There is a rather famous old World War II song entitled "Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder." One of the reasons this song became memorable is that its lyrics touched on something deep in the human heart.

The only lyric I can remember from this song is sufficient to make my point: "Off we go/into the wild blue yonder/flying high into the sky." Coupled with its emotionally rising melody, the idea seeded into these words speaks to our inherent longing to be free of limitations, to reach into uncluttered, open spaces within ourselves wherein all is free and filled with promise.

Everyone senses we are intended to be free creatures, to be able to roam and enjoy ever-widening spaces without the fear of falling. And even if we are not conscious of this sentiment, or perhaps even scoff at its idea, nevertheless we still experience our pleasures and pains as an effect of this unfettered consciousness within us.

Think about this for a moment. How else do we explain why we so often feel as though we are not free? Or that we are somehow unwilling captives of our own life? How can we know what something is not, or sense what we are not, unless there stands within us, at the same time, that which is this very state of self we feel is missing?

Freedom, real freedom, does exist. But it is not a condition of events, nor is it found within another person's approval of us. Neither is real freedom ever a mere effect of circumstances, otherwise it is not freedom but merely a temporary pleasure we have mistaken for being the same as being free.

What, then, is real freedom? Where is it to be found? Let us start by saying that freedom is a quality of Truth, one of its great branches. And as it has been so timelessly spoken of, it is in realizing the truth of ourselves that we are set free. This is why there is no substitute for the true self-knowledge that follows.

Our present self often feels itself captive because the only way it can "know" itself is through the unconscious comparison of its past experiences to its present circumstances. In other words, this level of self only knows what it is once it has gazed into the mirror of what it was. This realm of reflections represents its entire range of existence.

Anytime life brings along an event that can't be neatly fit into the pre-set realm of this self, it immediately gets shaky. Suddenly finding itself unable to be certain as to the meaning of the unwanted moment, this lower level of self fears the loss of its imagined control. The way it deals with this fear