What freedom means to me

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Freedom to me is not my being free from physical restraints. It is not my being free as a citizen, an employee or as a member of any organized institution. And it is especially not my being free from material or financial limitations.

I strive not to cling to all these things because I am realizing each passing day how fragile and temporary they are. I am coming to terms with the thought that I will forever be chasing mere phantoms if I continue to pursue such things for their own sake. For I am realizing that external gratifications can never satisfy the yearnings of my inner world.

It is by looking within that I knew what freedom is. It is by realizing the vastness that I have inside me. A part of myself that I fail to tap into each time I focus my gaze outwards, into the impermanence of the material world. Within me is a pure place, free of judgments, beliefs, and conditionings. A sanctuary where there's no need to play pretend, manipulate or lie. 

Within me, I am free. I always have been. Within me, I am myself, true, and sacred. My capacity to think for myself; to freely and clearly discern truth from untruth, is the only enduring freedom that I'll ever have. 

To know and be my true self is my true emancipation. This is what freedom means to me.