Essay 18: FREE TO LET BE

“What [every man] has chosen to think, was his privilege, his power, his ability. When he chose to imagine matter, he had the right. … He had the right to call himself Christ or Adam. He had the right to cease to call himself by any other name than his own name and recollect his majesty and bliss as God.” (Esoteric Philosophy page 70:2)

Free will is the greatest gift bestowed upon us by a Father Presence that knows only to give endlessly and eternally into Its Creation. At the same time, this gift is endlessly problematic for us self-aware human beings, as we find our way back to our native Home Point, which is complete reunion in Original Mind through Christ.

Free will has been the engine of our journey Homeward since Adam and Eve consciously chose to partake of the Tree of Knowledge instead of being mere caretakers and custodians of the Eden Paradise. It was at that moment that the gift of free will was activated in the human soul, and mankind stepped out onto the “yellow brick road” to Christhood. It could be said that we left the Garden of our own volition, since True Freedom can only be attained in this way.

In John 10:18, Jesus declares “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. This charge I have received from my Father.” We were never meant to be God’s puppets, mere automatons of blind obedience. Immortal Mind Presence would have us as heirs, as partners filled with Intelligence, Wisdom, and Passion, just as the great example of Christ Jesus.

Without free will, individualizing the Universal (Being Jesus as Christ) would not be possible for us, and we would remain Adam and Eve throughout eternity. Without free will, we never attain the “I” that makes us individual points of Light that define the Second Coming upon this earth. For each of us, realizing and revealing our own True Names is dependent upon the journey of free will experiences that we have made over many lifetimes, with endless choices and inestimable consequences. Emma tells us that, “It is each one’s business to recollect for himself.” (71:2) Free will is a labyrinth by which our Sacred Hearts remember their way Home to Original Mind, by attainment of individualized Wisdom and Grace.

Each choice that we make shows us the Light or keeps us in bondage. It is often said that “the true definition of insanity is doing the same thing the same way, expecting different results.” Our exercise of free will can be applied to a statement such as this, to the degree that we choose subconsciously, looking toward matter, or exclusively from our yet-to-be-resurrected human egos. Choosing in this way is much like being held in a prison of our own making, tightly grasping the key in our hand and demanding that someone or something else open the door and set us free.

Our ascension through the Kingdoms of Consciousness is truly “by our own hand” in that we make our choices individually and depending upon whatever Light that we already have. In Kingdom 1, we choose from near-darkness based upon what is “right before our eyes.” In this consciousness duality, matter, the earth, and the fear of what we cannot see control our exercise of free will. Here, while we choose individually, we are heavily influenced by the chaos and cacophony that is all around us. The Light here is merely a dim specter; our choices are more reaction than reason. In this state, we seek agreements for our choices, but it is the agreement of “misery loves company” and “clan consciousness.” Most who ascend out of this activity of free will do so because of some calamity or ruination that brings them to the very brink of possible enlightenment.

Mentally, free will is the activity of thinking toward True Freedom. At this level, Kingdom 2 consciousness, this aspect of Changeless Reality has Its Light shed upon it for the very first time in us. As we exercise free will here, we have one foot in the world and the other in the realm of ideas. There is enough Light here to show us that “thoughts are things” and that there are worlds beyond the material. The etheric and spiritual planes open, and they guide our choices, our lives, and our affairs, as circumstances and conditions become lifted. We use our free will in Kingdom 2 to demonstrate empowerment by intelligence, with Light IN the world.

Kingdom 3 awareness begins to merge free will back into The Will by our ability and willingness to become meek. Here our choices are made more by Principle than precedent, so that Christ can reign in our souls. The Light, so essential to our exercise of free will by Grace, is joined in the process by Passion, just as it was in Christ Jesus. With this Passion comes compassion (common-passion) born of deep-seeded personal memory of our own free will experiences. In a very real sense, this is how our authentic ministries are formed, working with people and in arenas common to our own free will memory. In this way, we can bring forth both Light and Heat to the world and those we serve.

Free will at this level is brought forth by intuition and inspiration as well as the genuine trust and true feelings that propel them forward into expression that is neither in nor of the earth. Individualized Wisdom catches fire in Kingdom 3 awareness and any remaining agenda is very nearly transparent, allowing the Light to be as the “noonday sun” in its purity and power. This is the “Light OF the world” that Jesus embodied and described.

Beyond Kingdom 3, free will dissolves once and for all into The Will. The Homecoming is complete. It is here that all doctrine, all ideas, and all agendas seamlessly unite into Genesis Mind, with nothing to choose and nothing to think. This Divine reunion shifts our gaze forever from the Light to the very Source of that Light. As we look toward what we might call Kingdom 4, the Mystical Consciousness, we can sense, embrace, and even feel the power and expansiveness of Christ Jesus’ declaration, “I and the Father are One.” (John 10:30)