Contents

"Every people has a right to choose the sovereignty under which they shall live." ~ Woodrow T. Wilson

"In sovereignty there are no gradations." ~ Samuel Johnson

What is Sovereignty

The Dalai Lama summed up the definition as we mean for it be used most clearly on October 21, 2007.

"Brute force can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom. Freedom is the very source of creativity and human development.... lacking the precious air of liberty to sustain our deeper nature, we remain only half human."

When one is truly feeling free they experience harmony and joy with the universe and all creation - it becomes a living reality; this is the essence of sovereignty. A lack of freedom or other parts of sovereignty result in mental self-slavery and suffering. Perhaps this is why people or a nation go to war willingly if "freedom" is at stake.

There is a good reason for this, sovereignty is not a goal of the human soul, but its very nature, it calls to itself. Lack of freedom to exercise sovereignty is therefore a violation of the very nature of the soul. In some societies, freedom is not recognized as a right, but as a fact. It is something that IS, rather than something that can be given or taken away.

Freedom and sovereignty are one and the same, it is the Right and responsibility to choice your life path, this Right came from the Creator, Universal Source, whatever you may call it. When we fail to experience our reality as free sovereign co-creators of the universe our spiritual, mental, and emotional bodies are disturbed (out of harmony) which in the end brings only the experience of suffering. If people and countries will go to war and cause suffering in order to bring about or protect "Freedom," then ensuring and protecting freedom and sovereignty (the same thing) must be the ultimate objectives of everyone from individual to state. So what is being protected?

Sovereignty may be thought of in two different, but interrelated, ways:
1) Autonomy, and
2) Dominion.

The most primal aspect of sovereignty is the innate autonomy of each individual, thanks to everyone’s true, spiritual nature and innate free will. We are free-will beings living in a free-will universe. This must be so or there would be no game and no significance to anything. If man were simply an automaton, like a wind-up toy, everything would be purely mechanical and predetermined. There could be no moral or ethical choices, in fact, there could be no choices at all. This would deprive all of Us and the Creator of experiencing the very point of creation: ever new and freely created situations experienced by a myriad of beings whereby the we can experience the Creator’s glory and infinity of qualities in otherwise unattainable ways. A purely mechanical universe would eliminate this crucial reason for creation. It would disallow the possibility of assigning significance to anyone’s actions, while at the same time preventing surprise. Life would have no “emotional” meaning.

The central aspect of our very being is free will—the unfettered and autonomous capacity to make choices in any situation or context whatsoever. This inherent autonomy is ultimately due to our immortal spiritual nature. As a result, it cannot be abrogated or destroyed—by us or anyone else. Indeed, it is us. Possessing this free-will nature means that we have the unalienable right to exercise it, i.e., to be independent, self-governing, self-regulating, and, as a corollary, self-responsible. That which is has the innate right to be itself, or it’s very existence is self-negating. Indeed, the premise that we are all sovereign and self-responsible is the foundational presumption of all law.

If we were not deemed free, autonomous, self-responsible beings, but only mechanical robots, no one could be held accountable for anything. There could be no rules nor any basis for enforcing them.

The second aspect of sovereignty, as it is thought about and implemented throughout history, is dominion. This, in both ethical and existential terms, may be deemed an abuse of sovereignty. Everyone has the ethical right to his own life, as well as the innate duty of exercising stewardship over it. Since everyone has that right and duty, who has any right to usurp it? The meanest peasant has as much right to his life as the king (“a man’s home is his castle”). This is a basis upon which Jefferson (re-phrased by Benjamin Franklin) could write in the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Give yourself the freedom to make any choice you wish—and give those you love the same freedom, in fact give it to everyone - that is the fastest way to receive it back. You are all sovereign, when you recognize it in others you will begin to vibrate it within yourself, creating better realities for us all to share.