Question: To open the song, Lance Skiiiwalker sings the lyrics, “She said I clap my hands, walk my feet, it’s freedom. She said while slidin’ to the rhythm of this beat– it’s freedom.”
So, let’s start off by talking about freedom. What is it? How does it work? Why is it important? Plus whatever else you have to say.
Michael Richardson-Borne: Freedom is non-separation. Freedom is when the light of the separate self goes out leaving the entire field of consciousness illuminated. Freedom is a perfect peace that has nothing to do with the separate self’s ideas or penchants. Freedom is the realization that there is no separate autonomous doer, that one is being lived rather than doing the living.
Most people associate their freedom with the freedom of doing and the freedom of thinking. If a person is free to do what they want within the bounds of acceptable laws and free to think as they wish without fear of external repercussions, then they consider themselves to be the experiencer of freedom. But they do this without ever asking questions about who or what this self that is free actually is.
Pausing to take a closer look at this reveals the blind spot of humanity. Freedom for the overwhelming majority of the globe’s cultures, religions, political systems etc. is only about thinking and doing. This reveals how humanity is trapped in the mind and the body– trapped in the separate self. And shows how true freedom does not exist in our current world. In our world of doing and thinking, freedom is just a concept.
Non-separation, on the other hand, is always already here and now. When one sees that freedom is not dependent on situation, then non-separation is present. Few people notice this and fewer still are open to being lived into its applications. That said, this is where the future of freedom for humanity lives.
This discovery is important because the change humanity is truly seeking exists in the finding out of who the separate self is or isn’t. It’s not a game of rearranging things in the external world trying to get objects situated properly where the sum total or quotient is peace and freedom for all. It’s an internal game where people continuously ask the question, “Who am I?” until the sun sets on the separate self for good.
Q: The title of Skiiiwalker’s song is Attraction, a word also mentioned in the second chorus. How do you experience attraction?
MR-B: By asking about experience so nonchalantly, you reveal your assumption that what you are speaking at is identified in the same way you are. You reveal that in your mind, we are separated in some way and that consciousness is not all there is.
In order to experience, there must be a separate experiencer. Who is this experiencer? Is it your name and all its associated attributes? Or is there an underlying awareness of these attributes that is conscious of everything? What is the substance of this underlying awareness? Seeing the answer to this question will reveal non-separation.
As for attraction, it’s based on story. The separate self is composed of a tremendous number of stories, both conscious and unconscious. The mind has divided these stories into separate story-categories, one set labeled attractive, another set labeled unattractive. These categories tend to get crystalized over time so that what one is attracted to gets hard-wired and responses get more predictable, less creative.
In sexual or romantic attraction, if a potential mate fits a certain type of story the partner has outlined as attractive, then smooth sailing. However, if the potential mate steps outside of the set of story expectations, then turbulence happens until either the story changes or a split occurs. This sort of activity happens in endless cycles throughout life when one is identified with the separate self.
If you take an honest look, you will notice that at the core, you are always attracted to your own consciousness. This is all that you know. Realizing this, you will see that the movement of attraction is not your doing. As I said before, you are being lived rather than doing the living.
Q: What about the Law of Attraction?
MR-B: Again, the Law of Attraction requires the belief in a separate autonomous doer. There has to be an independent thinker in order to make the results happen. And the results are always for the benefit of a separate self who has a deep desire for a particular outcome.
The Law of Attraction is an immature belief system, one that, again, has its foundations in thinking and doing without ever stopping long enough to ask the deeper questions of who the self you are attracting things to actually is.
In truth, nobody has any control over their thoughts. Thoughts arise without any effort. What you think of as your self is dependent upon the movement of the whole. What happens in this world is already written and you are the writing as it moves across a screen that is noticed. There is literally nothing to attract and nothing you can change– if there is attraction or change in your life, it is nothing that you did on your own.
Enlightenment, or the realization of non-separation, does not promise you anything in this world. It does not necessarily make your life better. Most seekers dream of an enlightened self when such a thing does not exist.
Q: Also in the second chorus, Skiiiwalker talks about satisfaction. What is the difference between satisfaction and freedom?
MR-B: True satisfaction and freedom are the exact same thing– non-separation. Just like the separate self never experiences true freedom, the separate self is never satisfied. How can it be? Its state is to constantly compare and desire. And as soon as one desire is met, a new one arises for the self to chase.
Both freedom and satisfaction live in a place beyond the separate self where this divided self is an object in awareness rather than the entire object of awareness. Until one asks questions about the self, one is destined to keep carrying on the status quo of separation– and no real change will happen in our world.
Q: How do I find non-separation? It seems so elusive as you talk about it.
MR-B: You can’t ever find it because it’s not outside of you. That’s why I say non-separation.
Anything found is an object and, thus, separated. When nothing is found and everything is lived, non-separation is present.
But there is a way to the precipice of non-separation. Ask yourself, “Who am I?” and stay on this thread until you see that the separate self is a fiction. Remember, you are what seems so elusive. What you are looking for is right under your nose and I’m shining a light on it as we speak.