A Truly Free Person

“A truly free person: In this context, a truly free person is someone who is one with their foundation, not controlled by karmic states of consciousness, and able to freely manifest as needed in order to help others.” – footnote from “The Diamond Sutra: The great unfolding”

We’re getting ready to send the Korean-English translation of Daehaeng Kun Sunim’s translation of the Diamond Sutra to the printers, (it should be out by Buddha’s Birthday, May 15), and this footnote really stood out.

One of the terms that Kun Sunim uses a lot is “free person,” or in Korean, 대자유인, literally “great free person.” But how to express that? In English, unless you are obviously imprisoned in some place or situation, it comes across as “free to do whatever you want.” But that’s obviously not it either, because you wouldn’t want people to think that karma, and cause and effect don’t apply to them.

My sense of what Daehaeng Kun Sunim means is this: In awakening to our foundation, and diligently working at relying upon this, we can become free, free from the chains of craving and the situations, and rebirths, they push us into. Free from the ruts and limitations of habitual patterns of thought. And the big one, free to take the energy around us and use it to respond to what’s in front of us.

One thing about Kun Sunim, she never spoke about what she hadn’t experienced and verified for herself, and if she said this kind of freedom is possible for all of us, then it is. Take everything you know, don’t know, are feeling, and especially those situations that seem hopeless or impossible, and entrust them to this connection, this Buddha-nature, that we all have. Let them quietly sink down within you and pay attention. Start with the little stuff and the stuff that’s right here, right now, and see what happens!