You've Been Told You Are Already Free So Why Does It Feel Like the Most Useless Thing Anyone Said?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAmbsS1GbNU

Here are all five deliverables:

Video Summary

You are already free. This is it already. Stop the search. It cannot be known. These are the phrases you find everywhere in the nondual space — and for a certain kind of seeker, they land like a door being shut in your face. Not because they are false. They are pointing at something absolutely true. But the seeker who hears them and cannot receive them is not lacking in sincerity or intelligence. They are lacking a bridge. The mind that is told it cannot be known still has a question — and a question without an answer doesn't dissolve, it persists. The mind is designed to solve problems. Until a problem is solved, it keeps returning. Telling someone who feels bound that they are already free does not free them. It just adds a new layer of confusion: I've been told I'm free. I don't feel it. So either the teaching is wrong, or something is wrong with me.

The distinction this channel is built on is precise: there are teachers who have realised awareness and therefore dismiss the intellectual scaffolding as unnecessary — and there are seekers who have understood awareness intellectually but are not yet living it experientially. Both are real. But the gap between them cannot be bridged by more pointing. It has to be bridged by dismantling. Not you are awareness — but why are you not a thing? Not stop the search — but teach me why it cannot be known, so that I know it by knowing why it cannot be known. The scriptures have always taught this way. Advaita is called the path of knowledge — not of belief, not of faith, not of action. The answer should be logical, reasonable, and complete enough that no faith is required.

Ignorance, in this teaching, does not mean a lack of new information. It means you have taken yourself to be something you are not — and that mistaken identity needs to be examined directly, not bypassed. Awareness is nameless, formless, useless, not in time, not in space. The mind genuinely does not know what to do with it — and that is why the seeking continues even after pointing. The teaching is only complete when it lands in all three layers simultaneously: I feel it, I know it, I live it. Anything short of that alignment is an incomplete arc. Ask questions. Keep asking until you reach the bottom. And the bottom is always the same question: what is a thing? If this points to something you've glimpsed but can't stabilise — a Clarity Call is where we look at it directly together.

Full Transcript

There's almost nobody who's dismantling the illusion. I want to know how it's an illusion, why it's an illusion. Nobody's dismantling that. Nobody's telling you how the ego is false. How is it unreal? Can you logically explain it to me?

I have been told many times that I am already free — and I don't know what to do with that. It doesn't make sense to me.

Learn to ask the right questions. As a seeker, your question should be: how do you know it cannot be known? Teach me why it cannot be known. And if I know why it cannot be known — then I know that which cannot be known.

There is a logical way of teaching it. It cannot be known — that teaching is true. But it's also true that you will only know that teaching when you know why it cannot be known. The one who says it cannot be understood — understands that. That's what you need to learn. That's what you need to ask.

If you're on the path and these kinds of statements are not making sense to the mind — the only way to understand nonduality is to understand duality. The only way to understand that which is not a thing is to understand what a thing is. Your mind will keep asking questions until it gets closer. You cannot understand what no-thing is — but you can understand what a thing is. And what's left is nothing. The mind wants to understand everything. If your mind understood everything, it would have no question. And such a mind would come to rest. That's what the teaching is all about. Direct experience dissolves the questioner.

So — you've been told that you are already free. So why does it feel like the most unhelpful thing that anyone has ever said to you?

Like always, let's look at what the question is asking — literally, using the words used. Let's answer it logically, rationally, reasonably, without having to believe anything. And then finally we experience the answer directly — so that you're left with the complete teaching: the question, the logical answer, and then the direct experience. After this, you don't need to go and watch more videos.

So the questioner says: you've been told you are already free. And this comes from a seeker who's been on the internet, or has met some nondual teachers and guides and masters, who have pointed them to this teaching — you are already free. And it feels like the most unhelpful thing anyone has ever said. And it's true. Many of the teachings available right now point you directly to the truth. But that's not what the seeker is seeking. The seeker is seeking answers. And if you give dead-end answers — answers that shut down all questioning — the seeker feels it's not making sense. And absolutely correctly — it's not making sense. So either you don't know — or I just have to blindly believe what you're saying.

There are two kinds of people on the nondual path — Advaita Vedanta, oneness, self-realisation. One who has realised their true self. They realised I am awareness — and they dismiss the intellectual part of it because it seems unnecessary. And then there are those who have understood it intellectually but are not living it experientially. It's very easy to spot which one is which. And very rarely you'll find somebody who is both intellectually complete in their teaching and living it experientially.

Somebody who can dismantle every single word that you ask. That's the only reason this person here is making these videos. There are many other teachers online, and good ones, who point you to awareness, point you to your true self — very easily, and that's brilliant. But there's almost nobody who's dismantling the illusion. When you're told the entire universe is an illusion — I want to know how it's an illusion, why it's an illusion. Nobody's dismantling that. Nobody's telling you how the ego is false. How is it unreal? Can you logically explain it to me?

So why does it feel like the most unhelpful thing? Let me give you the phrases you'll find in many of these dead-end teachings:

This is it already. You are it already. There's nothing to do. The seeker is the sought. You are looking for what you already are. Stop the search. You'll never find it. It cannot be known. It cannot be understood. It can't be seen. It's all within awareness.

And the questioner says: I have been told many times that I am already free — and I don't know what to do with that. It doesn't make sense to me.

So as a seeker, if you're at this point — learn to ask the right questions.

It cannot be known — but I know that. It can't be understood — but I understand that. It can't be seen — but I see that. So as a seeker, your question should be: how do you know it cannot be known? Teach me why it cannot be known. And if I know why it cannot be known — then I know that which cannot be known. If I understand why it cannot be understood — then I have understood that which cannot be understood.

Many teachers online will dismiss it. It can't be known. Stop. Why are you even trying? You can't understand it. And yet as a seeker, your mind says: I'm not getting closure. There is a problem. I need a solution. I need to close this. But that's not the teaching of the ancient scriptures. If you go through the scriptures that have been there for centuries — there is a logical way of teaching it. The teaching it cannot be known is true. But the one who says it cannot be seen — sees that. The one who says it cannot be understood — understands that. That's what you need to learn. That's what you need to ask.

I'm not really teaching you that you are already aware. I'm teaching you why you are not a thing. The statement I use: you know that you are awareness — great, brilliant, awesome. You know that you are not a thing. Now let's understand what a thing is.

When it comes to understanding, when it comes to knowing — finding the assumptions in every word becomes so important. You find that every teaching, every word used to point to the absolute, is a negation. Nondual — you can't understand what nonduality is. The only way to understand nonduality is to understand duality. The only way to understand that which is not a thing is to understand what a thing is.

That's why the words: nameless — it has no name. Formless — it has no form. It is not aware — it is awareness. It is not conscious — it is consciousness. It is not even nothing — it is nothingness. Logically, in Advaita Vedanta — nothing comes close to Advaita when it comes to dismantling the illusion word by word.

So let's get back. You have been told that you are already free. Why does it feel like the most unhelpful thing anyone has ever said to you? Because the assumption is: I have been told I am free — so I should be free.

Why is it unhelpful? Because I don't feel free. That's why I'm asking in the first place. I'm seeking freedom. I'm looking for the truth. And you tell me I'm already free — but I'm not free. The person giving this teaching may be free — they've realised it. But I have not realised that. And until you step into my shoes and see it from my point of view — if I am not free, then I am bound. Your guide, your teacher, has to step into these shoes and see: why are you bound? What is making you feel bound? What is making you feel like a limited person? Let's work with that.

Just telling me I am free will not free me — because I feel it. I need to un-feel it. If I know I'm not free, I need to un-know that I'm not free. That's the only way. Nondual can only be pointed to through the word dual. Otherwise the absolute truth has no word. It can only be negated. Not this. Not this.

It's unhelpful because the mind seeks closure. The brain is designed to solve problems. The mind is designed to keep this person alive — survival mode. Always on the lookout for problems, anything that would harm it. So here's the seeker's problem: I feel bound. I don't feel free. I want to know the truth. The only way the mind will stop is when it gets the answer.

If there's a math problem you're trying to solve, your mind will keep persisting until you find the solution. And the same is true here. Your mind will keep asking questions until it gets closure. That's why: you cannot understand what no-thing is — but you can understand what a thing is. And what's left is nothing. You cannot understand nonduality — but you can understand duality. The mind wants to understand everything. If your mind understood everything, it would have no question. And such a mind would come to rest. That's what the teaching is all about.

So why does it feel like the most unhelpful thing? Because if I answered one question, you'd have another question. Questions and answers will not end. Direct experience dissolves the questioner.

What will somebody who has realised this do? They will dismiss everything the mind says — watch, witness, it's all arising in awareness and subsiding, you as awareness are still free. That is the teaching. That is the pointing. That's absolutely true. But then here's the question: what is arising and what is subsiding — and why is it doing it in the first place? That is the intellectual part of it. Why does it feel like the most unhelpful thing? Because the mind is not getting closure.

Now let's close this with direct experience.

All the intellectual knowledge is just for clarity of the mind. It has nothing to do with awareness. Doubts, confusion, questions — and not only that, answers, clarity, solutions — all belong to the mind. Not to awareness. All your questions arise in the mind. All your solutions will arise in the mind. So everything I've just said — when we come to direct experience — it's all rubbish. Because all this time what I have been trying to point to is this silence.

No matter how many words I would have said — it's not silence. So let's just silence the mind now. Bring down all that vibration and energy. Forget about all of it. Just calm the mind down.

Rest as awareness. Abide as consciousness. The awareness that you already know that you are.

You know that awareness does not move. Everything moves within awareness. Thoughts may pop up — you know they arise within awareness, subside back into awareness. Things may be happening around you — they too are arising within awareness.

Does this awareness need freedom?

No. Why? It was never bound. Can it be bound in any way? No. That which cannot be bound — is there any question of it attaining freedom? No.

Only that which takes birth can die. Only that which is bound can attain freedom. So — is awareness free? No. Doesn't apply. Awareness is what it is. Then why the bondage, the seeking, the trying to understand or achieve?

Now — from this point of view of awareness — all those teachings make sense. I am already free as awareness. I can never be bound as awareness. But why does it feel like the most unhelpful thing? Because the mind does not know what to do with awareness. It does not know what to do for awareness. It does not know what to do to awareness.

Awareness is the most absolutely useless thing to the mind. It is not a thing to the mind. In Advaita they say everything has a name, a form, a use, appears within time and space. Awareness is nameless, formless, useless, not within time, not within space. The mind does not know what to do with awareness — and thus the seeking carries on. The seeker feels a question has not been answered. A solution has not been provided. The thorn that pricked the foot is still there. What will end it? The second thorn — used to prick out the first — and then throw both away. Only then will the mind be at ease.

Every question of the seeker needs an answer. If it does not get one, the question will persist — maybe in different forms.

I want you to also directly experience that these questions and answers do nothing to awareness as it is. Awareness remains untouched. Duality, nonduality — belong to the mind. Every word belongs to the mind. The seeker's questions belong to the mind. Awareness is not the answer to those questions. The answer to those questions will also arise in the mind.

That's why they say ignorance. You are ignorant of what you truly are. That means you don't know what you truly are. And that is not new knowledge that you need. You need to realise what you have taken yourself to be — and examine that. Because that is not true. What you are, what you have been, what you will always be — has always been, absolutely unaffected. You have taken yourself to be something else. That needs to be examined. When that is seen through — everything remains as it is.

Advaita Vedanta is called the path of knowledge. The path of no belief, no faith, and no action. Mental clarity, knowledge — that should answer every question logically, reasonably, without me having to believe I am already free.

When you go to school, you want the student to understand what the teacher is saying — not to believe it. Even the teacher wants the student to understand, not to follow blindly. If the teacher said you are already free — the teacher wants you to understand that, not believe that. And they should be willing to teach you how you are already free.

Questions arise in the mind. Answers will arise in the mind. They negate each other — and awareness remains as it is.

Not everybody needs these answers. But the sincere seeker who says — I need to understand, I need to know, make it as simple as 2+2=4 — for that seeker, statements like you are already free and this is it already are absolutely unhelpful.

I was one of those seekers — where I needed to understand what the masters were talking about, why they were saying what they were saying. And I found that nobody is teaching that. Nobody is answering questions about why there is an illusion in the first place. Why the ego is called false, unreal, imaginary — why? Can you explain it to me just logically? Is that too much to ask?

My question is: why is there a story? If I understand why there's a story in the first place — then I understand that which is not a story.

As a seeker of the truth — do not settle for teachings that do not complete you emotionally, mentally, and physically. A complete teaching is one where I feel the truth, I know the truth, I do the truth, I am the truth. Nothing else apart from I living it experientially, emotionally, intellectually, and physically. That's a complete teaching and a complete arc.

If you know the truth but don't feel it — something is amiss. If you feel it and don't know it — something is still amiss.

Teachings and learning have to be a two-way question and answer. Teacher and student. It cannot be one direction — what the teacher says, the student believes and follows blindly. That's not teaching. I tell you you're free — and you tell me: but I don't feel it, I don't know it. And that's where the questions and answers start. It will not change the fact that you already are. There's a mistaken identity. A mistaken bondage — which will lead to freedom, which is also then realised to be imaginary.

In one of my books in the I Am Consciousness series, after learning everything, the questioner asks Vedanta itself: "If everything is an illusion — what are you? You as the teaching, you as the scripture, you as the master, you as the guru — what are you, if everything is an illusion?" And Vedanta answers back: "I too am a part of the illusion. But do not make the mistake of dismissing me — until you have realised the truth."

So ask — as the genuine, sincere seeker that you are. Ask questions until you get your answer. Everything is made of something. Ask until you come down to the point of asking: what is a thing? And if I know a thing — how do I know everything? Why?

These teachings feel unhelpful because the mind has nothing to do with them. They are dead ends. This is it already. So the seeker asks — so what do I do? Everything arises in awareness — and the mind says: there's nothing left for me to do. I don't understand. You can witness it all along, but after some time the mind says: this is becoming a waste of time. You know you're awareness. Let's get back to work.

Until you dismantle the mechanics of the illusion — questions will arise, doubts, confusion will arise. Very few seekers will go to the end of knowledge. And if you're one of those — welcome to this channel.

We leave it at that.