On freedom, fighting, and love
Protests have been part of humanity since probably the beginning of time. In this article, I’d like to walk us through the question of what freedom is.
So, what is freedom? Humans have been fighting for freedom since probably the beginning of time. Freedom can refer to many things, such as freedom to go to watch a football game; freedom to choose what career we would like to have; freedom to choose which restaurant to eat at tonight; freedom to choose where we want to live; freedom to choose a person to befriend. We can define freedom in many ways. We seem so well practiced to express that freedom and choose to do what we like. We also have the option to choose not to do something, and we believe this is also freedom. It seems freedom of choice is rated so highly in our world today.
Freedom also allows us to travel. If I want to go to another country, I can get a passport and a visa and travel to a nice island, like Hawaii. I can then go to New Zealand and Malaysia and enjoy myself on a tour of the Pacific Ocean.
Choice and Freedom
It seems in our currently reality, choice and freedom go hand-in-hand. So the question then becomes, why do we need to choose at all? Is choice freedom or a limitation of freedom? For example, in some countries, it may not be permissible to smoke in public, so I need to choose a place which allows me to smoke, such as in my own home or at a designated smoking booth. So it seems that there is some unclarity in this choice. There is some decision-making to be made. Alternatively, I may decide to choose to quit smoking all together in order to remove the stress of planning where I need to smoke. A choice. So it seems that choice may actually be preventing freedom.
When you look at totalitarianism, where opposing political parties and ideologies are prohibited, there doesn’t seem to be any freedom. They try to control and direct all aspects of a person’s life through coercion, repression, control. This may include no freedom of speech, or freedom of the press, expressing certain ideologies, or religions may even be banned.
So what is freedom, then?
Do we base freedom on choice? Is it to choose to do whatever we like? There are some interesting analogies recently about conquering fear that try to force you to make a decision about something within seconds believing it is a good way to conquer your fear. For example if I’m afraid of using the phone to call someone, we face the emotion of fear, and then within seconds we decide to call that person and the fear is supposed to go away. Apparently this is supposed to help us become free or conquer fear. What we are doing is forcing ourselves to make within seconds. Whilst this may seem entertaining to many, it also took the pilot seconds to push a button and drop an atomic bomb on millions of innocent people. Is that also not freedom? The freedom to choose to pull a trigger?
Let’s ask ourselves where does freedom lies. Does freedom lie in the outer - the world as we see it through our eyes? The world as we read about it in newspapers? The world as we learn about it from movies? The world as we see it from old books and scriptures? Is it the expression of ourselves to act and do whatever we choose to do - freedom of expression or individual freedom.
Or does it lie in the inner world? Could we potentially start with freedom intrinsically, which then expresses itself outwardly? Right now, let’s not judge whether the writer is wrong or right, we just want to question these ideas about freedom. If we could potentially start with freedom inside of ourselves and open up to the possibility that it could then express itself outwardly, let’s look at this.
We said earlier that whenever there is a choice to make, there cannot be freedom. Whenever there needs to be choice, then there is thought and in thought there cannot be freedom. If we are making a choice, it obviously means there is some kind of confusion within. If we are in a process of choosing between A, B, C, or D, it means there is confusion, since we are analyzing something. If one has complete clarity over something, then you know exactly what needs to be done - there is no option to choose because you are perfectly clear. Is what the writer explaining making sense? When you are crossing the street and you notice a car popping out of the blue and speed straight towards you, clearly you will try to move out of the way as fast as possible. There is no time to choose, no time to analyze - you know what to do. It is a direct action which is clear.
However, when you find the need to analyze something, and from that analysis make a choice, then within analysis itself there must be confusion and disorder or chaos. Then isn’t it better to first be free of that confusion and disorder? Isn’t this the first step before even understanding freedom itself? Shouldn’t we start here to understand with our hearts and minds what are the images and information I have inside myself that are holding me back and to be totally free of the fears and anxieties, painful experiences, wounds from the past that are creating that confusion? Can we watch all of this intrinsically and be free of it? I can almost C (see) many people nodding their heads and I have had many people tell me, it’s too difficult, tell me what else I can do.
Then reason is that we don’t have the energy to self explore. To watch all of what is going on within us to understand it. We instead turn to others for energy such as a guru or psychiatrist. We talk to the advisors and life coaches to talk through problems and challenges and be listened to rendering us depending always on other people. Or we distract ourselves from even getting to acceptance by watching or being entertained by something, whether it’s the news or social media or getting drunk, and therefore never even meet that acceptance, creating further confusion and feeding conflict within ourselves.
To understand the unlimitedness of freedom (and not the version of freedom we currently see on the outer, created with all of our corrupted minds), we must begin with what is the closest thing we have, and that closest thing is you.
There cannot be freedom as long as…
As long as there is a you, and a me, there can never be freedom. As long as you have your prejudices and I have my prejudices, your experience and my experience, your images and my images, there is no freedom. Though we can express it, put our opinions forward, criticize things, like things and not, right to think what you like, that is called freedom in the currently reality. But the real meaning of freedom and by that I mean to discover its depth, clarity, beauty, wondrous enormity, can be discovered only when within yourself you have complete clarity and order.
So is it possible to be free inwardly when our mind is a slave to our own selves? Can we ask this question, first? Because nothing has ever been solved without some kind of violence by starting on the outside. On the outside, it is easy to rebel against a belief or authoritative order by means of protesting or expressing an opposing view such as going against a mandate or society, posting something on the internet. As far as the outside is concerned, we ALL created society in some way or another, by means of our history and up-bringing, conditioning, education, traditions, religions, which includes greed, ambition, seeking to be rich, envy, corruption, fear, or want to become someone famous. We have created it. Then we rebel against our creation even though that is exactly what we created.
Therefore, we cannot find a solution as long as we operate in a prison and that prison is within us. Remove the prison within, and the outer also changes - NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. If you don’t believe me, take a look at history and all the wars and conflicts that continue to happen for whatever reason. This is because we are always band-aiding things on the outer. Always trying to fix things “out there” with the fact that our minds, ourselves are corrupt and disordered. Do you see what the writer means?
So, first seek to be free inwardly - can you focus on finding all the things that inwardly are restricting you. For many, it is about being free of beliefs that are restricting you; or knowledge that is preventing you; or fears that you have ignored; or pain you have refused to face. All these have restricted us as humans from the very beginning. Finally, all the attachments, physical, material, or other people that we have created for ourselves are indeed, what we need to be free of in order to understand freedom.
Love and light,
GC