Seeking the free expression of ideas

In June 2010 Eric Francis wrote of Aquarius (my star-sign) on the Omega Institute website:

"For a person who loves ideas as much as you do, this is a great time to be alive. You are in territory where you can surpass all limits, yet to get there you need to embrace an idea that is rarely spoken of: intellectual freedom. You understand this intuitively, of that I am certain. Yet because we live in a society that so desperately tries to repress anything it does not understand or that does not follow today’s economic rules, we’re all a little hobbled here.

Yet you have a special advantage: you seek yourself in the free expression of ideas. They may belong to you; they may belong to someone else—but you know a free idea when you see one, and you are gathering the momentum to bring something you love and value to fruition.

You’ve spent a lot of time, perhaps years, thinking about how much you love and value this concept—whatever it is. Now you have an opportunity to do something about it. I am sure you sense the potential: to help people, to establish a new kind of beauty within planetary consciousness.

The ingredient you must work with is a form of discipline called focus. Yes, odd synchronicities will guide you on your way, but you need the full strength of your mind on this. And I suggest you be aware of a factor that feels like living two lifetimes at once. Through this endeavour, you will finally integrate them."

What I think

Baby boomer who likes new ideas.

I have quite often thought of myself as living more than one lifetime in one, but not simultaneously. Perhaps this is where the confusion and frustration comes in. Why is it that my so-called talents in the world have brought so little self-actualisation? Why did I not persevere and become an accomplished painter or movie director? They have always been right there - passions ready to be developed - but to no avail. On the other hand, it is true that I have always “sought myself” in the free expression of ideas.

I remember quite clearly sitting on a bus as a schoolboy, quite confident and comfortable with the idea that one day religion (spirituality) and science would meet – as I saw it, at an imaginary apex in the sky. That is happening today and being clearly articulated by the likes of Deepak Chopra, whose books are among my favourites, not because of this idea necessarily, but because of the stimulating and liberating ideas he has brought to my understanding, not least of all concerning the life and role of Jesus. At the time I sat on that bus I sought myself in Christianity, yet not as a religion, but as a beautiful and mystical way of understanding through free ideas!

So where to from here? I will always be warmed and inspired by visual beauty of any kind. I will always recognise the dramatic in any set of circumstances, and enjoy the images that this conjures in my mind. But behind all that is something that does not necessarily bring worldly recognition and financial reward. It is the intellectual serendipity that comes from really wanting to understand. I now accept that bringing something I love and value to fruition is likely to come through the medium of the written word, and I am comfortable with that, whatever form it may take. Perhaps, as always, the gathering momentum is more than one thing happening simultaneously. I think it is true that focus is needed, that the time has come to realise intellectual freedom, which I do understand intuitively. The time has come to let a society that so desperately tries to repress anything it does not understand and that does not follow today’s economic rules, simply be. I have my own path to follow.