Write for Freedom
I write for freedom. For mine. For all.
I originally wrote this post Nov. 27, 2025, awaking at 5:30 am on a vacation in Maine. For the final two hours of last night’s drive, I was listening to the book “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert. I’ve been feeling a call to write.
Do I make an identity out of it? Or do I just say: “Now I’m writing. I’m going to spend more of my time intentionally writing and I hope that a book or ten emerges from all that.”
A quote I saw the other day at the beginning of the “Mysticism in Shaivism and Christianity” book was “a principal motivation of the mystic to speak is compassion and the desire to illuminate.” It actually went on to say “desire to illuminate those who are ignorant of their own true nature.” I took that part out. Yet, I may put it back in. Who is the one who is ignorant? Me! What about everyone else? Sure, maybe. But Gilbert says “don’t write to save others.” She’d rather we write to save ourselves, and in the process produce good writing.
These are the notes I took while listening:
- Write to understand, not to save.
- Remind people of themselves, of what they know within.
- Your creativity wants you.
- The work wants to be made. It wants to be made by you.
I awoke at 5:30 am this morning from a dream. As many of my dreams do, it reflected undergraduate days. I won’t get into those details now or what that might mean. At the moment, I’m interested in what happened as I woke up.
As I awoke and lay in the liminal state, a workshop idea came to me.
“Freedom in Sound.” Or maybe “Freedom through Sound.” With the subtitle “Music, Mantra, and Moksha. I was there with my handpan, and I’d be playing music, and we’d be chanting mantras. But not just chanting them. Talking about them. What are they for? What is the meaning behind them? Of course, I don’t actually know the full story. I’ve only started to uncover it. It’s in the Shiva Sutras. It’s in Christopher Wallis’ mantra workshop. I don’t know Sanskrit. I’m not an expert on Tantra by any means. But I can bring the exploration to people. I can go a step beyond singing and chanting. Bhakti is beautiful. But might there be many like me who also want to understand and dig deeper? By creating a workshop that will offer that, I will necessarily dive deeper into the topic myself and learn more. Teach to learn. Write to learn.
Let me say that again:
Teach to learn. Write to learn.
Write to Learn
I think that a light is beginning to illuminate the notion of ‘that which binds also frees.’ The Matrikas, the little mothers, the words and thoughts of form – they are what bind us and limit us, veil us, from our absolute freedom. And yet, the Tantras say that when we truly understand these veiling powers and what/who they are, we become absolutely free. We are no longer bound or veiled. As I see it in this moment – the words that flow through us are our freedom – the primary power of God: svatantrya. In my most lucid moments, I’ve had experiences where I’ve expressly written that the words I’m writing ARE God. They are an expression of God; more than that, they are God writing. I once pondered “What do I write about, God? What do I write for You?” And in the very next moment I excitedly heard: “I am God Writing!”
Write to understand. That’s what I’ve been doing a little bit more and more the last year or two. Sometimes, when I go on a hike in the mountains, I get so many downloads. So actually, I’m hiking to understand, haha. But I write it in my phone notes. Then I’ll walk for a bit more, and a continued stream connects, and I stop to write that.
Reading Tantra to understand. Writing to understand. Writing to express. And maybe that writing will be useful to others. The reading is useful to me. The writing can be useful to both me and others. When it stays in my head, the experience can’t be shared, it can’t resonate with others, to raise their vibration. The HUGE felt experience for me with Tantra was a coming home. Tantra reflects what I already knew to be true inside. A reflection of home. We all yearn for Home. That space in which we were first nurtured. Our deepest, comforting memories, our core ‘pull’ is for home, where we grew up. It feels cozy and core – that’s where it all started in this manifest world. Where is Home before this manifest world? That’s what we seek and yearn for in the spiritual search. And Tantra felt like Home for me.
