There is a delusion we all live in—the belief that life owes us liberty, prosperity, and love. That until we achieve these, we cannot truly begin living.
So, we spend our entire lives in relentless pursuit of an unattainable concept of happiness. In the process, we transgress in our relationships, violate each other’s sanctity, exploit the Earth and our more-than-human kin, and trample upon those deemed more vulnerable than us.
The Truth About Liberty, Prosperity, and Love
Humans are not owed liberty, prosperity, or love by life itself. We fight for these so-called rights for ourselves, often while violating another’s. We speak up, stand up, and move our bodies only when our own “rights” are threatened—without understanding that we are all organisms within the same body of Earth.
Liberty, prosperity, and love are not entitlements; they are higher states of consciousness. They arise from deep understanding of the causes and conditions that birth them. When we recognize our fundamental oneness—our shared belonging to the Earth, the source of our flesh and bones—we naturally awaken to our sacred responsibility to all life.
Prosperity that comes at the cost of another’s suffering is not prosperity. Liberty that depends on another’s subjugation is not liberty. Happiness built on the suffering of others is not happiness. They are all karmic debts waiting to be reconciled.
Artist : Darrin Drda
The Consequence of Unpaid Debts
Karmic debts, when left unpaid, find their own means of reconciliation—often through chaos. And yet, we are a species terrified of chaos, afraid of uncertainty and the unknown.
If we wish to reclaim order, we must choose to pay our debts voluntarily—through the daily practice of loving-kindness and compassion. But we have refused.
The polycrisis is here. We must not act shocked or despair. The warning signs have blared from the loudspeakers of the most marginalized voices for decades.
Our Collective Responsibility
Our refusal to listen, our insistence on defending our own goodness even as our only home burns down, has consequences. Our defensiveness against inconvenient truths—our retreat into distractions and addictions—has consequences.
Nature is neither peaceful nor wrathful. She is a mirror, reflecting our consciousness back to us.
The Lost Garden of Eden
There was a time and tale of true abundance told in every tradition,—sort of a Garden of Eden—where innocence reigned and harm was impossible. In that realm, there were no predators, no striving for liberty, prosperity, or love. These things simply were.
We lived in harmony, feeding on fruits, nuts, seeds, and mushrooms, basking in beauty. The corruption of “doing” had not yet poisoned the purity of “being.” We knew, inherently, that we were part of the greater web. We were neither superior nor inferior to anyone.
Perhaps our relentless pursuit of freedom and happiness is, at its core, a longing for that lost Eden—a nostalgia for a time when we were carefree.
The Illusion of Knowledge
Yet that Eden was only possible because knowledge—knowledge that births duality—had not yet divided us.
This knowledge created the illusion of separation:
Black and white.
Mind and body.
Supremacy and inferiority.
Human and nature.
Me and you.
This and that.
And in doing so, it blinded us to the rainbow.
Freedom for All or Freedom for None
None of us are owed prosperity, liberty, or happiness—until we recognize the non-separation of self and others. As the wise ones before us have said: None of us are free until we are all free.
But the inconvenient truth of our time is this: Our freedom must include the freedom of our oppressors, too.
One Hitler, one Pol Pot, one Trump is already too many. Hatred, when left unexamined, interlinks in the shadow world.
The war we are witnessing—the psychic war of good versus evil—is a mirror reflection of duality. Both sides claim goodness, yet each feeds the other’s dragon, fueling cycles of suffering. In the spaces between, ghouls and energetic vampires feed on the carcasses of the dead and the weakened souls of the living.
Reclaiming Community and Sovereignty
How do we reclaim both community and sovereignty?
How do we withdraw our attention from the addiction of doom-scrolling, refusing to let demagogues feast on our rage, sorrow, and hatred?
How do we turn our senses inward, back to our hearts, and grieve the cost of our indulgence in reactivity, distraction, and addiction?
We Are Not Innocent, Only Ignorant
The truth is, we are not innocent.
We are ignorant.
And this ignorance is our greatest burden.
We refuse to listen to our own deepest prayers. We know the world we long for. We know it demands our courage, our full-hearted offering. Yet we remain addicted to the poisons of distraction, consumption, and despair.
Until we acknowledge our complicity in the suffering machine, we will never be free.
It is not a lack of resources that holds us back—especially for those of us in the USA.
It is a lack of care.
The Corruption of Care
We all crave care, yet we do not know how to give it. We have been taught only transactional care, dictated by capitalism and the ideology of individualism.
Our bodies are saturated with inertia when it comes to real care. They move only for money, profit, and consumerist pleasure.
Our sense powers have been corrupted by comparison and competition. Capitalism has marketed every moment of our existence, selling us the illusion that consumption will bring happiness.
To unhook from this death machine requires immense courage and deep reflection.
Artist : Luis Toledo Laprisamata
The Disorientation of Awakening
At first, you will feel disoriented.
Everyone around you is still addicted to the system.
This is why your inquiry, your examination, must be deep and broad.
You will need to unlearn almost everything.
About yourself.
About society.
About reality.
You will need to rely on your own observation. Trust your own instinct. Tend to the fear, doubt, and sorrow that arise as your known reality crumbles.
You will need to root into your heart—listen to the whispered prayers hidden in your own heartbeat. You will need to tap into the wisdom that is unborn yet inherent within you.
Returning to the Garden
You will begin to remember.
You will remember the melodies that live in your body.
You will learn to move your spine to them, to let your roots intertwine with the mycelial web of all life.
You will carry songs from the depths of all hearts and release them into the world.
And when your lips open, prayers of a jeweled-hearted city will pour forth like waterfalls.
The mist of those songs will touch the land.
Flowers, never seen before, will bloom.
The fragrance of those blooms will ride the wind horses of clouds to distant lands.
And when those lands remember, the Garden of Eden will return.
The Price of Eden
But we are not owed Eden. Not until we rid ourselves of hatred, greed, and ignorance.
We perpetuate suffering through our loyalty to ignorance, rather than to wisdom and compassion.
There are no innocent beings in samsara—only ignorant ones.
And yet, we must treat each other’s ignorance with sacredness. Because innocence and ignorance are two sides of the same coin.
Walking Each Other Home
Everyone we meet is a future Buddha.
We are all walking each other home.
And we wear different disguises precisely to reveal where our darkness, ignorance, and prejudice still hide.
This is not easy work. It is inconvenient, excruciatingly so.
But if we can stomach it, if we can cultivate the muscles to live it—then, and only then, will we all be free.
I offer this to the collective mandala, for those who can feel it.
If you would like to see more content like this and work with me personally, book a free consultation at Innovative Yogis to deepen and explore alternative orientation of reality and your role in it.
I help in unlocking your deepest prayers, to listen to your own voice and medicine and find your way of moving and contributing to the collective especially at this time of crisis and rebirth.
In solidarity and love,
Penpa Dolma
