European Masters: Blueprints for Awakening

Acknowledgements

I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my two direct Masters, Osho and Papaji. Without my twenty years sitting at their feet this book could not exist. Sri Ramana Maharshi came into my life quietly and invisibly, gradually becoming my main inspiration and guide.

My gratitude also goes to all the exceptional Masters who gave their time to meet me and later to proofread their European Masters texts. Their availability to meet me more than once gave the opportunity to collect more film footage. Thank you for providing the additional photos and film.

An interview is a spontaneous and unique conversation. My thanks to Devi for her sensitive editing of the interview transcripts, accurately produced by Sathya, Dev Gogoi and Melissa from the original recordings. To Devi and Akash for patiently proofreading the manuscript over and over again! To Mahima and Prema who, while translating this book into German, added the final touches.

I should like to offer my thanks to Sri Ramana Ashram for permission to use the dedication picture of Sri Ramana Maharshi and to Devi and Tara who have taken the majority of the photos that have not been taken from the films as stills. My thanks also to Swamini Pramananda, who gave her expert advice on compiling the Sanskrit glossary.

Thanks go to Durga for creating the Interactive Video Website, allowing so many short video extracts from the interviews to be available, to Atma and Tara for the graphic design of the numerous art pages and to Shivananda for his fine graphic advice and support with the cover design.

Thank you to Tara for her sensitive editing of European Masters – Blueprints for Awakening, the book’s companion film, and the series of twelve films, Meeting the Master. In addition, for her translation and proofreading skills and for being always ready to give aesthetic advice.

My heart-felt thanks to all the residents of the Open Sky House Community for giving such loving, energetic support, creating a space for all those working actively on the book and films.

Finally my deep thanks and appreciation to Devi for her careful work and consistent support in every facet of this project, in particular her help with formatting the book. She has truly been invaluable.

Premananda 2010

Published by Open Sky Press, Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

Introduction

Foreword Ken Wilber

Preface Jan Kersschot

Chapter 1: Christopher Titmuss

Chapter 2: Deva Premal and Miten

Chapter 3: Dolano

Chapter 4: Francis Lucille

Chapter 5: Karl Renz

Chapter 6: Michael Barnett

Chapter 7: Mooji

Chapter 8: OM C. Parkin

Chapter 9: Padma & Torsten

Chapter 10: Premananda

Chapter 11: Rupert Spira

Chapter 12: Tony Parsons

Who am I?

Glossary

Book and DVD Information

Introduction

European Masters – Blueprints for Awakening has arisen, without any personal intention, from the Blueprints for Awakening – Indian Masters project. Visiting Arunachala and Tiruvannamalai in South India each year, I naturally come in contact with many Western Masters coming to pay homage to Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. Living close to Cologne in the Open Sky Satsang and Art Community in the centre of Western Europe I also have the opportunity to meet many Western Masters and to interview them.

The idea for the Blueprints for Awakening – Indian Masters project came to me in 1993 while living in Lucknow, North India, in the sangha (spiritual community) of my Master, Papaji. One day I received an inner message or vision telling me to go and catch the great Indian Masters on film before they were lost to the world. Ten years later, after five years living in Australia, I was on my way to Europe where I later settled down. In between I took a personal retreat of one year in Tiruvannamalai, at the holy mountain, Arunachala. During that year, after progressing with the Indian Masters interviews, it occurred to me to interview Western Masters. There is such a wealth of Western Masters that it has become necessary to make two books. This European Masters Book and Film will be followed by an American and Australian Masters project.

The Indian Masters book and film, have touched many people. Interestingly, the film has created the stronger reaction. Several people have told me they have watched it thirty plus times! Whenever I have shown the film in Italy, Spain, Denmark, India, Germany, Russia or the Ukraine a profound stillness has fallen over the room, leading to a deep silence at the end before the inevitable compliments. The original question about ‘dead mind’ was so convincingly dealt with by the Indian Masters it is no longer a focus of this European Masters project.

European Masters – Blueprints for Awakening is for everyone who has an inner passion to know who they are and what they are doing here as a human being. It is for all who ask the question ‘Who am I?’ and for those who are looking for guidance on the teaching of Sri Ramana to ‘be as you are’. It covers the main issues that arise on a spiritual seeker’s journey to awakening to their essential nature, to Truth. It presents the fascinating depths of the Indian spiritual tradition through the eyes of European Masters who have gone to drink at that ancient well of knowledge.

We have included the complete text of Nan Yar – Who Am I? Originally, these answers were written by Sri Ramana in the sand of Arunachala in 1901, when he would have been twenty-one years old. Sri Ramana rewrote the original work in the 1920s and it is one of the few texts edited and approved by him. This is the Source text from which Self-enquiry can be understood and from which some of my questions have been taken.

Twelve questions have been asked to fourteen European Masters who have crossed my path in the last five years. There was no attempt at a special selection. These are Masters who have come into my life and who I appreciate. I did not approach them as a seeker, but rather as a teacher wishing to clarify my own understanding. I wanted to offer a platform for each Master to give his or her blueprint to be put out into the world, a world in great need, and, hopefully, a world where these teachings will find a receptive audience. The questions are referenced to Sri Ramana’s teachings, even though the intention is for each Master to express his or her own teaching blueprint. Naturally, there is no actual blueprint as each person’s spiritual journey is unique.

My own Master was Papaji, who met his Master, Sri Ramana, in the 1940s. Sri Ramana came into my life through an original Welling portrait that I found in a pile of debris in a room I had rented in Pune while I was with Osho in the years before I met Papaji. During my five years with Papaji he greeted a photograph of Sri Ramana every morning and on occasion said that he spoke as a channel for him. In the last fifteen years many Western Advaita (nonduality) teachers have begun teaching in the world. Sri Ramana is the spiritual inspiration for most of them. During the last years of Sri Ramana’s life, in the 1940s, a small number of Westerners made it to his ashram and were touched by his presence. Wolter Keers came from the Netherlands and taught in Europe in the 1970s and 80s:

The mere sight of him made me tremble all over because I had come face to face with the Divine. This recognition affected me so much that my body shook involuntarily. As I gazed at Sri Ramana, I felt I saw God Himself sitting there. S.S. Cohen from Iraq lived in the ashram and is buried there:

I was alone in the hall with him. Joy and peace suffused my being, never before had I such a delightful feeling of purity and well being at the mere proximity of a man. To the serious minded, Bhagwan was a beacon light in an otherwise impenetrable darkness.

The basic structure of each interview uses the same twelve questions [see Interview Questions in the front of the book]. The questions are the same as the ones asked of the Indian Masters, with a few variations to more clearly reflect the Western experience. Further questions were asked spontaneously to illuminate an answer, leading to many exceptions to the basic twelve-question structure. In each interview there was the vital element and strong energy of the Master’s presence, and I searched for a way to include this presence in the book. Hence you will find a DVD Sampler in the back of this book. It contains a Trailer for European Masters – Blueprints for Awakening, which is the companion film to this book, a set of the Masters’ Portraits and an excerpt from the Video Website: www.blueprintsforawakening.org with one hundred and fifty small videos of the Masters.

The film includes selections from all twelve interviews and sets out important aspects of the teachings presented in this book. A series of separate films, Blueprints for Awakening – Meeting the Master, showing each Master’s complete interview as well as material filmed during subsequent visits, will also be available later. This set of films and the Video Website create a unique archive for those wishing to taste the simple wisdom of Truth through the Grace of these Masters.

It was profound to experience the many different facets to sharing Truth in my meetings with these men and women. Tony Parsons, who had spent time with Osho but does not acknowledge a Master figure, and Karl Renz, for whom Arunachala mountain played the role of Master, would not see themselves in the lineage of Sri Ramana. They speak Truth from the absolute, without any compromise towards an illusionary somebody. In contrast to this absolute position, Dolano, Mooji, OM C. Parkin, Padma and Torsten and myself are firmly in the lineage of Papaji and Sri Ramana, exalting the benefits of conducting Selfenquiry according to the ancient tradition for all those still identifying as a separate somebody. The practice is for the false somebody. Francis Lucille, whose Master was Jean Klein, and Rupert Spira, who has Francis as his Master, also encourage Self-enquiry, though with a slightly different approach.

I am so happy for the inspiration to include Deva Premal and Miten who bring the way of the Heart into the book and particularly into the film. They have touched so many by their mantra singing and their devotion to their master Osho, to each other and to their audiences. This devotion can be felt in every moment of their concerts. These are not performances but accepting what is, daring to stop. The concerts are another form of Satsang. Mooji, with his sunny Jamaican personality and warm heart, also personifies the devotional approach.

I would have liked to include more female teachers in particular, as this moment in history seems to demand the female touch for us to recover from centuries of male domination. So I am happy to include Dolano, a disciple of Osho. Dolano also has a great love for Papaji and Gangaji, both of whom she spent time with. Padma is a young woman who has been in relationship with Torsten for some ten years. They make no compromise, always keeping Truth as their priority. Padma’s teachers are from Sri Ramana’s lineage, in particular Papaji, Isaac, Gangaji and Eli Jaxon-Bear. Then, of course, Deva Premal, whose master is Osho. All these women are German, which seems right. Perhaps German women in particular have emancipated themselves more than any others in a balanced manner from male domination. Neeru, another German woman, based in Goa, India, and Kalika, an Italian woman, both have cameo appearances in the film.

Michael Barnett, now eighty, originally a close disciple of Osho, has developed a transmission of Truth through subtle energy work. Francis Lucille had a close association with his Master Jean Klein and was friends with other Masters notably Wolter Keers, Douglas Harding and Robert Adams. Rupert Spira, a successful and talented potter, has been inspired by his Master, Francis Lucille, to include Beauty in addition to Peace and Love as an attribute of Truth. Christopher Titmuss has come from the Buddhist tradition having two Thai Buddhist Masters but is something of a maverick, not following any particular linage and expressing Truth in his very own characteristic English fashion. As I formulated the questions they are of particular interest to me, and so I was happy to respond to the challenge of answering them myself.

Some of the Masters use Sanskrit terms. Sanskrit, the ancient language of Vedicphilosophy, with its unparalleled richness of expression, has been considered the language of the Gods. You will find an English explanation with each Sanskrit word the first time it appears in each chapter. The comprehensive glossary gives a more detailed explanation of the italicised Sanskrit words.

While writing this introduction I recognise the depth of the spiritual wisdom contained in this Book, the Film and the Video Website. It is a valuable archive, now encompassing thirty Indian and European Masters. I am pleased that I have been able to manifest the original vision that came to me seventeen years ago. I had initially some concern whether the European Masters could match their Indian colleagues but in fact they offer something different and valuable. This is the ancient wisdom of humanity passed down through generations of Masters and their disciples to all who wish to know who they are.

It has been a total delight to experience the profundity of the European Masters, many of whom have taken their knowledge of the Indian traditional teachings and combined it with their knowledge of Western psychology to offer a unique transmission most suitable for the Western seeker. Until perhaps thirty years ago it was necessary to go to the East to access these teachings. Now they are available down the road or through the Internet. In short, this book is a treasure for all on the path of Truth.

Finally I express my love and gratitude to Sri Ramana and Papaji, who I consider to be my Masters and constant guides and who inspired me to create this project.

Premananda 2010

Foreword

Ken Wilber

The Sage of the Century

That Nondual vision – in the form of Vedanta, Shaivism, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism – is the precious gift of India to the world, and it found its purest, most elegant, most brilliant expression in the simple sage of Arunachala.

I am often asked, ‘If you were stranded on a desert island and had only one book, what would it be?’ Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi is one of the two or three I always mention. The Talks tops the list in this regard: they are the living voice of the greatest sage of the 20th century and, arguably, the greatest spiritual realisation of this or any time.

One of the many astonishing things about these Talks is how remarkably unwavering is the tone and style, the voice itself – not in the sense that it is fixed and rigid, but rather that it speaks with a full-blown maturity from the first word to the last. It is as if – no, it is certainly the case that – Sri Ramana’s realisation came to him fully formed – or perhaps we should say, fully formless – and therefore it needed no further growth. He simply speaks from and as the absolute, the Self, the purest Emptiness that is the goal and ground of the entire manifest world, and is not other to that world. Sri Ramana, echoing Shankara, used to say:

The world is illusory;

Brahman alone is real;

Brahman is the world.

This profound realisation is what separates Sri Ramana’s genuine enlightenment from today’s many pretenders to the throne – deep ecology, ecofeminism, Gaia revivals, Goddess worship, ecopsychology, systems theory, web-of-life notions – none of which have grasped the first two lines, and therefore, contrary to their sweet pronouncements, do not really understand the third. And it is exactly for all of those who are thus in love merely with the manifest world – from capitalists to socialists, from green polluters to green peacers, from egocentrics to ecocentrists – that Sri Ramana’s message needs so desperately to be heard.

What and where is this Self? How do I abide as That? There is no doubt how Sri Ramana would answer those – and virtually all other – questions: Who wants to know? What in you, right now, is aware of this page? Who is the Knower that knows the world but cannot itself be known? Who is the Hearer that hears the birds but cannot itself be heard? Who is the Seer that sees the clouds but cannot itself be seen?

And so arises Self-enquiry, Sri Ramana’s special gift to the world. I have feelings, but I am not those feelings. Who am I? I have thoughts, but I am not those thoughts. Who am I? I have desires, but I am not those desires. Who am I?

So you push back into the Source of your own awareness – what Sri Ramana often called the ‘I-I’, since it is aware of the normal I or ego. You push back into the Witness, the I-I, and you rest as That. I am not objects, not feelings, not desires, not thoughts.

But then people usually make a rather unfortunate mistake in this Self-enquiry. They think that if they rest in the Self, or Witness, they are going to see something, or feel something, something really amazing, special, spiritual. But you won’t see anything. If you see something, that is just another object – another feeling, another thought, another sensation, another image. But those are all objects; those are what you are not.

No, as you rest in the Witness – realising I am not objects, I am not feelings, I am not thoughts – all you will notice is a sense of Freedom, a sense of Liberation, a sense of Release – release from the terrible constriction of identifying with these little finite objects, the little body and little mind and little ego, all of which are objects that can be seen, and thus are not the true Seer, the real Self, the pure Witness, which is what you really are.

So you won’t see anything in particular. Whatever is arising is fine. Clouds float by in the sky, feelings float by in the body, thoughts float by in the mind – and you can effortlessly witness all of them. They all spontaneously arise in your own present, easy, effortless awareness. And this witnessing awareness is not itself anything specific you can see. It is just a vast, background sense of Freedom – or pure Emptiness – and in that pure Emptiness, which you are, the entire manifest world arises. You are that Freedom, Openness, Emptiness – and not any little finite thing that arises in it.

Resting in that empty, free, easy, effortless witnessing, notice that the clouds are arising in the vast space of your awareness. The clouds are arising within you – so much so you can taste the clouds, you are one with the clouds, it is as if they are on this side of your skin, they are so close. The sky and your awareness have become one, and all things in the sky are floating effortlessly through your own awareness. You can kiss the sun, swallow the mountain, they are that close. Zen says ‘Swallow the Pacific Ocean in a single gulp,’ and that’s the easiest thing in the world when inside and outside are no longer two, when subject and object are nondual, when the looker and looked at are One Taste.

And so: The world is illusory, which means you are not any object at all – nothing that can be seen is ultimately real. You are neti-neti, not this, not that. And under no circumstances should you base your salvation on that which is finite, temporal, passing, illusory, sufferingenhancing and agony-inducing.

Brahman alone is real, the Self (unqualifiable Brahman-Atman) alone is real – the pure Witness, the timeless Unborn, the formless Seer, the radical I-I, radiant Emptiness – is what is real and all that is real. It is your condition, your nature, your essence, your present and your future, your desire and your destiny, and yet it is always ever-present as pure Presence, the alone that is Alone.

Brahman is the world, Emptiness and Form are not-two. After you realise that the manifest world is illusory, and after you realise that Brahman alone is real, then you can see that the absolute and the relative are not-two or nondual, then you can see that nirvana and samsara are not-two, then you can realise that the Seer and everything seen are nottwo, Brahman and the world are not-two – all of which really means, the sound of those birds singing! The entire world of Form exists nowhere but in your own present Formless Awareness: You can drink the Pacific in a single gulp, because the entire world literally exists in your pure Self, the ever-present great I-I.

Finally, and most important, Sri Ramana would remind us that the pure Self – and therefore the great Liberation – cannot be attained, any more than you can attain your feet or acquire your lungs. You are already aware of the sky, you already hear the sounds around you, you already witness this world. One hundred percent of the enlightened mind or pure Self is present right now – not ninety-nine percent, but one hundred percent.

As Sri Ramana constantly pointed out, if the Self (or knowledge of the Self ) is something that comes into existence – if your realisation has a beginning in time – then that is merely another object, another passing, finite, temporal state. There is no reaching the Self – the Self is reading this page. There is no looking for the Self – it is looking out of your eyes right now. There is no attaining the Self – it is reading these words. You simply, absolutely, cannot attain that which you have never lost. And if you do attain something, Sri Ramana would say, that’s very nice, but that’s not the Self.

So, if I may suggest, as you read the following words from the world’s greatest sage: If you think you don’t understand Self or Spirit, then rest in that which doesn’t understand, and just that is Spirit. If you think you don’t quite ‘get’ the Self or Spirit, then rest in that which doesn’t quite get it, and just that is Spirit. Thus, if you think you understand Spirit, that is Spirit. If you think you don’t, that is Spirit. And so we can leave with Sri Ramana’s greatest and most secret message: The enlightened mind is not hard to attain but impossible to avoid. In the dear Master’s words:

There is neither creation nor destruction,

Neither destiny nor free-will;

Neither path nor achievement;

This is the final Truth.

Ken Wilber

One Taste: The Journal of Ken Wilber (1999)

Preface

Jan Kersschot

There is no reaching the Self. If Self were to be reached, it would mean that the Self is not here and now but that it is yet to be obtained. What is got afresh will also be lost. So it will be impermanent. What is not permanent is not worth striving for. So I say that the Self is not reached. You are the Self; you are already That.

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Referring to Sri Ramana Maharshi is a great challenge, especially if you never met him in person. When relying on what was written about him, it is clear that this man was capable of throwing his followers back into themselves, just by being his True Self in a simple, straightforward way. Many seekers at the time were overwhelmed by the power and depth of his presence.

But what sometimes happened was that his words were (afterwards) interpreted as if enlightenment was something he attained as a person. People started to believe that he had attained ‘It’ – some special state which his followers hadn’t reached (yet).

That presumption may be confusing because the True Self is limitless, and as a result It cannot be owned by anyone. Believing one can actually reach or attain enlightenment (as a person) only encourages the seeker to believe that he or she can find That as well. When one understands that the ‘seeker’ is just a mind construct, any recommendation that the seeker could attain Oneness through Self-enquiry is a contradiction in terms.

I believe that basically, all Sri Ramana pointed to was that everybody ‘is’ already This. That automatically means that there is no need for any purification or any spiritual search whatsoever. How can one find the Self if This is what we really are? How can one attain That which has no limits whatsoever? So in a way, Sri Ramana’s Self-enquiry is like a Zen koan, as there is no answer to the question, ‘Who am I?’ But seeing that indeed there is no answer to this question, that there is no seeker, can bring an end to the spiritual search.

Jan Kersschot M.D.

Coming Home and The Myth of Self-Enquiry

Christopher Titmuss

Christopher Titmuss, a former Buddhist monk in Thailand and India, now teaches Awakening and Insight Meditation around the world. He is the founder and director of the Dharma Facilitators Programme and the Living Dharma Programme. He gives retreats, participates in pilgrimages and leads Dharma gatherings. A senior Dharma teacher in the West, a campaigner for peace and other global issues, Christopher is a member of the international advisory council of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Poet and writer, he is the co-founder of Gaia House,an international retreat centre in Devon, England. He lives in Totnes, Devon.

While with Papaji in Lucknow in 1993 I heard about Christopher giving talks in Bodhigaya, India, and at Bodhi Farm, Australia. I had wanted to meet him and my chance came in Tiruvannamalai in 2009. He immediately agreed to an interview and although busy with his retreat he met me the next day. He is very English, funny, playful and profound. We just had that delightful, joyful interview time together.

Sri Ramana Maharshi proposed the fundamental question, ‘Who am I?’ Who are you?

A small extra in the scheme of things.

Would you like to unfold that a bit?

‘I’ is a phenomenon of appearance. Who am ‘I’? There is a movement. I talk to you and the feeling, the sense of ‘I’, rather easily lands somewhere. I say it’s a little extra, not of any great, profound significance. At the moment, it lands in the voice. I am talking to you. I am responding as best I can to your profound question. It lands in the sense of the form of the body sitting here on the chair. The ‘I’ makes a little shift in the moment and then ‘I’ lands with the body.

In the context of Sri Ramana’s teachings, and more importantly, from the place of awareness and exploration, the voice doesn’t claim the ‘I’. The voice doesn’t say, ‘I am speaking.’ The ‘I’ lands. The body doesn’t say, ‘I am sitting here.’ It is the ‘I’ that says, ‘I am sitting here.’ So this extraordinary phenomenon of the ‘I’ likes to land in feelings, thought, body, speech, activity, etc. What’s interesting is when it has nowhere to land. This gives the whisper of the best.

Many seekers are looking for enlightenment as if it is an experience. What is enlightenment?

I’ll take the response in three parts. Forgive me for some analysis. Firstly, the word; secondly, its application for the seeker; and thirdly, how this poor guy understands it.

The word ‘enlightenment’ is not found in Indian Sanskrit Pali texts. Mistranslation – big time. The word ‘enlightenment’ is a Western concept. It refers to a shift in Western thought around two to three centuries ago. Gradually, through the development of science and the questioning of belief, the shift began to take place. The view of the world changed from a belief in God the creator who dispensed reward and punishment for human behaviour and human beliefs, to belief in science and application of thought, of reason, as the vehicle to know reality. The intensification of scientific enquiry, industrialisation and the supremacy of the belief in reason and thought came to be called ‘the period of enlightenment’.

The English colonialists came to India with the usual English arrogance and, armed either with the Bible (therefore the old belief system: God the creator and the punisher) or with scientific knowledge and the ideas of progress, tried to implant that view in India. Vichara (enquiry) had gone on for five thousand years of exploration here in India. Nineteenth century translators of Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese and Tibetan used the Western concept ‘enlightenment’.

A view was established. Buddha’s ‘enlightenment’, Sri Ramana Maharshi’s ‘enlightenment’, showed that human beings can have (and I would agree with this) a once-and-for-all, life-changing experience. The old, the problematic, the karma (cause and effect), the dispositions, are irrevocably finished, silenced, gone, and something absolutely, utterly new emerges. The Western word ‘enlightenment’ was applied to this change. It feeds the idea of a single, once-in-a-lifetime event. We do not need such an event for liberation.

To come to the second point, it gives the seeker the idea that if I keep on seeking, at some point some mind-blowing enlightenment will happen to me, and it will be a night-and-day change. Sri Ramana had enlightenment in which the self never landed with the body and so there was no death, and the Buddha had his night of enlightenment. The seeker may think this is what I should work towards. This is called ‘practice’. Or I shouldn’t work towards it but I should wait for ‘Grace’. (I’ve never met her.) Grace will come and then I will become enlightened. I prefer we drop the word ‘enlightenment’. It’s a heavily charged buzzword. There is much to awaken to throughout our life – endless discoveries and realisations.

I have had the privilege of teaching in India since 1975. I base my views on first-hand experiences and understanding derived from listening to experiences of many thousands of others worldwide. Some people have told me they are enlightened. They say they have had a great enlightenment experience. This was during a retreat or an enquiry with me or other teachers. I’ve listened to the person. Very occasionally the person has come to make an arrogant claim about themselves, perhaps ego tripping and setting themselves up as a guru or master very quickly. Later, I’ve said, ‘Pity you ever had this experience.’

Others will say, ‘Christopher, I never had such an experience at all,’ yet her or his life generates what I would call a realised and awakened life. It manifests and shows itself, never perfectly (I think the idea of perfection is nuts), with a great sense of real, authentic freedom of being, a deep, natural and rather inexhaustible happiness, bucket loads of love and a lot of clarity about this so-called world that we live in. There is moderation in lifestyle, dedication to a way of life of non-harming and non-exploitation and a willingness to learn from any errors of judgment.

Yet there is stuff arising for most awakened beings, which dissolves the idea of perfection. Clouds wander across the light of the sun, and a characteristic of an awakened human being who knows love, joy, intimacy and freedom of being is that she or he can’t help themselves but attend to that within themselves that needs attention. Unresolved problematic areas such as wanting, confusion, conceit and fear cannot be rationalised or justified on the grounds that the mukti (one who is liberated) can do whatever he or she likes. What is this issue about? What needs attention here to resolve? This is an expression of one’s freedom to look at oneself.

You used the expression ‘freedom of being’. I like it very much. Could you say something more about freedom of being?

One has awoken from the sleep of old habits, tendencies and misplaced belief in self.