A young monk asked Master Shih-t’ou, “How can I ever get released?”
The Master replied: “Who has ever put you in bondage?”
Freedom is total when it includes freedom even from the need to be free.
Freedom is an illusion. When you try to achieve freedom, that effort imprisons you. The effort to be free creates the idea that you are not free. This is your imaginary prison.
You will not understand this if you imagine I am referring to a physical prison with guards, dogs and barbed wire. Freedom is doing what you do. When you do something possible you are free. When you try to do something impossible you are bound.
The only possible thing you can do is what you are doing, since you can never do anything except what you do. The feeling that you are bound stems from your thought that you should be doing something different from what you are actually doing, which is totally impossible.
Be as you are.
Do what you do.
That is all.
Peace of mind and happiness follow naturally.