WHAT IS LIBERATION?
This isn’t obvious, at least for people of privilege. Sure it is easy to say liberation is getting away from wage slavery of underpaid jobs or an abusive spouse, and that is part of liberation if you are in those positions. But, philosopher that I am, I want to step back and look at a bigger picture and offer a working definition of liberation.
Liberation is living out your unique purpose, the reason you were born at this time and in this place. It is a core belief of mine that we all have something unique to offer and that is why, in the great wheel of the cycle of birth and death, all these elements have coalesced to be born here and now. This isn’t something I can prove, AND it is something that I believe in having it shape my life.
That’s great, you might say, but how do I have any idea what my unique purpose is? First, I think it is something you discover, rather than invent. That is, your unique purpose is lying there hidden and one of the most important things we can do in life is be archaeologists of our own being and uncover it. Second, I’d start looking at the nexus of what you are really good at with what you care most deeply about. I love music for instance, but I suck at singing and can’t play any instruments, so somehow my, unique purpose isn’t likely going to involve bringing music to people. Third, the revelation of your unique purpose is a mysterious process and there is no formula to discover it. But there are a whole group of spiritual practices that make discovering it more likely. Spending time in introspection is crucial. Spending alone time in the more than human world can make a profound difference. Spending time doing some kind of ecstatic movement or artistic endeavor is really important. Spending time playing video games is not.
Revelation can come in at least two different ways. One way is the revelation of what Bill Plotkin calls a “mythopoetic identity.” (See his Journey to Soul Initiation for his latest statement of this). Here are some examples. “Cocoon Weaver” (this is Plotkin). “Dances with the Rhythms of the Earth” (that’s me). “Compost Bridger of the world.” (one of Plotkin’s students). A mythopoetic identity is a statement of who you are on the deepest possible level. They aren’t job descriptions and what they mean isn’t obvious.
A second form of revelation is that you are given your true purpose. A friend of mine came down from the mountain of a vision fast knowing that his purpose was to bring his people back into connection with the more than human world. Mine is to be a teacher of earth based Torah. My deceased business partner’s unique purpose was to help immigrant communities climb the American success ladder through education.
No matter whether you are gifted a mythopoetic identity of a vision of purpose, after revelation we all have two tasks. The first task is to become our mythopoetic identities or to become the people who can manifest our true purpose. Plotkin calls this “metamorphosis.” After all, we come home from the mountain, the valley or in my case the hotel ballroom, and everybody else is still the same as they were before your own personal Sinai. And guess what? They expect you to also be the same. How do you navigate that so that your new identity becomes paramount, instead of sliding back into who you were? Our second task is to figure out a delivery system, a way that we can manifest our vision to a given community. This is also a difficult task.
When I first received my mythopoetic identity, I attempted a delivery system of creating a farm where I raised grass fed beef. That makes sense, I have this deep connection with cows and land, it certainly is a kind of dancing with the rhythms of the earth. But I failed at this delivery system, sold the farm and moved, something I regret to this day and for which I have grieved. Why did I fail? Because I hadn’t done the necessary work of metamorphosis. We need to do both the inner work of metamorphosis, of becoming what has been revealed to us, and the external work of manifesting it.
Only then will we experience true liberation—at least that’s my view. What’s your view of liberation?
