you do not already have, it is because it is you, now. So why should you not come to know it? Look closely at yourself and see if you are cynical about the real possibility of awakening to truth and if so see that that is just an idea planted in you by your religion and culture; and it has no basis at all in reality. See if you think that your guru is above you in some way. Just see it, no judgement. Believe what these great authentic sages say. Jesus too said it, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." "Follow me, I am the way." That means, "Do what I did, wake up."

A real authentic teacher wants you to discover liberation, and then he wants you to go live your life, that is what he wants. Someone like my first teacher has a lot of personal ulterior motives in his teaching and does not want you to be finished because if you do he will lose you, and he will be out of business.

Cynicism, under the guise of humility, is one of the greatest obstacles to awakening. I say that because I have seen it in so many people. Liberation is simple, it is ordinary, it is not Osho with a long white beard and an exhaustingly slow walk. It is your already free, ever present essential being, here and now, always true.

Know that liberation is for you, because it is your natural condition here and now.