On liberation

SRI TANTRALOKA Chapter 1.verse 33-35

Translation and explanation by Sri Christopher Wallis

“I am free of the taint of desire and so on;” “I am the inner void;” “I am free from doership” —these forms of insight, collectively or separately, liberate one only so far [i.e., only from the corresponding forms of bondage].

Therefore, though one is liberated from one source of separation, he is really unliberated, because other sources of separation continue to exist. But he is [truly] liberated when he is free of all forms of separation and limitation.

That insight (jñāna) into the thing-to-be-known together with its constituent principles (tattva) which is completely free of all sources of separation can never be partial (ajñāna), [and therefore] it grants true liberation. ------ Sri Christopher Walls on Tantraloka( 1. 33-35)

Explaination :

The commentator says that the first three quotes in verse 33 above apply to the claims of the Yogācāra Buddhists, the Madhyamika Buddhists, and the Sānkhyas respectively.

The accessible "takeaway" is this: vigilantly notice how you become internally divided or divided from others, and vigilantly notice what helps you step into your innate wholeness and connection to others.

However far you've come, whatever realizations you've had, don't imagine the process is complete until every strategy of separation has been disarmed, every means of "protecting" yourself has been abandoned, and you see with every cell of your being that showing up for what IS, no matter how much it hurts sometimes, is truly the only way.  And, as verse 33 suggests, when you make the spiritual journey personal (this is what *I* have realized, this is what *I* have overcome), you are still separating yourself.