Liberation

I don’t know about you but I am feeling the pull of liberation. Liberation from this COVID-19 experience, liberation from the lack of social justice, liberation from division, national confusion and chaos, liberation from worry about Mother Nature’s furry at our neglect with her raging fires, loss of life and home, not to mention the swarm of locust invading Africa. I want to be liberated from the fear of loss that I may lose my livelihood and the fear that I might not survive in this strange new world. 

I am tired! I want to have a village feast day with plenty for all. I want to stay humble and full of reverence for the bounty of Mother Nature and still see the Kingdom prosper. I want to dance again. 

Yes, I know you might be asking, “What about the “Rain Maker Story”:  The story that asks us to take time and go inward to discover our oneness within our own mind, body and soul. Like the Rain Maker in our first story, most of us have been forced to go inward. If we had the patience, we found our center, our ego free Divine Self:  A Divine Self that can listen and feel fully present and attuned to the landscape of our time, this bewildering year, 2020. 

And then there is the story of the Young King and his Golden Kingdom of wealth, jewels, power and prestige. This very young man of great lineage from many kings before him did his inner work. He let go of his material wealth and privilege to be a humbled King for his people. He became his authentic un-assuming Divine Self. 

In both of these mythological stories, there was enlightenment and liberation when the test of “patience” was met. It was then and only then that a resurgence of life was possible. It was only with that patience did we see a ‘Renaissance” for the humble village and its people and the increasing health and prosperity of the young King’s Kingdom.

Well, what about the “Lady at the Crossroads”?  Where do we find her in terms of Liberation? It was certainly clear that the choices before her at the first crossroads were not true liberty and sustainable. They were the choices of the “Status Quo”.  The choices that contributed to the difficulty we find today, in 2020. 

The ‘good’ in the bad year of 2020 is that it is bringing real clarity around where the different roads may lead us now. It asks these questions: What are the directions of the roads at the crossroads we face in 2020? 

Do any of these road choices ahead of us; bring the planet and all its inhabitants into humble harmony with Mother Nature, our neighbors, our children, our livelihood, our health, and our togetherness as a human race? How do we find liberation and then enlightenment in these things? Most of all, “when do we get to dance again”?

The next myth may offer some clues.

Heaven’s Emissary is a story about liberation and the part that enlightenment plays in one’s quest to be a truly liberated human being. It is again from the book “Story Time With Robert” a collection of the Jungian Analyst’s favorite stories and myths. One of Roberts’s dear friends, Frank Roth introduces the story. I will tell the story here and then provide both Frank Roth’s take on the myth and my own analysis for today’s 2020 challenges. 

Heaven’s Emissary

Once upon a time there was an emissary from the Gods sent to the Earth to see into things. This occasionally happened. The emissary would be just like anyone else, look the same going about his business as a mere mortal would. No one noticed. That is until this messenger to the Gods, was walking by a Yogi in deep meditation, sitting by the road. 

The Yogi usually noticed nothing of the life going on around him. He sat in his deep trance while birds had grown a nest in his hair over the years, while a beehive hung on his right shoulder. That is until the emissary walked by and of course the Yogi “ woke up” when he felt someone from heaven close by. He wanted to ask a favor of the Gods. “ Oh, Man from Heaven, when you return can you ask the Gods how long before I’m liberated”. The emissary told him, “Yes I will ask the Gods your question and next time when I’m on Earth, I will let you know”. 

The emissary continued his walk and came upon a young man dancing in ecstasy and joy under a banyan tree. The man from heaven asked, “ Young man what are you dancing for?” The young man with an elated smile on his face, said,  “I’m dancing for my liberation!” The next time you’re in heaven, will you ask the Gods when will I have my liberation?” The man from heaven agreed to do so.

Some years later, the man from heaven traveled to Earth again, and saw the Yogi, in deep meditation and the bird nest was even bigger. The Emissary told him, “ I have news from the Gods, Yogi, and you will be liberated after 7 more incarnations.”  The Yogi groaned, when he heard this but he accepted his fate by going again into a deep trance to wait out when he will know enlightenment and finally be free.

Our traveling emissary walked by the young man. The young man kept dancing with enthusiasm and joy as he called out, “Do you have news for me about my liberation”. Our man from heaven said to him, “I have news from the Gods. You will be liberated in as many incarnations as this banyan tree has leaves”.

The young man leaped for joy and said, “ What? So soon?” There was a thunderous voice heard from the heavens. It said, 

“Thy liberation is this instant.”

Analysis

This story says to me that liberation comes after enlightenment and enlightenment comes from deliberation, purpose and patience. However, evidentially we must not leave out “dancing” with joy to be in life with our body.

The Yogi is involved in an inward mental upward movement toward heaven to achieve the goal of liberation and eventually enlightenment. This is important to help us practice the patience needed to stay put as we quiet our minds to get ourselves in a better place for enlightenment and then liberation, however it is a one-sided position to experience living.  

The young man is dancing on Mother Earth, finding ecstasy and joy in movement of his physical form, the opposite of sitting still in meditation. He too is engaged in a one-sided perspective. This perspective is outward looking and he is surprised that his enlightenment and liberation is “What? So soon?”.  At his surprise the Gods give him no more time and make his liberation and enlightenment immediate. 

He was overtaken with his joy of living. The Young Man is wildly dancing on the Earth end of this paradox with the Yogi quietly sitting on the Heaven side. 

Frank Roth offers the ideal that this teaching from Robert Johnson, is about the balance between Heaven and Earth, between Spirit and Soul, between how we process time and how we celebrate time. Do we dance all the time and immediately get enlightenment or do we, with groaning fatalism, stay still in our mind waiting?  Roth says this story is about spirituality that is patient and uplifting plus grounding and joyful, allowing us to “transcend the world” (p91). This story offers us liberation and enlightenment somewhere between the Yogi and the Young Man. 

Myths and folk tales do not give us absolute answers. They offer us clues and perspectives for approaching what our lives present us with. This story is a complicated paradox from the ancient Gods but the best I can gather is that the balance between Heaven and Earth is the move to make. Like the rainmaker from the second story in this series, we must go inward to collect our true ‘Self ‘ to serve and then we “wake up”. That is the time to have a celebration, have a village feast with our loved ones, dance about under our own banyan tree because we are humbly grateful to be here even as we ponder the events of 2020.