November 19, 2007

Freedom and Responsibility – Soul Freedom (Part 2 of 7)

"Freedom and Responsibility"

The essence of Soul Freedom is faith. Science is what you believe because of the evidence. In spiritual matters, faith is what you believe, despite evidence to the contrary. Faith enables you to keep going when all appears hopeless and to say, “That can’t be all the evidence.” With faith you know that however bad the current situation might be, something better is just around the corner. Cynicism is the opposite of faith. The cynic knows that nothing will turn out well, no matter how good things are right now. However fashionable and humorous cynicism might be, ultimately it will drag you down, while faith will lift you higher and higher.

When you are in a relationship centered in Soul Freedom, you have faith that you can create a passionate, harmonious life with your mate even though couples around you might be leading lives of stressed dullness and disconnection. You have faith that together you can weather the storms that life will rain on you and that your relationship can be the rock to keep you safe above the flood.

The Responsibility of Soul Freedom

Faith and cynicism are both choices. Which choice you make determines the quality of your life and the state of your happiness. Choosing faith is itself a leap of faith. This is true alchemy, whereby you literally create something from nothing—there was no faith, then there is. The responsibility of Soul Freedom is to choose faith.

Having faith doesn’t mean you sit back and do nothing. On the contrary, the responsibility of Soul Freedom includes the necessity to take action. At the same time, you let go of attachment to the results of your action. You turn the final outcome and how it unfolds over to that which is much larger than yourself (God, Goddess, the Divine). But as this old story shows, choosing faith is not always easy.

A cloistered monk is walking along the edge of a cliff during his morning meditation. He slips over the edge but stops himself from falling to certain death on the rocks hundreds of feet below by grabbing onto a small bush whose roots are barely clinging to the cliff face. As he hangs precariously, he shouts, “Is anybody up there?” Immediately a booming voice replies, “Yes, I am. It’s God. You’ll be fine, just let go of the bush.” The monk reflects for a second and replies, “Is anybody else up there?”

Excerpted from our new book Sensual Love Secrets for Couples: The Four Freedoms of Body, Mind, Heart and Soul, by Al Link and Pala Copeland, Llewellyn, 2007

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