Independence Day

I wish you a Happy Independence Day; a celebration of the day when our country declared the freedom to live according to a new set of principles described in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. This was echoed by Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg address: “a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Our country has been working to achieve those goals for the last 243 years: “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” And we are still a work in progress with much left to do, as witnessed by recent events, pointing out the inequity in many areas of our society and reinforcing the need to structure our government and society to be: of, by, and for ALL the people.

So, how does “Independence Day” relate to our spiritual practice, you might ask?

The questions we are now asking ourselves, as a nation, are the same questions we need to ask of ourselves. Are we ready to declare our personal independence from habitual patterns of thinking and reacting? Are we willing to let go of those old frameworks of thinking and believing in order to connect with the foundational principles of our true nature. Are we ready to accept the responsibility that comes with the freedom to live connected to your innate goodness? Are we ready to bring mindful awareness to our daily lives in order to notice when we are thinking and acting out of integrity with our inner sense of love and compassion? Are we willing to do the work necessary to bring the changes in our life that will make all these things possible? And can we do all of that work with the intention of helping others who are suffering, just as we are, and want the same freedoms we do.

This is no easy task, as demonstrated by our national conversations relating to women, people of color, immigrants, and other minority groups over the last 243 years. We need to recognize that our nation and its government is, in the words of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, “an innocent mirror of the people.”

So, for the nation to change, WE — the people — must change. We must be ready and willing to commit to practicing what we understand to be the true nature of reality: that All people are created equal. And that, at least in our personal lives, awakening to our innate deepest goodness and acting with integrity should be of the person, by the person, but for the benefit of all the people.

That will be true independence.