I used to think freedom was something you earned, something bestowed upon you by external forces. Whether through hard work, societal progress, or the rewards of a life lived according to the rules, freedom was a condition to be attained. But as the years went by, I began to realize I was looking in the wrong direction. I was chasing an illusion, and like all illusions, it dissolved the moment I got too close.
The moment that shifted everything came not in some grand revelation but in the silence of a long, sleepless night. My life had fallen into a pattern of routines, responsibilities, and expectations. Each day was a page from a book I hadn’t chosen to read, much less write. I was suffocating, yet I couldn't name what was strangling me.
Then, one night in the darkness of my room, the thought struck me: What if freedom isn’t something you earn? What if it’s something you already have, something that flows through your veins as naturally as blood?
The thought startled me awake. I sat up, suddenly aware of the stillness around me. In that quiet, the weight of all the things I’d been carrying fell away, leaving behind only the pulse of my own heartbeat—a steady reminder that even in the darkest moments, life was still coursing through me. And with it came a realization: freedom wasn’t external. It was already within me.
That night, I started to think about light differently. For most of my life, I had looked for external guidance, a lighthouse in the distance to keep me on course. But what if the light I sought wasn’t somewhere out there? What if it was inside me, waiting to be recognized?
The more I reflected, the clearer it became: the light I had been chasing was a reflection of my own conscious awakening. It wasn’t something that would come to me through the validation of others or the fulfillment of societal expectations. It was something I had to discover for myself, through self-reflection and independent thought.
The next morning, I woke up with a sense of clarity I hadn’t felt in years. I grabbed a notebook and began writing down my thoughts. Words poured out of me: freedom, light, enlightenment, the journey within. I wrote about the realization that the path forward wasn’t one that anyone else could show me. It was one I had to walk myself, illuminated by the light I had found within.
This inner journey wasn’t easy. It required unlearning so much of what I thought I knew. It meant shedding the expectations of what life was supposed to look like and embracing the uncertainty of carving my own path. But with each step, I felt the chains I hadn’t even known were binding me start to loosen.
I realized that knowledge alone wasn’t enough. I had spent years accumulating information, trying to make sense of the world, but it was all surface-level understanding. Enlightenment wasn’t just about knowing facts or following a prescribed set of rules. It was about deeply understanding myself, my purpose, and the forces that shaped my thoughts and actions.
I had to go beyond knowledge. I had to transcend it.
I began to question everything: the beliefs I had inherited, the societal norms that dictated what success looked like, the habits and routines that made me feel productive but left me hollow. Through this questioning, I started to see that much of what I had accepted as truth was merely a construct—a framework designed to keep me in line with expectations that weren’t my own.
In rejecting these constructs, I discovered a higher state of understanding. It wasn’t the enlightenment of the spiritual masters or the intellectuals I had studied; it was my own personal awakening. It was the realization that freedom wasn’t a goal to be reached, but the essence of who I was, and that light wasn’t an external guide, but a reflection of my own inner clarity.
This newfound freedom didn’t come with fanfare or applause. There were no markers of achievement, no tangible rewards. In fact, many around me didn’t notice the change at all. But I felt it in every part of my being.
I had always thought of freedom as something external, something to be fought for and earned. But now I understood that true freedom wasn’t bound by external conditions. It was an internal state—a realization that I had the power to shape my own path, guided not by the expectations of others but by the light within me.
My journey wasn’t over. In many ways, it had just begun. But now I walked it with a sense of purpose and clarity that I hadn’t known before. The uncertainty that once terrified me now felt like an open field of possibilities, waiting to be explored.
The light that had once seemed so distant was now a constant presence, illuminating the way forward. And as I continued down this path, I understood that the true essence of freedom wasn’t something that could be taken away or granted. It was simply the recognition that I had always had the power to choose—to forge my own path, guided by the light of my own conscious awakening.
And that was enough.
