Though few understand the truth of the following, freedom is (always) a question of possibilities.

Prisons, of any kind, strip away our possibilities. For example, (an inmate) has lost the simple freedom to just wander where he wishes, outside in the fresh air, under no authority other than what he wills in that moment.

But there are other kinds of freedom, higher orders of liberty; for instance, being able to consciously walk away from some negative state that wants you to be its captive, that wants to live through you at the cost of your spiritual freedom — this is a great possibility. But, to enter into its world requires you leave behind you the world of more limited possibilities.

It may not be readily seen, but how many possibilities are there when you are in a rush to get something done, or to get somewhere special where a pleasure awaits? The truth is, the more defined our pursuit, the more confined are its possibilities. And the more confined the possibility of any given moment, the more trapped we feel for having entered into it.

Your True Nature is unlimited possibility itself, and that’s why it’s so important to slow down your life. It may not seem so to the “self” that can’t stop running, that always has something more important to do than to just be quietly aware of the moment and its open-ended possibilities, but everything you really need to be free and whole is already right where you are.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you simply stop “doing” what you must to be a good, responsible householder. Only that you attend to a different “house” as your first order of business at all times.