Paths to Inner Freedom [ how the F word relates to the S word]

I heard the story of Anita Moorjani for the first time about two years ago.

At that time I was visiting a woman with an advanced cancer, in a hospital, offering her guided imagery (hypnotherapy) to support her healing. When she was barely holding on to hope, someone gave her an audiobook of Anita Moorjani. She then shared it with me.

All that I heard, though so out of ordinary, sounded true.

Anita’s miraculous, rapid healing started when while in coma, in the final stage of cancer, she had an NDE (near death experience) from which in unexplained ways she came back to life, after her organs already started shutting down. In the book “Dying to be me”, she explains how she lived before cancer (in fear, detached from herself, caring more about how to please others, to gain approval), she talks in details what happened in NDE, and how it affected how she lives now. With her story she restores hope in people all over the world with serious health conditions, (including Wayne Dyer, who was so excited about what happened to Anita, that he told Hay House they “must” publish her book) and what is equally important, she opens up in front of the rest of us a horizon present in everyone, a world within we perhaps never saw, or barely touched. (You may read the whole story on anitamoorjani.com)

Below is one of my favorite fragments of the book.

“What was required for my healing? 

In NDE I was is a state of pure awareness, which is a complete suspension of previously held doctrine and dogma. Absence of belief.

I realized I don’t need to do anything; neither pray or beg. …that strongly held ideologies actually work against me.

The beliefs are only based on what I know. And my knowledge is limited. If I restrict myself only to what I can conceive, I hold back my potential.

If I am comfortable with uncertainty, this opens me up to the realm of infinite possibilities.

I am the strongest when I let go of my beliefs and disbeliefs, and leave myself open to all possibilities. […]  My sense is that the very act of needing certainty is a hindrance to experiencing greatest levels of awareness.”

Few days ago I listened again to the last few cds of her audiobook. I sensed the familiar breeze of inner freedom, and started thinking, why is it, that daily life and our inner lives can be so different from each other.

How can we have a deeper sense of inner freedom all the time?

And how can we really see in this body, with this consciousness, the magnificence of our own true essence Moorjani talks about. The reservoir of magnificence every person has – that very often stays untouched.

Though it’s always in the back of my mind…

I never directly wrote about spirituality, because I had such a hard time to define it. I still do.

Maybe because it’s best if it stays in private where it belongs and it means different things to different people. (Somehow I am not connecting secret societies, paid memberships, dogma and sacrifice propaganda with the inner part of ourselves that is beyond all limitations and boundaries.)

About 50% of people I asked had negative connotation with the s word. You mention “spirituality” and our guards are up: is it some religious stuff? Dogma? Will they want to limit my freedom, impose rules, in exchange of “membership” and some imaginary reward in the afterlife?

Listening to Anita this time, I made this connection (and this is just the way I see it):

Inner freedom could be the closest to spirituality. Regardless of how each of us gets there. 

To cultivate inner freedom (or to practice spirituality) would be to make a choice to be in a state in which we can live closer to our essence, to our soul, true values. Closer to the softest, most quiet, most gentle, compassionate place in our hearts.

A state in which we feel life deeply and fully.

The place from which you speak the words “may all beings be free of suffering” and you mean it.

The spirituality I want to have in my life is heart and mind opening.

It is all encompassing.

This is an ideal, but ideal worth aiming for.

This is how I see it at this time, and it may change completely in the future. I reserve my rights to change my beliefs (wink, wink)

All I wish for myself and you, who are open, is that our true magnificence show up not only inside but also on the outside. In our daily lives.

P.S. If you have your own ideas of what spirituality or inner freedom really is, you are safe here to share your thoughts in the comments. Thank you.