Freedom is love. As long as we live from a position of fear we will not feel love. Love is giving from the deepest level of conviction, with no return or benefit expected. Love is infinite consciousness. Love is pervasive, ever present in every being.

Oppression is ignorance. Oppression is suffering for the sake of physical gratification, attempting to steal people’s energy in order to feel free, to feel powerful.

Love is the acceptance of our purpose; to expand with the universe, with consciousness.

I embrace the spiritual revolution, that we may know ourselves within the context of infinity. That we may save this planet. That we may know our place in the cosmic evolution.

May our world leaders awaken from their narrow dream. May they experience true freedom in their inevitable quest for truth.

Our intention is critical, may our intention for peace, freedom, love become a quantum collective reality

by Ignacio Alvarez
Pomona USA

Photo Pandiyan

If we do whatever it takes to give them a childhood of unparalleled freedom, they will know themselves and naturally progress on the freedom track. They won’t be bogged down with asinine rules and regulations created to ensure docile obedient adults…adults who have no understanding of freedom.

My freedom lay in raising a free child, in ignoring the remarks of others telling me that I was ruining her life by giving her freedom. I felt freedom radiate through me as I sat, year after year, quietly watching my daughter grow and make decisions according to what she really felt and believed. Her choices came from her heart and were not influenced by what she thought a teacher, controlling parent or even a peer wanted.

Raising my unprocessed child was more freeing than anything I’ve ever done – before or since. And now she soars.

School is the antithesis of freedom. Remove that burden from your child’s life and they will experience true freedom, naturally entering the adult world with a strength that is lacking in today’s leaders.

by Valerie Fitzenreiter, author
The Unprocessed Child: Living without School
www.ubpub.com

Let me don my clown wig and big shoes, and tell you a little bit about the wisdom of the fool. In the tarot there is always a dog biting at the heels of the fool. That dog represents the constraints of society. The fool does not notice-she continues merrily on her way, with a grin that says, ‘If I can’t laugh in your spiritual revolution, then count me out.’

The fool is the trickster, the crow, the dervish, the changeling, shapeshifting, adapting, aware of the impermanence of the so-called person. True to the diamond self, indestructible. The fool was the only one in the court who could question the king, who could mock the pompous dogma of the day.

Back in the eighties, punk rock was all about tearing down the structures of hierarchy, the ways of power over. “God Save the Queen – she ain’t no human being,” the Sex Pistols sang, laughing in the face of dogma.

Of course there were some severe limitations to this tearing down – nothing was really raised up in its place. This is why spiritual activism is so key. What was missing from punk rock, to a large extent, was compassion.

Aleister Crowely wrote “Do what thou wilt shalt be the whole of the law – under Love.” Too many people leave out the Love part. Keep that in, and you can step off the precipice safely, into the realm of the Present.

The fool is unmediated, unconditioned, free from pattern thinking. Spontaneous combustion. Breaking out of pattern thinking is liberation.

Terrence Mckenna used to say that we take tiles, and write the names of things on them. We write ‘Beautiful Sky’ on a tile, and then stick it up, cover the sky, tile the sky, until the sky itself can no longer be seen. Un-tile the sky is the fools call. The call at the core of all the mystic traditions.

As we become adults, our habitual mind begins to see everything as a repetition of the past. Not this particular tree, just a tree, the tree we’ve seen before, we’ll see again: generic tree. We do need a certain level of filtration to survive. That is the purpose of pattern recognition-it allows us to focus on other matters. And it’s fast.

Sometimes we need that function to survive. “Danger tiger. Safety-cave. Run!” No time for contemplation of the beauty of the tiger, or the metaphoric significance of the cave. To see things as generalized repetitions of previous experiences means instantaneous response patterns.

But it precludes actual seeing. All we’re doing is responding with a tired old mental image, or ‘Kuntak’ as Tibetan Buddhists say, a construct. Likely one not even devised by us. Instead, created by society.

To break that down, to see things with fresh eyes, this is the role of the fool. Every day is a new adventure. Fresh, alive, full. And unattached. It comes, it goes. Around the corner, new offerings will come. And new tests. Which are also offerings.

This spirit represented is represented by the fool. The great sages know the importance of laughter, the smile that says, ‘all is empty.’ Life demands a constant treading of the line between Samsara and Nirvana, between the absolute and the relative, between the divine and the human, between the freedom of the fool and the wisdom of the sage.

Aldous Huxley claimed he could move into the clear light at will. The temptation to stay was great, but he always chose to come back. There were things to do right here, right now, for this planet. This is the compassion of the Bodhisattva. The deeply sane madness of the Holy Fool.

by Velcrow Ripper
Documentary Filmmaker
Toronto, Canada
www.fiercelight.org

Also, freedom means the ability to dress, work and play the way I want and to live how and where I want, as long as I am not harming anyone else. The concept of freedom is so confronting to so many because it makes them question their values and behaviour which they know are lacking but either do not know, or do not want to know, how to change.

World leaders should be preaching tolerance, acceptance of diversity, especially in this age of rapid globalization, and love for all humanity regardless or color, creed, and religion. Much more energy and money could be put into programs and policies for healing and creating peace than for war.

We need to set an example for future generations; practice what we preach, dematerialize, love unconditionally and unreservedly and look after the planet.

by Jo Garnett
Australia

And the Future of Freedom – A Manifesto:

Children are the mantle upon which the future of our planet rests, investing in their wellbeing is the ultimate sustainable and political act.

Every child is wanted and welcomed.

Pregnancy is a natural event (not a medical condition) and the importance of the mother’s emotional, mental and physical wellbeing is recognized and supported.

A natural birth affords significant benefits to mother,
baby, father and family; therefore both the potential
benefits and risks of any intervention warrant careful
consideration.

Parents have the right and responsibility to be fully
informed about pregnancy, birthing, health and education
choices.

Optimal development for infants and children is fostered
by full-term breastfeeding, baby-wearing, co-sleeping,
maintaining genital integrity (no circumcision), and
plenty of skin-to-skin contact.

Children are by nature social beings, born with the
drive to love and be loved, to learn about their world
through spontaneous play, exploration, and participation
inclusion in the activities of their elders, to cooperate
with others, and to contribute to their world. They are
most able to develop their full potential when treated
with care and respect.

Children are born with inherent, physical, emotional,
intellectual and spiritual needs.

Children depend upon their caregivers to protect
them from violence, abuse, being left to cry it out, shaming,
toxic food and toxic environments.

Children depend on their parents to demonstrate and
model to them appropriate ways of setting safe respectful
boundaries and limits to inappropriate behavior.

The role of the father and mother is profound and not
to be underestimated. Also important are the multiple
attachments outside the immediate family.

Optimal development includes supporting children’s
growth towards healthy sexual maturity across the physical,
emotional, social and ethical dimensions of sexual
wellbeing.

Family-friendly political, economic, educational and
social structures enhance parents’ opportunities and
ability to nurture and sustain a secure bond with their
children.

Community plays a vital role in raising children, both
as a support system for this secure bonding and also as a
source for secondary attachments.

Parenting our children means also re-parenting
ourselves. Self-discovery plays a major factor in the art of
effective parenting.

Imperfection is the lesson in how to be perfectly
human. Allowing ourselves as parents to make mistakes,
be transparently ourselves and emotionally alive in
relating to our children, enables them to individuate and
find their own separate and unique self.

After bonding comes healthy separation, facilitated by our
perfectly human inability to be everything to our children.

by Kali Wendorf
Mother, activist, magazine publisher/editor
Mullumbimby, Australia
Kindred Magazine