When I ask, "What is freedom?" I am asked in return, "What is not freedom?" If I ask, "When will I be free?" I am asked, "When are you not free?" Thus, as with all good teaching methods, while I seek to be given the answers on a plate I am lead instead to examine my own thoughts, my own ideas. To look closely at both my conceptions and my misconceptions concerning this most sought after of concepts, this thing called freedom.
Freedom is definitely a hot topic; everybody, so it seems, wants to be free. Everybody wants there own freedom to ..da de da de da.. and etc.. Most people I have talked to desire freedom, freedom to ‘do’ this or that or the other, while far fewer seek the freedom to ‘be’. This is a reflection on their relationship to the world. Yet, as our understanding grows we begin to see that the freedom to be is far more important than the freedom to do.
Very few of the people I have met have thought they were free; some even thought freedom was just a meaningless word, an unobtainable goal, not something that could exist or be experienced. Of those who seek freedom few seem to have looked deeply into the nature of freedom, or understood it as a position from which to view the world, as a way of seeing . Freedom all too often is like heaven, a mystical state where you can have everything you fancy, no questions asked, and at no cost. For many people it is a fire that inspires the imagination, that lights the inner mind to a better world, where the problems of everyday life do not in the way of our endless search for pleasure. This view of freedom is popular, it is a view that has long misdirected many groups of individuals. If taken to an extreme, freedom by this definition can lead to an outright abnegation of the world and of life itself.
If you are still reading this, I am assuming that you have some interest in, or desire to understand, freedom. I hope the remainder of this essay will give you some ideas, but I have to be honest and admit it will not give you everything you seek. There are two reasons for this, firstly, as Socrates says in “The Apology " I do not think that I know what I do not know.", which means that I cannot offer what I do not have, and when it comes to freedom there is a lot of understanding I do not have. Secondly, we all benefit more from discovering things in our own mind than from simply reading about what someone else has discovered. However let us be on with the ideas.
There is a big difference between internal freedom and external freedom. By external I mean the world of things, the material world. This includes our bodies, our possessions and all the world we experience with our eyes, ears and touch. In contrast by internal I mean the world of thoughts, feeling and emotions, all that is included within the remit of terms such as mind, heart, soul, spirit, conscious and subconscious, even things like hunger, fear and desire. Here I am concerned with internal freedom. Why? Because it is unfortunate fact that while we here in the first world have greatly increased our external freedom over the last few hundred years, we have seriously neglected our internal freedom. It is an interesting supposition that if all of us in the first world were internally free, we would have little difficulty in doing something to ease the suffering of the many others in this world whose external freedom is, for one reason or another, minimal.
Firstly, we should acknowledge that we live in a society and are therefore a part of the life structure of this planet, none of us are isolated units, we are not alone. This is both religion and science it is hard to deny rationally. This understood we should also realise that the world ‘is what it is’ and there is no use wishing the world was something else. Having said this it follows that ‘to live’, is to ‘live in this world’, there is not anywhere else we can live, though the world may be greater than your or my current perceptions of it. Therefore if we wish to be free we will have to be free within the context of this world as it is. We need to accept this and to know that like everything else, we inevitably have to share whatever freedom we possess with the world around us. Remember the world is not only its separate parts but also a single whole. Ultimately, this means we have to live accepting that others will have the same freedoms we wish to have, though it is true they may not be aware of them, and therefore, may not exercise them.
Given free reign to punish others for our pain, in blindness and ignorance we soon lose all the benefits of living together in a society. We need to think seriously about what this means, it is a very important concept for us to understand. To live without the constraints of society means to live without the benefits. This is the level beetles and other solitary insects live at; it does not work for us as human beings; all the things that make our modern lives liveable are only possible in a stable society. Without society we would still be living and dying in the trees. You just can’t escape from the fact that civilisation and all the health, comfort and pleasures that come with it are only available because people in the past have lived in societies. Most people understand this, at least unconsciously, or at least they accept it without really questioning it, but it does no harm to understand such basic ideas clearly and to refresh them in your mind occasionally.
Looking more deeply into the nature of the world we live in we see there is a relationship between freedom and rules and laws, or what we might call the form of the universe. Ultimately, without laws, without some rules, there is nothing - no life, no death, no world, and certainly no people. No laws means chaos, which is formless, or undefined. The opposite of chaos is form. When the world has form, when there is something besides chaos, then rules and laws exist. Laws and rules are our way of describing the nature of form, its constancy as well as its tendency to change. The physical world as we know it, the world that you wish to be free in, has a fairly consistent form, but it also contains its share of chaos. Life is lived in the thin zone of interaction between the two. Very few people can ignore the laws of gravity, walk on water or live without food and water. We are all constrained in our search for freedom by the necessity of there being form and thus laws in the world. This applies just as much to our emotional, mental, social and spiritual realities as it does to our physical one.
To reiterate, it seems that in order to exist we must be constrained by the form that we exist in, and to exist freely as a human being means accepting the constraints that make being human possible, including the human need of other humans. This is not a defeatist philosophy however, I do not mean that you should have to meekly accept whatever the world and society throw at you, but rather that to achieve freedom you have to understand its place in the world. Yes you can change the world, particularly society, (change is a fundamental aspect of life) but even change has its laws, cause and effect do exist. Does this mean that freedom really is and an illusion, that we are forever slaves of the system that gives us our existence? Condemned to be controlled throughout our lives by layer upon layer of ever more distant sets of rules and regulations, like mice on a treadmill? I believe the answer to this is no. I believe that freedom is obtainable.
Let's stop for a moment and consider the possibility that many people have already found freedom, but that it manifests itself slightly differently in every life; that those who possess it, treasure it, but do not flaunt it. You may live near many people who have discovered freedom, without your realising what they have. This is because one way of seeing freedom is to understand that it is about making choices, about choosing how you live, which may well mean a house and a job in suburbia with a partner and children. If chosen freely, in a state of understanding and awareness, then this is as much an expression of freedom as living in a tent on a beach somewhere. However, the same situation, if undertaken in ignorance, is not an expression of freedom at all, though from the outside the difference will be subtle.
If freedom can be understood, if it can be obtained as a functional aspect of life rather than as a pleasant but misunderstood set of fortuitous circumstances, then do we wish to know how? Yes I think we do. I believe this is the question those who claim they are seeking freedom actually want answered, how do I obtain this freedom?
To digress slightly, I have known people who equated freedom with happiness, all they wanted was the freedom to be happy. This may actually be true for most of us; the desire for freedom arises because of some dissatisfaction, from or a perception of yourself as not being free; in other words, of not being able to do what you desire. Happiness is a funny thing; like freedom, it is difficult to define and means different things to different people. It will not be boxed or understood by computers, yet most of us know what we mean when we say, "I am happy today." Happy people are not people who are actively searching for freedom. They are simply living, and in a way, for them, happiness is synonymous with freedom, even though they may have little control over the occurrence of their happiness. This will be fine for many people, however, I think that we who seek freedom wish to possess it in some guaranteed way. We desire freedom for ever.
There is one other point that needs considering . Up until now we have discussed freedom as a single entity, though a different truth has been hinted at. I believe this single solid image is not really the case; freedom comes in degrees, it is not an absolute, not something like a chocolate bar or a teapot that you either possess or you don’t. Rather it is an accretive possession like money or knowledge; all of us, as adults at least, have some freedom already, even if we do not realise it. It is possible to acquire more freedom or to lose some of it. It is not possible to lose all your freedom, however, and it is important to distinguish between those areas of your life where you are able to exercise freedom and those areas where you are not, at least not yet. Also we need to differentiate between the possession of freedom from the exercise of freedom. Again, all people possess some freedom but not all people exercise the freedom they have, after all you do not need to spend money just because you have it.
In discovering this, we will be able to see that our individual freedom can change from moment to moment. We can make decisions that will limit our future freedom temporarily or decisions that will lead us to greater freedom at a future date. In life we make decisions like this all the time, though we are often not aware that this is what we are doing. This is especially true when the decision is made by something within us that we have no control over or perhaps awareness of. Understanding this is part of the process of discovering your own true freedom. If we see freedom as a flexible variable, something that we possess to differing degrees and exercise to different levels throughout our lives, then we are, I think, approaching a more usable definition. This is a good place to start in our search for more freedom.
The key to freedom is self-control.
We may need to think about this for a minute, it may sound like an oxymoron, but consider: the logic is fairly straight forward. If we are in control of yourself, then you have the possibility to be free. However if you are not in control of yourself, then something else is; this could be another person, an addiction of some sort, or perhaps an emotion such as greed, fear, hate or a desire, a hunger. Whatever it is, while we are not making the decisions as a conscious entity, then we are not in a position to become free. If we are not in control of ourself, then we are not in control of anything, because whatever it is we think we are in control of is actually controlled by the forces that are in control of us.
Self-control is the doorway to freedom, because without it, the best we can hope to achieve is an illusion. We can live in a fantasy world believing we are something we are not, closing our eyes to the truth and hoping nothing will burst the bubble, but we can not be free in any deep or satisfying sense. This attitude is one many people are trapped in, often unknowingly, and it leads through life from one catastrophe or painful experience to the next.
So self-control is the key to freedom because, if we had complete control of ourself, we would be free to do whatever would be the best for us in terms of our own life and development. Every decision we made would be just the right one to bring us a little closer to true self expression and fulfilment. As we are now though this obviously isn’t the case, we think, feel and act in ways that limit and destroy our own future happiness all the time. But why?
Self-knowledge is the key to self-control.
It is fairly well accepted that to understand something well is to be able to control it well. Good equestrians, good car drivers, good businessmen and good gardeners, are all good because of what they know. This applies to yourself as well. The more you know about who and what you are, the more subtle, gentle and far reaching will be your self control. If freedom, to some extent, is about being able to make choices, then it follows, that the more choices you are able to make as a conscious entity, knowing the good that will accrue to you as a result of making them, then the greater is your freedom.
In other words, a person with a deep understanding of the nature of ‘self’, with a full understanding of who and what they are, will make different decisions than a person whose self knowledge is shallow. To know and understand the source of your own feelings, emotions, desires and thoughts leads you to respond to them in a different way than you would when they are merely there. This knowledge also inevitably changes these same thoughts, feelings and desires etc.. Much of the materialistic exploitation of people in this world is dependant on them not having a very deep understanding of ‘the nature of the arising of their own desires’. Ultimately, knowledge is essential to the acquisition of freedom, and while there are different fields of knowledge, self knowledge is the most important, the most essential in terms of personal freedom. To be ignorant is to be trapped, living as a pawn at the behest of forces that have no real interest in your well being.
As self-knowledge is to self-control, so self-observation is to self-knowledge, or in other words, self observation is the key to self knowledge which in turn is the key to freedom.
To know ourselves, we must perceive ourselves, and we only perceive what we are consciously observing. Knowledge derived from the words of others is only secondary knowledge at best. It may supply a framework within which we can build a self image, but only real-time observations on how our thoughts, emotions, desires and egoism arise will allow us to fill in the details of the image. However, learning about the inner workings of your own being is a bit like studying ecology. There are many aspects of self, each with numerous interactive links on different levels, and of course we change and evolve as time passes, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.
We are four dimensional beings of great depth and the forces that control us are many and varied. For most people the acquisition of self knowledge is a life long journey into ever deeper levels of understanding. We should not be put off by this long term aspect of self learning, there are benefits to be reaped all along the journey. As our knowledge of ourselves changes, so does our perception of the world around us and freedom becomes less something to be acquired as something we already possess, something to be cherished and exercised, a skill or habit that brings a great increase in joy into the everyday aspects of our lives. Eventually freedom, will become for us, a way of living, a way of seeing and understanding the world, a part of the harmony of our lives and a blessing for which we cannot help but be grateful.
Eventually we discover, that while self control really is the key to freedom, the more subtly and gently we exercise our self control, the greater and more enjoyable is our freedom, the ultimate form of self control is, ironically, no control at all. Rather we have reached a stage of ‘being’ where we make decisions as a result of the understanding that suffuses our true nature, we have become one with ourselves in our love of truth, knowledge and learning, and these loves work together within us to ensure that we have the freedom we seek to, and to succeed in, fulfilling ourselves as a human being, to creatively co-exist with the world in peace and joy.
This inner freedom, this ability to chose how we think, feel about, and respond to the world around us is essential for us to be able to enjoy whatever external freedom we have. All the materialistic freedom in the world will bring us little joy if we are not able to exercise some control over the inner fires of desire and emotion that drive us forward on this wonderful journey we call life.