By Rev. LeRoy E. Zemke
Pastor, Temple of the Living God

“If there is righteousness in the heart there will be beauty in the character.  If there be beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home.  If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world.”
Confucius

Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands.  But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny.
Carl Schurz

Freedom:  The power to determine a thing; the power to exercise choice and make decisions without constraint from within or without; autonomy, self determination (The Random House Dictionary of the English language 2nd edition, unabridged)  Of all powers held within us as human beings, none is valued more significantly, esteemed to be more essential to the “inalienable rights” granted by our government’s Bill of Rights than the power (or quality) of freedom.

FROM A BROADER, PERHAPS, more spiritual sense, the capacity we have to “exercise choice without constraint from within” gives a huge internal, as well as external latitude to create, to express our freedom, to decide what we wish to do, accomplish or manifest in the context of our lives.  It is beyond imagination or even the ultimately unknowable spiritual dimensions of our being to realize, to act upon such a powerful, potential goal, or power, or capacity.

AS A NATION, WE CLAIM THIS STATE OF FREEDOM as a right.  But as with any ability, skill or power we potentially have available to us, the direction we go, the choice of how we use the power is ever held in our hands, and more importantly in our hearts.

AS WE LOOK OUT, across the landscape of the outer human (physical) world, we see what appears to be an incredible waste of life.  Lives are given over to addictions, to limitations imposed by tribal thinking, restrictive bonds of family loyalty which entrap persons by specific family agreements (e.g. promises to live a certain lifestyle or to avenge persons, or carry out a threat), or any of hundreds of limitations that constrict, restrain or reduce the unique ability we individually seek to express our “understanding” of freedom.

ANCIENT TEACHERS, such as Laotse, Confucius, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, the great Rishis of India and many others offer clues to gain freedom or to genuinely become free, we must know ourselves.  The inscription over the door to the ancient Temple at Delphi (Greece) famed for the oracles who resided there, and whose advice was sought throughout the Mediterranean world, said profoundly “Know Thyself.”

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO GENUINELY “KNOW OURSELVES.” Some abbreviated suggestions follow that will help us to begin the process, to become more free and thus illustrates the axiom to Know Thyself:

1. WRITE OUT a long list of all the qualities we feel we can genuinely lay claim to, or define as a part of how we see ourselves in the human world.

SOME POSSIBILITIES/CONSIDERATIONS might include such qualities as: honesty, loyalty, altruistic inclinations, humor, patience, love, anxiousness, fearfulness, anger, stubbornness, generosity, creativity, or, aspects we might consider to be critical, controlling, self serving, etc.

THE PURPOSE OF THIS LIST IS TO PUT LANGUAGE AROUND ANY QUALITIES (GOOD OR NOT SO GOOD)  THAT WE FEEL OR SEE AS PART OF OUR NATURE.

Writing out the qualities that we are aware of will also lead us to other qualities we are unaware of.

2. FOR ONE WEEK (at a time), choose one quality you feel you’d like to work with at a more conscious as well as internal level.

(a) Write out a single, simple sentence using the quality you now wish to learn more about.

Then write down, at the end of the day, whatever information shows up as in an example, an event, or personal occurrence how the quality is appearing.

The effort to write down, even on a computer, brings one’s attention to the subtlety and hidden information that gives insight into how we, each one, are holding and/or expressing the various qualities we say we are capable of demonstrating!

3. BE WILLING TO CHALLENGE long held, perceived to be true assumptions.  We may say to ourselves, “I’m not afraid of anything in myself.”  Yet when we learn of disturbing news regarding a loved one, spouse, child or learn of the loss of a job, the failure of a mortgage, the serious health breakdown of someone we love, we enter the domain of fear.  Thus fear is a quality that at some level defines our nature and is revealing its presence to be released, surrendered or acknowledged so that it can be dealt with in a more conscious and positive manner.

4. THE ABOVE EXERCISES are “a work in progress,” which also include the practice of meditation, reflection or contemplation.  Quieting the mind’s tendency to chatter away through focused breath and an internal willingness to connect to something larger than the world of ego choices, and ego responses will lead to ever deepening discoveries about who we really are and not who we feel ourselves to be and/or attempt to show others what we want them to know, see or discover.

The question may be legitimately asked, "What value can be gained from writing out one’s qualities? Can we be objective enough to look at ourselves clearly?"

VALUE EMERGES FROM REFLECTION, deep, considered and consistent, allowing of one’s internal process to be seen, to be made clear, to be made known.  If we never take enough time to genuinely contemplate the deeper dimensions of our nature, we will live on the surface of our life, really only concerned with ego needs, issues or desires.

I TEND TO SEE THIS AS IF WE ARE riding a boat across the ocean. The ocean lies beneath; we are safely held in the boat moving across the surface.   While the object may be to sojourn across the face of the ocean, we never really get to see/experience its depth, dimensionality or its profound discoveries until we begin to dive in, to swim, as it were into the ocean of life.

OBJECTIVITY REGARDING THE SEEING or knowing of ourselves is hardly ever, if ever, possible.  Science now tells us that it is never totally psychologically possible to separate ourselves from our deeply held perceptions.  The invitation, I might suspect, is to learn what influences we hold inside our collective cultural mind set as well as our personal views which include that which is in our minds and our hearts.

OUR BELIEFS AND PERCEPTIONS colors our cherished views and thus reveals what we essentially held to be true.  Bridges to freedom are the steps we make to learn about who we are.  It’s the discovery that at our core is a divine component, flame or spark that can be uncovered to reveal the real nature of who we are.  Always, it is a daily discovery that unfolds across a lifetime!