Story and Liberation
Story is told about oneself. Story is the imprisonment. When there is awareness of this imprisonment, one seeks to break free. The process of breaking free is the search for liberation. Usually, the story is told about oneself by others. This story limits who we can be. To break free of the limit is liberation. One experiences what one thinks is liberation through gaining control of storytelling. One now controls the telling of the story. One chooses what kind of story one tells about oneself. This might feel liberating, but it is only a change of prisons. Imprisonment is the nature of any story.
Story is not free because it seeks to define one's identity. Any definition is confining. Any definition is not the defined. The definition is only a representation of the defined. This means that a story about oneself, either told by others or by oneself, is not the self. The sense of false liberation arises because one enjoys the new prison. There are unpleasant and pleasant prisons, but all are limited and all are not the self. One experiences false liberation through the changing of stories and therefore prisons. True liberation is the realization that no story can represent the self. No identity can be the self. No definition can confine the self. The self is the storyteller. From the self come stories. The self falsely identifies with the story it creates and experiences bondage. In reality, bondage does not exist. Bondage is identification. Bondage is definition. Bondage is to be attached to any story. That which cannot be told is free. That which cannot be described is liberation.
Cover photo by Aman Upadhyay on Unsplash
