Presentation and inquiry with John Duncan, July 30, 2026

“Freedom at the beginning, middle and end” 

We met at Esquimault Gorge Park Pavilion. We sat in a beautiful room with large windows overlooking the park with its beautiful flowers, trees and reflective ponds. A fine spot for a dialogue, and today the subject was a very popular one with the group: Freedom! Who doesn’t like to go into that.

It was mentioned that, as the title suggests, we are always in the midst of Freedom. It is our natural state, it is beaming through the opaque glass house we live in called the me. It shines through darkly. We translate that glow into our own useful definition of what freedom means to us as egos. Freedom to do what we want, political freedom, religious freedom—all of which serves to maintain the safest or happiest existence for the self, the me, the ego, the fragment.

Krishnamurti asserts otherwise. Freedom is not for the me but from the me. Of course.

In this freedom, passion, for example, is not fueled by thought, such as ‘I am passionate about this or that’, resulting in a pleasurable experience; rather, it is the pure expression of joy and ecstasy, free of the striving, demanding and struggle to maintain it. Passion in freedom has none of the demands because it already is. It does not have to be strived for or maintained; it is the essence of life. This passion does not exist for the me. This passion is freedom, a light not lit from the past.

A peculiar quote from Krishnamurti was shared regarding our access or lack thereof to this essence of life, this freedom:

Only when the mind is really free can you discern and find out what the hindrances are that impede freedom.

This quote was taken in by the group with great enjoyment. It is a bit of a koan, with so much to learn by letting it sink in past the logical mind. Starting with freedom, at the beginning!

Another clue from Krishnamurti on what action in our daily lives will ensure that this passion is burning and operating in us:

Nothing will ensure it except the attention of learning, which is action, which is now. In this there is the beauty of passion, which is the total abandonment of the “me” and its time.

The obvious question arose: what is this learning? What is this action, which is now? Well, it was shared that when consciousness is not fragmented by a me, then thought can arise freely in consciousness instead of being grabbed by the me and worked on, controlled, hidden away, or experienced. The controller is the controlled. Me is thought, and me doesn’t understand that; it thinks its job is to control thought to make it manageable, safe, pliable or hidden. All this is the dimension of a me that has no access to passion as we described it.

It will experience a moment in its time according to its judgement of the moment and how it is going, and how it can keep it going or stop it. Otherwise, thoughts are free to flow and flower in consciousness without being experienced by an experiencer. Hence, there is freedom in consciousness, with content or without. The only requisite is freedom from the self, the me, the controller.

‘Not two’, as many philosophies say: not me and my thoughts, not me and you, … ultimately, not me.

 

• John Duncan