When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.

When you finally let go of the person you used to be, you get to discover the person you are now and the person you want to become.

It's only when you become love — in other words, when you have dropped your illusions and attachments — that you will "know." As you identify less and less with the "me," you will be more at ease with everybody and with everything. Do you know why? Because you are no longer afraid of being hurt or not liked. You no longer desire to impress anyone. Can you imagine the relief when you don't have to impress anybody anymore? Oh, what a relief. Happiness at last! You no longer feel the need or the compulsion to explain things anymore. It's all right. What is there to be explained? And you don't feel the need or compulsion to apologize anymore. I'd much rather hear you say, "I've come awake," than hear you say, "I'm sorry." I'd much rather hear you say to me, "I've come awake since we last met; what I did to you won't happen again," than to hear you say, "I'm so sorry for what I did to you."

I felt free and therefore I was free.

The moment I realised that I was dealing with a mechanism whose participants were its prisoners, at that moment I was able to take distance from what had happened, and forgiveness started to become possible.

It is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out. You have talked so often of going to the dogs — and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it. It takes off a lot of anxiety.

When I found that out, I was quite relieved. [...] To have someone be, like, "Oh, actually, you do receive this phenomenal level of abuse," it makes you think, "Oh yeah, OK, I’m not going mad".

It’s such a relief to realize that you don’t have to fit yourself to someone else’s pattern.

Now that I’m free to be myself, who am I?

The moment you recognize what is beautiful in this world, you stop being a slave.

Sometimes, opening up your eyes and realising what you have – no matter how little you think – helps you find yourself.

But when you relax the sense of self and flow with life, you feel happy and satisfied.

And I never knew what they meant
when they said, 'time heals',
until
I felt free

You rejoice in your freedom, and you feel that at last you can call your soul your own. You seem to walk with your head among the stars. And then, all of a sudden you can't stand it anymore, and you notice that all the time your feet have been walking in the mud.