Freedom from Prison

– Just because you can’t feel the prison around you doesn’t mean that you’re not in it. –

These are the ingredients for freedom, freedom from prison.

I had a dream. I was in a place. It was a deeply familiar place although it is not one I’ve ever been in in this life. Yet I have been in that place because that place is within me and within many of my brothers and sisters in this world. Every now and then we may have been able to experience it, this place of freedom, because it was for a brief moment able to manifest as a result of what we did, what we created.

For so long I’ve been thinking over and over about my lack of freedom and about my entrapment which always goes back to things. Objects. Objects are like snares which trap us. Objects are made in the world and ways that the prison forms.

In my dream I became aware of the basic things. Getting back to basic things is getting away from the entrapment. It gets away from the oligarchy, from exploitation, from evil.

Many of the the things that we use every day may be manufactured by large corporations. The shampoo in our bathroom, the food in our kitchen, the appliances we use, the clothing we wear, the transportation we use, on and on.

But just as we can be entrapped by things we can also be set free by them. Maybe many of us including myself have been affected by a kind of amnesia in that we lost track of the energy of things that are liberating vs. things that are entrapping.

Things that are made with craftsmanship and made locally. Things that are created for our own desires and needs, from our own ingenuity and talent. These things are rich. They connect with brahmanic cultivation in deep ways. When communities are formed around these things they can be magical and inspirational. Think way back in time, for example the old English. Imagine some really old book written so beautifully on paper that was handmade. Imagine the things – the precious things, like little treasures, that people created through their craftsmanship with their skill and talent, in connection with Earth.

Imagine the local industry – not big industry, but local industry related to things like making wagons or to building boats. Imagine walking down streets near the sea where there are the buildings where the craftsmen build or fix boats. Imagine the smell of the sea, imagine the dirt of the road, and the light of the Sun, and the energy of the town you’re in.

Imagine walking into a shop where things that are made with craftsmanship are sold. Imagine a notebook to be used for writing, or a pair of shoes. Imagine public spaces – green areas where people can walk, can be out in the Sun. Imagine food stores with locally-made, extremely healthy foods.

This place can still live in some of us. This place is freedom from prison. It is the path towards freedom.

So what do you want? I already know what I want. I want a small town that is healthy. In it are people like me – who look like me and are like me biologically and genetically. People like me are healthy, attractive, intelligent, conscientious. and creative. All I have to do is follow what my body and spirit tell me is beautiful, not what someone told me I’m supposed to believe. All I need to do is be honest.

I want a bicycle. I do not want to use fossil fuels because of where they come from, nor anything else that comes from places like that. I only want what comes from where I am. I want to develop the skill and technology to use what is nearby and holistic, not what is far away and destructive.

This place and this way is freedom because it is what we are designed for. How we achieve it is up to us.