When we talk about freedom, we’re speaking about the work an individual does to become free of unnecessary laws.
Man as a Microcosmos of the Universe
In order to understand this, it is first necessary to see man as a microcosmos. Man is a microcosmos because, like the universe, he has within him layers of realities. What this means is that man’s inner life contains the possible experience of many different worlds. This is what makes man different from other animals. We have a greater built-in capacity to perceive more worlds or different scales.
Oddly, this works both ways for man. Compared to animals like cats, dogs, and cows, man has the capacity to perceive, or to live in, higher and lower worlds. Man’s capability for compassion, love, empathy, and self-sacrifice demonstrate his capacity to act from a higher world. And his capability for abnormal cruelty and greed demonstrate his capacity to act from a lower world. Animals don’t have the possibility to experience the top and bottom levels that make up the complexities of man’s psychology.
The Worlds of Personality, Essence, and Higher Centers
We can see personality, essence, and higher centers as three different inner worlds, or realities, in man. Personality is under more laws than essence, and essence is under more laws than higher centers. Personality is heavy with laws, while higher centers feel free because they are under fewer laws.
We can take this very simply. There are many experiences in personality that occur quite normally, like greed, worry, fear, and selfishness. In personality, these weaknesses or actions are the law. People who live in personality are even proud of weaknesses like vanity, or dominance, or the expression of certain types of negative emotions. Manifesting from these feature is quite unnecessary, and keeps us in a lower part of ourselves.
The Freedom of Essence and of Higher Centers
Essence is already more free. Think of a child before the age of five. Think of how children are free from worry and embarrassment. This is essence. We see the world more directly in a state of essence, because essence is free from the dark glass, or the laws, of personality.
Ascending from essence to higher centers we automatically lose many physical laws, laws connected to the body, like having to eat and taking care of our health. Higher centers exists outside of these laws, which in itself is very liberating.
The worlds of personality, essence, and higher centers are also expressed outside of us. The world of essence is much of what we think of as natural: trees, plants, soil, vegetables, grains. Animals function primarily from essence. It’s refreshing to walk in the woods or in a garden because nature represents essence. When nature surrounds us, it tends to bring out essence in us. In the same way, a city will tend to bring out personality. Much of what mankind builds is an expression of his personality; that is, his vanities, fears, ideas, and desires.
The Freedom of the Real
The main idea that I want to communicate here is that to function from higher centers means that you function from different worlds and that these worlds are under fewer laws, which is what real freedom means: the freedom to participate in the Real.
–William Page is the author of the blog BePresentFirst. See the complete article at https://bepresentfirst.com/when-we-talk-about-freedom/.
Another recent article is https://fourthwaytoday.org/memory-and-higher-states/.