There is a consciousness that is full of love and one that is not. When not, then there is only slavery.

   For example, a person who loves the truth—who has a consciousness that is full of love for the truth—will welcome the truth. Such a person has an open and explorative mind. Such a person loves to discover the truth, regardless of what that truth might be.

   Or, to put it another way, that person loves the truth so much that he or she will bear the pain of discovering truth that is not to his advantage. The true scientist, the true explorer, the true mystic, and the true human being have this sort of attitude. A spirit of discovery and willingness to acknowledge and honor the truth.

   Such a mind is free to discover.

   But the person who is prideful is enslaved by pride to ignore, doubt, or refuse to accept anything that conflicts with pride.

   The person who has an agenda of any kind will not be open to the truth. The person who makes success too important will resent anything that conflict with that agenda. Such a person can even not see the truth before their eyes. If they do see it, they will rush to cover it up, suppress it, or deny it.

   A person who forms a judgment becomes enslaved by that judgment. A woman who judges her husband (or all men) often becomes a slave of both the judgment and guilt for judging.  And should her husband one day improve, she won’t even see it. All her observations of him are colored by the judgment she has made.

   People who buy into and accept some externally imposed religious or philosophical viewpoint become slaves of it. People who buy into some ism, even a political party, become life long true believers. They are enslaved to it and refuse to accept any other viewpoint.

   Another enslaver is resentment. Remember what we said: a consciousness that is full of love is free, but without love, it becomes enslaved. Resentment cuts off love, and by definition it must therefore lead to enslavement. The resentful person will gradually become a slave of any or all of the sequelae of resentment: upset, guilt, emotion based or compounded sickness, the bitter memory, and of course a slave of the person or object resented.

   The person who has love for others will be open to helping them and will have the courage to tell them the truth.

   The person who makes comfort, being popular, or some other agenda more important (“where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”) will hold back in fear of loss. When we don’t have the love to tell another the truth, then we become a slave of conformity.

   Truth is very liberating. Love is liberating. Any hang up, learning block, or emotional problem you have most likely has denial or resentment behind it. There is something you don’t want to see or some judgment or resentment you are unwilling to give up.

   If you happen to be meditating and on the path to recovery, any continuing emotional problems or blockages mean there is something you have not yet seen or are not ready to see.

   The default setting for the enlightened human consciousness is truth loving.

   Love of truth, love of God, and love for our fellow human beings trumps self-love or making anything else more important. Any other setting—which occurs anytime we make anything more important than what is right—cancels out the protection that renders us free. Freedom only exists when truth and what is right are made most important.

     Let me restate the point. Perfect love casts out fear. True love (in this case of others) makes us honest and open to help. But when you love yourself or a cozy relationship, then you will not want to rock the boat, and you will hold back the truth.

   A person loves the truth or else they love something else more. Any agenda, goal, or vestige of pride means that they love it more. They will cling to it and they will be enslaved by it.

    All who sin are slaves, said the Messiah. If you are perfected in love, you are completely free. Anything that you make more important than what is right will enslave you.

    It is a spiritual law, and that is why wicked people want to corrupt you. They know that the spiritual law is on their side. The slightest resentment or use of a person, substance or object will begin the process of enslavement.

   And there is no escape other than repentance—a change of heart—whereby the truth is accepted. By being grieved in the Light of Truth about one’s wrong, the person once again makes the truth more important than their own pride or saving face.

   But I have to warn you: the repentance must be real and pure.

  When the sorrow is just an ego crying because it has been found out, you will become enslaved by the hypocrisy.

   “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” Can you now see why? It is the love of truth that joins you to the truth. Without a love of truth, there can only be lies. And whether we love the lies or hate the lies, we are enslaved to them by default.

   If you love your children, you will not pressure them. Nor would you seek to bribe or manipulate them. Your love (actually the love of God in you, which remain active because of your love of what is right) prevents your words or actions from becoming enslaving to others.

   But when parents seek to bribe or manipulate, it is because they do not have love. Their lack of love shows up in their impatience. They impatiently seek to make their children mind because they love themselves more. In other words they love their own image and don’t have the love to honestly see and be sorry for their impatience.

   Such parents will later become enslaved by worry—when their children are off on their own, they will not be self-reliant. They will have been taught to obey impatient and manipulative authority. And they won’t have learned to realize and function from within. Sensing this, the parents will suffer worry of what might happen. Deep down, the parents know that their kids have been programmed to conform to pressure, and thus when they are out in the world, they will be easy prey for a myriad of pressure sources.

   The parents are enslaved by guilt over having pressured or manipulated their children. And they often become enslaved to worrying about them or even chasing after them to help them or reform them. 

   There is a connection between lack of love and fear, and a connection between lack of faith and fear.

   Remember, Christ said “you are either for me or against me.” He said that we cannot ride two horses or serve two masters. For we will love the one and hate the other, or visa versa.

   If you love what is right, then you will not be a slave of fear or doubt. But if you make anything—even the smallest thing—more important than what is right, then fear and doubt will be your constant companions. 

   In order to drive the point home, let me provide a couple of examples. Let’s suppose you know what is the right thing to say, but you hold back out of fear of offending or losing a cozy relationship. By making your own popularity more important, you lose the magic and grace of speaking spontaneously. You will become enslaved by the guilt, and will then find yourself unable to speak up and say what should be said properly.

   Let’s suppose that you get angry at someone. You will then find yourself enslaved by guilt and you will find yourself bending over backwards to make up for it. You might even find yourself becoming enslaved to the person.

   Do something wrong, and you will become afraid. In fact, some people become paralyzed (enslaved) by fear after having become resentful or upset.

   In fact, people who are afraid to fly or who become hypochondriacs are often people rendered suggestible because of a resentment or upset. The basis of many a phobia is a morbid or intensified fear of harm to self. Their fear is just one enslaving manifestation of making self too important. I’m not being judgmental because we are all guilty of making ourselves--our own comfort and safety--more important than principle. But as we mature, we must overcome this tendency.

   While I’m on the subject, there are some people who resent an intimidation and then become enslaved to overcoming it. Though such an attitude does produce some even laudable compensations and bravado, yet such a person is a slave of jumping in and proving they are not afraid.

   If such a person could only stand back and see the resentment underlying their compulsion to jump in and prove something, then perhaps they could let go of the resentment. Then they could still do laudable and brave things without the compulsion factor. Their work could then become a joy instead of a compulsion.

   Final comments. The love of which I speak is the love of the pure in heart for God. Its first manifestation might be a yearning for Truth and a detesting of lies and liars. The soul which yearns for God keeps searching, and is only temporarily constrained by false religion or spirituality. The love of Truth becomes stronger and stronger until a certain threshold is reached, at which point God meets the yearning for Truth with the dawning of Light.

   When the fire of Truth comes to live in a person’s interior it begins to purify by dashing illusions and humiliating pride.

   The soul is humbled and stripped of its false crutches. Thereafter it is shriven, chastened, and purified.

   Every lie the person has ever believed is exposed, and the mind is cleared of illusion. The soul must also see how resentment is a denial of love, a rejection of truth, or a hatred of another person.

   Seeing this, in the Light of Truth, the soul sees how it must give up the resentment. And when it does, the heart softens and becomes more receptive to the infilling of Divine love.

   The objective consciousness is neutral, calm, compassionate, yet detached. From this neutral enlightened vantage point, the soul is able to see error without resenting it.

   Such a soul is able to express love—the love of not hating, and the love of not needing. The soul which does not have any agenda and which is dispassionate is free to express truth. Not needing (being enslaved by) another’s approval, the soul can say or do what is right.

   Remember: the truth is liberating. Let’s say for example, that the sincere person sees that he or she is selfish in some regard. Because of the objectivity and desire to know the truth, the person is free to see this fact. And seeing this fact, the person is free to do nothing about it other than observe it. Without a compulsion to cover up or compensate for the wrong, the soul is free to wait in faith for God to deal with it. 

   We literally need a new nature—one that is not selfish, lustful, resentful and deceitful.

   We need a nature that is patient, unselfish, and not responsive to temptation.

   But we cannot give ourselves this new nature. But remember this: we, as a race, and as individuals, became selfish and cruel, lustful and greedy by responding to temptation.

   Adam responded to temptation and he changed. And in your own life, you responded to temptation and you changed.

  But if by responding to temptation we changed for the worse, perhaps by responding to God again, we can be changed back!

   If you can now respond to the Creator and His Light, you will be able to be changed back, through that response. The old man will die, as Paul said, and a new creature will come into being. It all begins with repentance—seeing our wrong in the light and being sorry—and it will lead to a complete change. It won’t happen overnight. There is much to be seen, a little every day, but with each passing day, the new nature grows stronger and the old nature grows weaker. 

   If you begin the path of meditation back to the Light, you will see this miracle unfolding in your own life before your very eyes.