Maybe we do have to take the journey first.

Maybe life is like one of those movies where it starts by showing you the end, and then says "2 weeks earlier...." and then jumps backward.

So we are boundless/free/present at birth. We lose this sense at some point, then begin our journey to find it again; carrying with us that vague memory of how wonderful it felt.

Perhaps we do need to consciously observe the unraveling of the knots we've built up in order to fully understand all of this on the experiential level.