Living into Freedom

Nature is built in the Timeless Way, Humans choose a mixed approach with mixed results. With acceptable outcomes predetermined we lock our selves out of the possibility of a truly life-giving systems for more people. We also forgo the possibility of ever becoming truly free. The timeless way does not assume anything and does not require us to get anywhere. It operates in the Now. What can we do Now. The possibilities and the freedom in the Now are endless if we don’t limit ourselves to predetermined outcomes.

We are a people that values freedom but we have lost access to our innate sense for what truly makes us free. When we say freedom today, we usually mean our ability to do and get what we want. Ironically, true freedom comes when we have nothing to lose, live up to, or protect including our own ego. In the same way the timeless way requires that we as builders give up any external images and help our systems emerge from the natural forces within its components and their interactions in their context.

Despite my best efforts and the efforts those speaking the loudest in the US religious context to disqualify Christianity as a viable path to life, I could not shake the suspicion that the Timeless Way of Building had touched on the quality of the Kingdom of God Jesus talks about in the Sermon on the Mount. According to that scripture we have to become poor in spirit, that is to let go of our own conceptions and images, our false selves, before we can become co-creators in the timeless realm.

All the great Wisdom traditions circle around the same ineffable quality in their parables and kuans that have no resolution in an either-or context. They require us to go through a process of self-emptying (kenosis) in order to allow forces in these paradoxical stories to come into balance at a higher level of awareness where we can celebrate the both-and reality of this world.

Kenosis is the process by which we rid ourselves of harmful patterns of being and it is what allows us to reconnect to our life-giving center. We will be able to recognize the quality with no name in ourselves and others and collaborate in building a world that expresses it well.