The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage. ~ Thucydides
As humans we find ourselves in a difficult position. The moment we become even remotely aware of our enslaved state in this world we long for liberation and freedom.
For many of us who truly realize our state of servitude, we crave deep down to be free from resentfulness, grudges, traumas, mistrust, entitlement complexes, reactiveness, depression, expectations, desires, ideals, standards, self-judgment, and most importantly free from fear.
Our souls secretly feel ashamed: we want to have wings and we want to fly – but we realize how grounded and imperfect we are, yet we still intuitively know that we can be free.
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The reality is that this problem has perpetuated itself throughout history, and since the dawn of time. Every man and every woman in every culture has searched for freedom. But freedom from what? And freedom towards what? And most of all: what really is true freedom?
What Is Freedom?
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. ~ Søren Kierkegaard
When you ask most people what they would define as freedom they will most likely answer something along the lines of: “Freedom is to be able to do whatever you want” as in the stereotypical depiction of free spirits.
Have you ever stopped to think about this interpretation of freedom? If everyone really did whatever they wanted this would not truly be freedom – this would be chaos and anarchy. Why? Because everyone has a different idea of what they want in life, and while one thing might benefit another person, it might impair or completely destroy the life of another.
Deep down we know that freedom has to do with what is ‘right’, or in other words, what benefits everyone, whether the individual or the collective.
But how can we know what is ‘right‘? Religions have tried to use morality systems as life guidelines but as we have seen, this hasn’t been very effective. To be free to do ‘what is right’ we have to first be able to cultivate the maturity and wisdom to be aware of the consequences of our actions. To be free we must become responsible human beings – but yet most of us just want irresponsibility.
People continue to talk about freedom, but we don’t want freedom, what we want is to be licentious. Unless your freedom can help you go higher than you were before – to grow in spirit, compassion, gratitude, unity and forgiveness – then your freedom is most likely another form of enslavement to your stimulation and pleasure seeking, fear driven, emotionally reactive, lower self.
Some people think of freedom solely as a liberation from external forces like political systems. But this is only one kind of enslavement! In reality, there are three types of freedom: physical freedom, psychological freedom and spiritual freedom.
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On one hand, our physical enslavement is that which relates to our external bodies. We might be in chains or behind bars, we might be held captive and tortured as prisoners of war. We might be in a country that holds our race or gender as inferior like ancient China where women were seen as property and you had all the legal right to kill them if you wanted.
Our psychological enslavement, on the other hand, is something we are often not even aware of. At a young age, for instance, we were taught cultural ideologies of a political, social and religious nature, and throughout our lives we adopted them as the “absolute truths” in our versions of reality. We also developed beliefs about ourselves, sometimes delusionally grand, and other times grossly warped such as the convictions that we are lazy, ugly, unintelligent or unworthy. In doing so we lost our Self-Love and our authenticity.
Our countries will tell us that we are free, but most of the time they are only referring to physical freedom or psychological freedom in the form of freedom of speech and thought. But true freedom, spiritual freedom, is to be free in thought and free in soul. Only then can we be authentically true to ourselves. We like to blame our governments, our religions, our parents, our teachers and our societies, but the truth is that we limit our own freedom by not being aware and responsible for our thoughts, feelings, decisions and behaviors.
Freedom + Awareness
We seek retreats for ourselves, houses in the country, seashores, mountains. But … we have in our power to retire into ourselves. For there is no retreat that is quieter and freer from trouble than our soul … perfect tranquility, the right ordering of mind. ~ Marcus Aurelius
We need to be aware that we aren’t, in fact, free, before we can pursue freedom. The first and last step towards personal freedom is complete awareness.
When Friedrich Nietzsche said: “God is dead and man is free” he was attempting to liberate himself from the enslavement to his beliefs. He was stating that, while there was a God that lived, man could never be free, as that would merely turn us into puppets. Where we ever asked to be created, and do we ever have a say in our destruction? How can we possibly be free if we are both victims of our births and our deaths?
But Nietzsche’s words were misinterpret by many (as is usually the case), and in doing so, those that rebelled against ‘God’ enslaved themselves even more, becoming reactionary. Just like every other ‘revolutionary’ who is against something, they are never really free. How can an atheist or an anarchist ever be free when they are constantly opposed to something? When they are constantly fighting? These people are enslaved to their own thoughts about what they are fighting for or against and their own emotional reactions to it. Only through awareness can we be totally free, and only though awareness can we choose to remove ourselves from the games of duality, finding our innate wholeness.
Freedom can only come through a deep understanding and a deep awareness of life. If your government is sick with ideologies and out of frustration you choose to react, rebel and become ideologically sick also, this only leads to chaos.
Now, we’ll change course for a bit.
When we use the word ‘paradise’ we associate it with outer beauty and also freedom. Interestingly the origin of the word: “Pairidaeza”, which is Persian for ‘a walled, enclosed, garden’ reveals the true nature of the idea of paradise: no matter how beautiful, the garden is still enclosed, you are still a prisoner. The same is true of the story of Adam and Eve, who, once eating from the Tree of Knowledge, became free from the confines of ‘Paradise’, with God releasing them and their potential. However, without developing our awareness, we’ve again created our prisons in the form of national borders, religious beliefs and egocentric ideologies.
Our perception of freedom is always external: the Garden of Eden, protective government laws and financial wealth. We ask God to help us because we don’t want to take responsibility for our own lives and we don’t have the courage to experience our own divinity. And when God doesn’t help us, when the world doesn’t turn out the way we want, we blame others.
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A simple example of this is our typical love affair. Throughout our lives, many of us fail to grow to love ourselves, and when we do find someone else who loves us, we become overwhelmed with happiness. Very quickly we throw our happiness into the other person’s hands thinking they’ll fulfill everything we desire out of life – but in doing so we have enslaved ourselves to them. How? For example, when they connect with someone else we feel jealous. When they don’t behave the way we expect them to, we become angry. We lack so much awareness of ourselves that we blame them constantly, and in doing so we imprison them in our own cells of expectations.
This is the nature of every encounter with other people. Someone cuts us off on the road, we blame them as ‘idiots’ and become angry instead of taking responsibility for our patience, tolerance and expectations of others. The truth is that we never made a deal with them that they shouldn’t behave the way they do – we only project our ideals of responsibility onto them so they don’t make our lives more difficult. We never stop to think that the key to freedom is changing something inside of us, rather than something on the outside.
To be free from all that binds you, from all that is false, from all that is ephemeral, to rid yourself of all that is imaginary and mortal is to experience the truth and the immortal within you. This is what the Hindu’s call “Moksha” (’emancipation’, ‘liberation’ or ‘release’) and what Mahavira spoke as “Kaivalya” (‘solitude’, ‘detachment’ or ‘isolation’). Freedom from past thoughts and future expectations is true freedom. Free to be, to exist, to experience joy, God, innocence, consciousness, is true freedom and is entirely, internally of the present moment.
Freedom comes from being aware of what truly makes you happy and taking responsibility for this. You cannot change the world as even attempting to do this creates expectations that will imprison you once more. You can only change yourself and embody the message you wish to share.
Freedom to Respond
In spite of all similarities, every living situation has, like a newborn child, a new face, that has never been before and will never come again. It demands of you a reaction that cannot be prepared beforehand. It demands nothing of what is past. It demands presence, responsibility; it demands you.” ~ Martin Buber
To be aware is to be responsible and to be responsible is having the freedom to respond. A response is not an emotional reaction, a response is a calm action that is performed while fully present and centered in your being. A response can only be born out of a mature soulful energy – an immature and lazy person is incapable of action and is consequently irresponsible.
Responding is not controlling, as controlling is only another form of enslavement of repression. For example, we try to ignore or destroy parts of our inner being, of our shadow selves, so that we can pretend to be calm and collected. A priest must control his sexual desires so that he can continue to be inauthentic and appear celibate or saintly even though his thoughts are ‘perverse’ to his standards. However, in the end this only creates neuroticism, self-denial and self-hate – something the desire to control and repress causes in everyone.
To be free takes courage, to be able to respond in an authentic way takes courage. We are so habituated to avoiding taking risks because of our fear of the uncertain and unknown. It is only through self-love, of feeling comfortable in ourselves, that we can resist depending on external excuses to be more responsible.
It is through responsibility that we can become aware of our authenticity and the infinite potential within us, of the joy and freedom inherent in life itself. And it is only once we taste this freedom, this joy, that we become aware of our capacity for passion, our highest reason for being, our calling in life.
We can never truly be free externally; we are an interdependent ecosystem of animals, plants, trees and people that all rely on each other to exist. Our individual ideas of ‘freedom’ can become other people’s binding problems. We can only choose to be aware of our authenticity, reflecting and responding to it in ways that will not interfere with other people’s authenticity. If you are truly responding authentically, you realize that to respect another’s freedom is to respect your own.
I never asked to be alive, yet I am.
As a being who is alive, I am experiencing.
The nature of experiencing, is to respond.
Each response will change what I experience next.
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Luna and Sol, your way of writing is sooo similar that I never guess who has written the article I’m currently reading:)
You’d be surprised how strange it is to live together and finish each others thoughts since we met. ;)
Hello Sol. I have some concerns.
“Just like every other ‘revolutionary’ who is against something, they are never really free. How can an atheist or an anarchist ever be free when they are constantly opposed to something? When they are constantly fighting? These people are enslaved to their own thoughts about what they are fighting for or against and their own emotional reactions to it.”
So, to be for or against anything in life is automatic enslavement? Because considering the world/society we live in with all its injustice, lies, corruption and the like, its pretty impossible NOT to be for or against certain things and to want to change the world for the better. We should just throw in the towel and allow these things to continue to happen? We should just let life happen to us?
Im confused.
Nick
Hello Nick,
The simplest way I can explain it is from my own experience. Much of our work is centered around becoming more mindful, aware and shifting our perception from an ego centric to a more soul centric perspective. So obviously we are in favor of one path over another.
The difference is, attaining true inner freedom means you realize you have very little control over the outside world, and attaching your happiness to changing that outside world will enslave you.
I have preferences, of how the world should be, of what I like to eat and what my favorite weather is. But I don’t desire those preferences, I’m not attached to them. If my favorite dish is available over another dish, obviously I’ll choose that one. But if it’s not, I’ll also enjoy anything that is being presented for me to eat.
In essence, freedom comes in realizing how little freedom you have over external circumstances, and surrendering to that, accepting it whole-heartedly. Accepting the injustice in the world doesn’t mean I agree with it, it means I’m acknowledging that it is happening and will do my best to draw awareness to what I feel is a better approach.
The revolutionary resists, the rebel acknowledges from a place free of attachment and chooses to create their own path instead.
Hello again, Sol. Sorry for the very late response.
I wholeheartedly agree that de- conditioning ourselves from outside programming and getting to know our true inner selves is vital. However….
What I don’t agree with is that we “have very little control over the outside world”, and that we shouldnt bother trying to change that, too. That promotes a passive and willfully ignorant mindset. Would you say that about MLK? Was he wrong for wanting to bring about external change? Yes, being that we are each unique human beings with our own individual “make-up”, so to speak, we all have our LIMITS in the things we can and cant do. However, each action we take in life, no matter how seemingly small, affects the world in some form or another, positively or negatively. None of us are powerless. Considering the state this world really is in right now (and has been for quite some time) , we can and SHOULD want to change the “outside world”; not JUST our inner selves. It shouldn’t stop there. Because at the end of the day, no matter how blissful, complete and whole we feel inside, we still have the rest of the world, the “outside” world, to consider. We still have to answer to a government that’s lying to and f**king us over every day, and that will continue to do so until we really do something about it. They aren’t exempt from responsibility. And to just passively sit by as this corruption continues, because the “expectations will enslave us”, I can’t stand by that. Your expectations/beliefs will only enslave you if you LET them. I think its a bit selfish to not at least try changing the world for the better because one doesn’t wanna feel uncomfortable; because of the pressure it may put on them. That’s just a risk that I’m willing to take. Inner freedom is important, but what about OUTER freedom?
For there to be TRUE freedom, action needs to take place within AND without, no matter how “small” the action. Otherwise we’re just happy prisoners. It doesn’t end with us, it STARTS with us. We can’t just disregard everything else going on in the world, that won’t do us any good. Being the change you want to see is good, but it’s not enough. Action is neccessary. And im going to start by not voting for any presidential candidate this year, as im waking up to how corrupt our American government truly is. It’s not this huge, monumental step, but it is a good start. I’m not trying to attack you or sound like some self righteous “world savior” type, but after doing some real thinking/researching, it would kill me not to put in my two cents, lol.
Nicholas
Hello,
I think in this case, an illustration might help. If I were to ask you to think of three cities in the world, any cities in the world, what would they be?
I’m sure you thought of three, but how did you come up with those three, why them. You didn’t really choose them did you, they just came to mind based on past memories, your geographical knowledge etc..
With your ‘freedom’, if you had to mentally, consciously “will” every action into being, you would never move. How would it be possible to command every single action of every muscle, ligament and tendon, every mixing of specific neurochemicals to initiate the motion in the motor cortex, and then synchronize how everything flexed, turned, and twisted? How would you coordinate the supporting muscles, blood, digestion of the food, movement of glucose and oxygen to feed the muscle and then burn it, to generate the energy for the action? How could we possibly believe that we did those actions?
The famous experiments of Benjamin Libet in the early 1980s definitively demonstrated that the brain’s motor cortex initiates the actions well before the “I” is even made aware of them and well before they are performed, These experiments, controversial at the time, have been validated by many, many researchers with the latest technology. In essence, we make internal and external choices well before we’re consciously aware of them.
When using examples like Martin Luther King, we assume he’s one man who through an individuals will power changed the world. But that’s never the case. MLK was the visionary but Ralph Abernathy his mentor and long time friend was the ‘How’ man. MLK accumulated the right kind of knowledge, was born with the right charisma until they point in time came when the opportunity present itself to use those qualities. People that went to his famous speech didn’t go to hear this mans Dream, they went there caused they shared that Dream and he was the public face of that common dream.
Did MLK have a choice to be born black, to be born with his wisdom, his verbal eloquence, to be born in America in a period of social upheaval and have the right people by his side? It’s what’s commonly referred to as the ‘Outlier’ principle.
By saying we have little control over the external world I’m not inviting passivity. I’m inviting awareness into the fact that we have no control over the external circumstances. All of the suffering of every person comes from their desires and expectations of how different the external world should be.
It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the opportunities that present themselves to you. It means what dreams you’re working toward, whatever desires you have, they should be preferences of how you’d like things to be, free from the attachments and expectations that will make you suffer because you have the full knowledge that anything which lies beyond your consciousness is our of your control.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment Nicholas.
This lonerwolf thing is the only reason I joined disqus. Just saying thanks for a site like this. I came across the notion of soul ages back in 2012 from something called the michael teachings. My girlfriend at the time and I went through and read all the different descriptions of the different soul ages and determined I was old and she was baby. We were just having fun and thought no more of it although from time to time I would jokingly dismiss something I did that aggravated her as having been just something old souls do. Around this time though I really started searching around for answers to spiritual questions. I was raised Christian Baptist and found myself wholly embracing the idea of reincarnation against all I had been taught. Well to make a long story short I chilled out for a couple years never pursuing anymore into things I’d come to know but not pursuing anything more either. Now the fire has ignited in me again all of it’s own accord so I turn here for answers first. Thanks for taking the time to listen.
~Jason~
Thank you Jason for sharing your experience, and for taking the time to join Disqus to post it here (there should be an option to post as a ‘Guest’ for future reference, or for those wanting to post anonymously).
I’ve heard of Michael’s Teachings work, and it’s interesting. I can’t say I agree with everything but there’s a few similar understandings that are reflected in our own work.
In my experience, our Spiritual potential is always within our Soul but our psychological capability to embody that spiritual potential may not be ready yet. So as you describe, when we are young we are attracted toward certain fields that we can’t completely actualize until later in life when our psychological maturity catches up.
I’m glad to have you here sharing this journey with us,
Much warmth to you brother!
Mateo
Thankyou for taking the time to reply.
I was wondering if you guys or anyone could recommend some good guru writings. Im familiar with the works of Hermes Trismigistis and have read the first 3 Carlos Castaneda books on don Juan Matus. I personally recommend either. Thankyou.
Personally, I’m a fan of following the live teachings of these ‘masters’, rather than the dead ones.
The problem is the message they’re teaching is so simple yet complex four our minds that it’s always easily misunderstood by those who haven’t reached the same level of embodiment and understanding as the master.
When a spiritual teacher is alive he is free to correct you if you interpret what he says wrongly, but when his dead; everyone will have a different idea of what his trying to say. Just look at Christianity and the thousands of different creeds all with different interpretations. If it doesn’t get lost in the message, it get’s lost in translation as the Muslim religion proves with its thousands of Quran commentaries.
Castaneda knew this and consequently limited his live teachings to a select few students in his community removed from the rest of society.
They may be rare, but my suggestion is find a ‘guru’ that’s alive, as the message of truth they deliver will be as lively as the teacher itself. Truth can never be captured into words, because words are static and dead and life is an ever flowing essence that requires the careful guidance of the master for you to smell.
Wauw, what a great article, thank you for this. The not taking responsibilety part really speaks to me, so many people blame others or things for what happen in their life, they become a victom.
Thankfully I recently became aware of the constricting elements in my life (through my upbringing) and can now come lose from them, by awareness. I agree with total freedom not being able to exist, you will always be connected and therefor are needed and will depend on someone / something else. But I also believe you can feel free by accepting yourself, accept the life you have, love yourself, do what you love, be authentic and show the world your true self.
“Freedom is the recognition of necessity” – Hegel. Another great quote I like is by Garrett Hardin, the man who wrote The Tragedy of the Commons. He said “Freedom to breed will bring ruin to all.” This is in terms of our economic structure and practice of making choices in an open market. He says that to make these choices, to be able to produce and consume however much we want is not real freedom, and it can only bring us all to ruin, hence, the tragedy of the commons. I am a huge supporter of safe/available abortion and do not plan on having any children of my own, simply because I study sustainability and know and understand overpopulation and will do everything I can to live a sustainable lifestyle. I wonder what your thoughts on this is? These quotes and how it is related to what you wrote about freedom? Or maybe, what you wrote is different from what those two gentleman wrote about freedom.
This article is closely resembles of Hegel’s statement and is explores existential freedom more so that the artificially freedom of economy Hardin alludes at.
I agree with your views in overpopulation, we’ve outgrown this planets capacity to sustain us without resorting to all kinds of modified and artificial foods to sustain this lifestyle. This is where Hegels freedom of necessity would come in, but for that you need enough wisdom to realize your necessities short and long term which not everyone has the freedom to develop (returns to the existential issue).
I know not everyone can live without kids, but I encourage many to only have or and maybe adopt another if the desire more. It’s an excellent way of quickly cutting the population by half. However, this view would be seen as ‘tyrannical’ and limiting of freedom for those who don’t share the same fore-sight of where we are heading.
Wow and thank you.
Every article that you generously provide speaks to my soul as if you’re writing them about, and to me! Every single topic you’ve spoken of articulates where I’ve been, what I’ve realized and where it has brought me to today. I’m inspired, delighted and grateful for the truth you share and hope your message is heard and believed by millions. Thank you for doing what you do, it is a tremendous gift to receive your profoundly significant emails and posts, they are much appreciated reminders that convey the reassuring words that keep me from second guessing the lone journey I am currently traveling to discover my true self and love all of me unconditionally, I know that it is my personal path for healing painful memories and restoring joyful peace to my heart and mind. Cheers to you both for seeking to find what really matters in this life and I’m thankful to you for sharing so that we all can do the same.
Thank you Dayna for your thoughtful comment and warm words, this journey is one that many of us share and we’ve been isolated by our cultures for being the Outsiders in our strange way of looking at the world.
It is only now that through this medium we can all connect on a global scale and create a drastic change within ourselves and in doing so, affect the world around us. We’re delighted to share this journey with beautiful Souls like yourself.
Your brother,
Sol
Thank that was a mind opening read. Absolutely ebjoyed reading this!
Thank you Jen for taking time to read it and being receptive to the message!
This article is thought provoking, and I enjoyed it… I had some worries about it as well.
“Soul”, “soulful energy”, “shadow self”… etc. etc. What are these things? I have some impression of what you might mean when you’re using these words… but why can’t you elaborate on exactly what they are? As it stands, some people are going to interpret it as religious mumbo jumbo, and I’m worried that if you were to try and give them precise definitions, things would cease to make sense.
“Deep down we know that freedom has to do with what is right…” Do you really want to assume that everyone feels this way deep down? Speak for yourself. Do you know how I feel deep down? Of course not. You don’t know how anyone else feels “deep down”. The idea that we are only free when we are doing the right thing is very self-defeating. This implies that criminals who do terrible things shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions because they didn’t freely commit them; that “free” people are only “free” to do good things, not bad things.
To be free we must be responsible… To be responsible means to have the freedom to respond… does this not also seem a little bit circular? So we need responsibility to be free, but we need freedom to be responsible. This implies that the irresponsible person will never be free, because on the one hand they are not responsible, and this is the requirement of freedom. On the other hand, they do not have the freedom to respond, and so can never be responsible.
Big concepts like these demand more precision.
Hola Figrin,
I can understand your concerns with some of the terms used and the lack of precision.
You see the problem is that unlike writing a book, with articles we can’t truly expand on every concept otherwise it would end up being a massive article nobody would read. So instead, we have opted for using those terms such as “shadow self”, “soulful energy” and linking to past articles where we have expanded on that terms or topic.
We write with the idea in mind that most of the readers of this article are already somewhat familiar with our past work, or otherwise at least interested enough in reading those articles we have linked to.
If you are to understand our work as a whole, then yes, I can know what we all want deep down, and you can as well. If you are to understand the individual soul, as a fragment that is connected to a collective pool of souls, then deep down every soul realizes that in doing what is “not right”, they are harming themselves. The basis of every religion is that of love, unity and forgiveness; so it stands to reason that at the heart of every man they desire the same qualities among their humans.
However, there is always hindrances that get in the way of that; in this case our false identification with our ‘individual selves’ and it’s unexplored desires and expectations of the world (eg: that other people believe in our God as well, or that we are right). Criminals make exactly this mistake, in identifying themselves with their senses, their impulses, their mental desires, without exploring first who they really are.
To do the “right thing” you have to first know, who is doing it. If you are not free from desires of violence, or wealth, or power then how can you ever be free to do what is right, or wrong even? Free people can only do the right thing, it is the very nature of the freedom I’m writing about, to do otherwise is to be enslaved to something that is not you.
When stating that “To be responsible means to have the freedom to respond…” I am bringing into awareness to nature of the word “responsible” which means capacity of response.
To be free means to respond. If I chain your hands up and then throw a ball at your face, you have no freedom to respond. It’s exactly the same with this enslavement that comes from identification with ideologies, self-beliefs and egotistical desires, it biases you with chains.
The moment you are presented with a decision in life, you will act according to your ideologies (eg: religious), or you will act according to the illusionary individual selfs desire which you believe yourself to be (eg: the criminal who acts on his instincts to kill or rape). So as I wrote; to be truly free is to be entirely capable of responding back, and to respond back you must first know who you truly are, you must deeply know yourself. That is why I also wrote about Awareness as an essential element in freedom.
Unless you know yourself, your true nature that is free from all the presumptions you believe about yourself, then you are not free at all.
Thank you for your thoughtful and careful response to my question. I really appreciate that you take the time to write these articles and I have since been reading and thinking about them a lot.
The concepts of freedom and of the self are both incredibly complex, intertwined, and filled with paradoxes. In the spirit of exploring these ideas further, I’d like to share some more thoughts.
I’d like to continue to push back against the idea that every self somehow “deep down” knows that freedom has to do with what is right (or benefitting others).
I can acknowledge the idea that all selves/souls are related to one another (as you phrased it, “connected to a collective pool of souls”). This is a popular and plausible idea that has been raised in eastern philosophy & religion for centuries; and which has also been hinted at by analytic philosophers like Kant insofar as he believed that what was right is deeply connected to our freedom and our need to work in concert with one another.
Kant believed that, in general, “wrong” actions are those which infringe upon the freedom and dignity of other people (using other people as means to our own ends). Manipulating others’ emotions, actions, thoughts, etc. to your own ends in any way is impinging upon their own capacity for free choice–and in this sense every individual’s freedom is related to whether or not people act in “right” ways which respect our ability to make free choices.
Even if we acknowledge this (either from the eastern perspective that all souls are interconnected and interdependent, or from Kant’s more analytical point of view), we still haven’t shown that being free means always doing what is right. Here’s why:
As I mentioned in my first reply, the word freedom generally implies the ability to determine one’s own choices. This could mean several things… either freedom is the ability to ‘choose between different options’ (i.e. between right and wrong, a banana or an apple), or it is simply the ability to ‘do what the self truly desires’.
Most people, I believe, see freedom as ‘the ability to choose between different options’. If they can choose between an apple or a banana for breakfast, that is a “free” choice, since they determined what they got to eat from a number of choices. From this point of view, freedom cannot just be a matter of “doing what is right”, or “doing what benefits everyone”. If we are only free when we do what benefits everyone, then freedom is not a choice… it is a specific way of acting. Someone from this point of view would point out that there are certain cases where we might do the right thing, but at the same time we are not “free”.
For example, what if I were to donate money to Oxfam, but only because someone was forcing me to do so at gunpoint? This isn’t freedom, because even though donating the money is the right thing to do (and it benefits a lot of other people), it wasn’t my choice to donate the money. So freedom must have to do with more than simply “doing what benefits everyone”. Most people would say it isn’t free unless we also had the choice to do otherwise.
Even so, I think that you would agree that this isn’t what you were trying to get at when you said “freedom has to do with what is right”… and you probably have an idea of freedom that is different from what ‘most people’ believe.
Others have a problem with the idea that freedom is ‘choice’ because they recognize (as you have accurately pointed out), that almost all of our actions have been determined by forces outside of “ourselves”–the most potent force being our own brains. Our choices can often be reduced to neurological brain states, changes in chemicals, and the firing of electrical signals along different paths. Because of this, they say, freedom cannot be ‘choice’, but rather the ability to do what we really want ‘deep down’.
This is generally how I think about freedom and, I believe, more along the lines of what you are arguing. You are saying that we need to recognize the difference between doing what our ‘soul’ is really inclined to do, and simply being pushed along by our inclement desires, ideologies, emotions, etc. In this sense, freedom is not a matter of choosing, but a matter of actualizing the desires of our self. We are free when what we do is not being pushed along by those desires and ideologies, but rather by our raw inner self.
Still, it would be difficult to say that “freedom has to do with what is right”, even if we think that freedom means ‘being determined purely by our ‘self’ or ‘soul’. In order to show this, you would have to prove that the self is naturally inclined to want to benefit others.
Perhaps Krishna or the authors of the Upanishads could lend some aid though. I think that they would explain that the self is not concerned with benefitting others… it IS others. The idea that the self is separate is entirely an illusion. They would say, I think that the notion that “right” and “wrong” have to do with benefitting others comes from a confused notion of separateness. We must act to the benefit of this oneness. Only then are we truly being determined by the soul… and hence only then are we “free”.
Still… all of this is held up by the tenuous notions that a) the soul exists and b) all souls are connected or “one”, and c) that the soul naturally wants to benefit itself. It was you who said that expecting “others to have the same religious beliefs as us” is an “unexplored desire and expectation of the world”. Many Buddhists, philosophers, and atheists would claim that the soul does not exist… and so this explanation for how “freedom” is always doing what is right just wouldn’t work for them.
I love seeing the true openness our readers have in exploring new ideas in pursuit of truth, thank you for being sincere in your journey.
Kant, unlike his predecessors Locke, Berkeley and Humme, had a better understanding of reality in my opinion and therefore more insight into true freedom. While as Locke believed we experience reality through our senses and without them we would not exist, Berkeley pointed out his flaw that there must be an experiencer of those senses (which he attributed to God being the Christian that he was), and our thoughts were in fact God’s thoughts. Humme dismissed this all together saying bringing God to the equation is as assumption and that in fact, we don’t directly perceive reality but we experience the reconstruction of reality that our thoughts create through our senses.
Only in understanding our perception of reality can we truly analyze how free we are. It was only once Kant came that we can never really know our transcendent realities (God, self-realization) via reason and logic alone, and this applies to our freedom as well. This is largely because the nature of reason and logic is to see things in dualities, for example, the cup is either full of tea or empty, it can never be both at the same time therefore ‘whole’ (or right and wrong at the same time). Yet reality is non-dual only reconciled via pure consciousness beyond opposites.
Basically Kant understood we cannot penetrate the world ‘out there’ via reason alone, the numina “things in themselves”. We can know things and know a lot of knowledge about how they appear to us, but it is never more than knowledge of appearances shaped by our own mind and its inherent nature.
Just like Kant who built upon the understanding of his predecessors, he failed to go further in his own analysis because he never went beyond the individual self of reason, without transcending the “I” we will always perceive the world in “right” or “wrong” dualities created by logic. In the state of inner evolution (involution) most men are currently in, man depends on ‘morals’ that are personal, religious or philosophical like Kant’s idea that we should not infringe on others freedom.
It is only once we go beyond our “I”, ego, self, personality that we can live without the necessity for a ‘moral’ code. How can men who aren’t free, possibly speculate what true freedom will be like? It’s like blind men trying to guess what the world will look like once they can see, what a flower will look like, by using the auditory descriptions they’ve heard all their life. What man defines as freedom in his current state does not necessary reflect what true freedom is really like once he has transcended a duality perception of the world.
In the 1980’s there was an experiment by Benjamin Libet who proved that our brain’s motor cortex initiates the actions well before the “I” is even made aware of them and well before they are performed, These experiments, controversial at the time, have been validated by many, many researchers with the latest technology. The result is no longer in dispute. These experiments made it abundantly clear that our “willing” every action is an illusion manufactured by the brain. In essence, our unconscious minds choose what buttons we are going to press before we are actually consciously aware. How can man be truly free in this state?
When speaking of true freedom I am talking about a freedom beyond the resistance to this world, the duality perception our sense of ‘self’ creates. The fact that it ‘benefits everyone’ or “has to do with what is right” cannot be used as a motivator to our decisions, it comes instead as a deep understanding once we have liberated ourselves from our individual “I”. In mans current state, he has no hope of freedom. He can live in anarchy if he chooses, or the life of a hedonist, or anyway he wants but all those choices he makes will create consequences that will bring suffering into his life and remind him once more that he is not truly ‘free’ from suffering, he is not truly free from his individual sense of self, free to truly listen to his soul.
Man is not truly free, but until that occurs he is free enough to do what I mention as being “right” or in my previously morality article, what is “wise”. That will minimize his suffering and contribute to the progress of attaining true freedom.
You could say ‘actualizing’ or what others refer to as ‘manifesting’ our true self is a better way to describe it, but I find that many people misinterpret that as an aggressive ‘assertive’ attitude that ends up causing more troubles. Similar to the new age “positivism” which has people completely ignoring the shadow elements within their psyche that must be integrated to create a harmonious being. You have contributed though in helping me see no matter how or what I write, words are very easily misunderstood especially writing in my second language, so I might consider writing the same message in different approaches.
I think you described it well that this whole problem arises from our perception of separateness. The tenuous notions that arise concerns in you are understandable. I have opted to use the word “Soul” because from my own experience I believe in an energy that is more refined in some people than others. This idea can very easily be substituted for consciousness (which is what I referred to as soulful energy in my article). a) We know and can experience consciousness exists. b) You can personally experience (through alternate states) and science is now proving that the underlying force that envelops space time is an energy that resembles consciousness which connects everything. c) Consciousness can only naturally want to benefit itself because it does not see any situation as a non-beneficial one. It is only our illusionary “I”, sense of self, that resists life and is afraid of its own morality. How can consciousness be afraid of returning to consciousness?
Thank you for your in depth comment, It’s often beautiful to experience and use logic in its systematic perception of reality.
Thanks again for another great, thoughtful response. I wouldn’t have guessed that English was your second language. I have nothing else to share for now, but I’m glad that we were able to have this conversation!
Cheers!
Thank you Figrin for a thoughtful conversation that I’m sure will share many new perspectives with other readers :).
Sol, this is a great article. Recently, whilst in Scandinavia on a business trip I was going through my daily reflection / meditation, when I had enlightend moment…the full realization of it came whilst I was standing in the bathroom of the hotel I was staying in.
The walls, floor and ceiling were covered in 1 inch white tiles, is was as if I was standing in a “matrix”…then the realization / deep feeling came to me….We each have a “dual” existense on a soul level…we are each individuals (at times isolated and lonely)……and yet we are also part of a interconnected family, all of us, with every soul that exists. We are the indivdual 1 inch tile, and the whole room at the same time.
So, to be “free” as individuals, and yet have the same “belonging” and have “responsibility” to the whole.
To me, what does this mean…well, simply put, in our search for “freedom”, we don’t ordinarly hurt oursleves (unless we deep dark un resolved issues), nor members of our families, nor our communities…do we? Because in so doing we hurt ourselves, regardless, on a individual and the whole level.
For me, it is learning and living with the respect for each other on the level of the soul.
We are born with the rules of life “stamped” on our hearts and souls, they are there for us to either live by or ignore, and when we ignore them we suffer.
Hola Andrew,
That realization is a wonderful way to describe our existence is this world, a matrix of interconnected tiles fooling ourselves into thinking we’re separate.
It reminds me an analogy, in which we describe the souls and individuals as if we have gone to the beach with a bunch of bottles, filled them up with ocean water, closed the lid and throw them back into the ocean. All these bottles will now live there existence thinking they are separate from each other, even though they are all filled, and floating, in an ocean of their true essence.
You are correct, to live with respect for ourselves is to live responsibly. We have ignored our hearts, our souls, for far too long.
You need some boundaries……they help you not get off the rails…..
the dictionary defines soulful as deep….
Hola Dewdroppings,
Boundaries are necessary for practical living and day to day tasks, but they must exist solely for those purposes. We must constantly be aware that all boundaries are fictitious and never identify or grow attached to them, as the moment we do, we create the chaos we see around us everyday.
Yes, I agree with you Sol. We create boundaries to help us “organizing” everything. Boundary itself is ever-changing according to our needs, or at least we think we need. We draw boundaries, make it bold on one side and then erase other sides. It can be very helpful as long as we don’t let it consume ourselves. But nowadays I often find people do the opposite. They tend to be enslaved by their own boundaries and forget what its true purpose. that is where we start to ignore our freedom and authenticity to fulfill what the boundaries demand us to be.
Hola Ika,
When you are not centered, when you live life looking through your peripheral vision then anything will distract you away from yourself.
Thank you for sharing such a great comment.