Freedom
What is freedom?
It seems to be one of the things we most crave and strive for… but what exactly is it? And how do we get it, how do we find a state of freedom?
Freedom is such a personal concept about the self, and yet it is also inseparable from everything else. It’s about the relationship between the individual and everything else in existence. Often when we think about freedom, we think about all those blockages on the road to freedom. As Osho simply put it, freedom from. So you have the individual (or the subject), the blockage (or the object preventing freedom) and the bit in between where freedom lies awaiting. So really… is the secret to freedom the way we interact with the “everything else” and the relationship between the subject and object?
So is freedom a path filled not with blockages… but space?
Freedom is an opportunity, it is a liminal adaptive space, full of potential and lying in wait. The beauty of freedom is that it is, in a sense, absolutely nothing… freedom that exists as a singular phenomenon is actually nothing! And therefore unremarkable. But within the space of true freedom, there is potential for everything and anything to exist. It is the source of creation. It becomes quite remarkable, and hence why we strive for it. In order to create, we need the space first. In order to tap into our innate creativity, we must first find freedom. It can sit bound up by chains of responsibility, the inner workings of our own mind or the world around us.
Freedom is having the space to do and to be.
The Latin and Greek origins of the root word of freedom indicate a state of independence or being free from slavery. Freedom also comes from the same root word as a friend, dear and beloved: a connection of kinship with other fellow free beings.
The root of freedom appears to have a connection between both freedoms from suffering slavery for something, but also a loving connection. This definition of freedom has suddenly transformed into a concept very familiar to the yogi community…
Yoga
Those root definitions of the word freedom really have resonances with the yogic philosophy of Prema. (Which was briefly explored in a previous blog post… see here) Prema, meaning unconditional love. This is considered the greatest form of love as there is no expectation of exchange for anything given, no expectation of return: the act of giving feely. And this comes from the heart. Prema is unbound by chains of attachment which can disguise themselves as lust, expectation, ideas of future outcomes or even a sense of ownership in the partnership. Prema is free love, just like the free individual who finds “a connection of kinship with other fellow free beings.” The love between them is unbound by such attachment, such chains.
If we are free to connect with other fellow free beings, surely the connection is unconditional so that each individual maintains said independence? And if we are to love others freely from the heart, is this the true seat of freedom? Do we find freedom when we live purely from the heart?
Freedom. Free love. Loving freely. Being loved freely.
The Third Noble Truth
It tells us that we do have a choice or a path, that will bring about the end of suffering. Freeing yourself from the confines of attachment, in every aspect of the word, will free us from suffering. When we let go of our reactions, which are the result of grasping or attachment to something, we find peacefulness and inner freedom.
When we say “attachment” we mean a sort of extension of ourselves, it goes from us the individual and links us to another. For example, what stands between a mother and her grief when their child moves out of home for the first time, is attachment. There is a chain of attachment between mother and child, the longing for their presence causes suffering.
We are not chained to those things we grasp after, those things we seek, so why create those chains to tie ourselves down? If we see ourselves and others as free entities, nobody is ever lost or found. We are all simply free.
“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything- anger, anxiety, or possessions- we cannot be free.” Thich Nhat Hanh.
Freedom from, freedom for and the creativity born out of it
This is a section of a speech given by Osho taken from Sat-Chit-Anand: Truth-Consciousness-Bliss, Talk #14 that quite simply and beautifully explains how the path to freedom can often be met with sadness. Freedom is not an end-goal nor a single-pointed destination. As we’ve explored above, freedom is a space of unlimited potential that can be used for creativity. We just need to make space first, and that space comes from removing obstacles, blockages and attachments that don’t serve us.
“Freedom from and freedom for – this is not something new that you are facing. It is being faced by every person who struggles first for freedom and then suddenly finds, ‘Now that I am free, what am I going to do?’ Up to now, he was so occupied, so engaged, so very busy. Even in his dreams he was thinking only of freedom. And he has never thought about what he is going to do when he will get freedom.
What has happened is beautiful. But something more is needed. You have to become a creator. You have to find some creativity that fulfills your freedom, otherwise the freedom is empty. You need either to create something or to discover something. Either bring your potential to actuality or go inwards to find yourself, but do something with your freedom.
“Freedom is only an opportunity for you. It is not in itself the goal. It simply gives you the whole opportunity to do whatever you want to do. Now you are free and you are feeling sad, because you have not used this opportunity yet. Meditation will do, music will do, sculpture will do, dancing will do, love will do. But do something with your freedom. Just don’t sit with your freedom, otherwise you will become sad.” OSHO
Freedom from noise
How do we filter out the noise in this modern-day life, where every single gap cries for filling. If you are not constantly doing, being, going, listening, watching… you are falling behind… does that sound right? How do we find stillness, calm, quiet? How do we make space?
"I once found myself so far outside of my own life and the decisions I was making that I cried to a friend how I didn’t fit into my own life and had no space left for me. It was only when she repeated my own words back to me, gave me a mirror in which to glance, gave me the ears to listen and reflect… that I realised how I had lost myself in all the external noise I had brought into my life. I was crying for myself because the noise was so deafening I could no longer hear myself. My mind had become so loud and busy with my own thoughts wrapped up around everyone else’s. I couldn’t hear myself think, so much so, that I needed my friend and mirror to guide me. The realisation that this was all under my own control and responsibility pulls any victimhood out of the scenario and heroes create change. Be a hero of your own story, not a victim. I slowed down and made space in my life and at once found other potentials for life rushing in. If you need or desire something life, you must make sure there is space to fit it in. You can’t eat cake on an over-full stomach.”
Filtering out such external noise means your mind can think with ease, think authentically and creatively. You are better prepared to filter out all the chatter as your boundaries are better kept, you can choose what comes in and what goes out. In this space, we are able to live truthfully. External noise creates the layers that confusion breeds within by distorting those truthful tunes. How can you separate your own truth if there is so much distortion of your own thoughts?
This is why so many cultures adopt meditative practices, fasting rituals or simply making space for quiet contemplation. They all lend themselves to the creation of space within the self. Freedom from overthinking, freedom from overconsumption, freedom from overstimulation… what is left when all those external barriers are alleviated? We are left with ourselves and that is where our own personal truths lie awaiting space to be heard.
Forgiveness & acceptance
Forgiveness is one of the most powerful gifts you can give yourself. Forgiveness is an act more for the one forgiving than the forgiven. When we forgive, we choose to forgo the attachment of pain that is carried in reaction to the act of another. We choose to let it go, be rid of the act and the reaction it stirred within us. You are saying “I choose to forgo my reaction to the outcome of your actions”. Forgiveness is freeing… within forgiveness we find freedom. We choose to remove attachment to the cause of our suffering and release any harmful emotions carried by it. Allow forgiveness to melt anything you carry inside yourself… let that space breathe and come back to you.
Allow forgiveness to soften all the layers that painful action hardened us to.
In softness there is strength. Melt those layers and free yourself from the confines of your self-protection. When we do not forgive, we carry those hurts and pains like bricks from sands. Bit by bit, we accumulate hurt in the body both physically and emotionally… and those bricks of hurt build up and up around us. So much so, that the same bricks we used to build walls to protect ourselves with become the same bricks that entrap us. Find forgiveness for the hurt done to you. Find the strength to melt the bricks that keep you a prisoner to past pain.
Be brave in the face of transformation
Sometimes in order to attain freedom, we must go through incredible challenges, surrender to the path we are following and allow transformation to take place… which can be pretty painful. But bravery cannot exist without the presence of fear, just as freedom cannot be attained without recognising slavery and surrender. This is a creative passage Autumn of TYF once wrote which reflects greatly on this journey towards freedom and the process of union with the supreme spirit and our earthly home.
Stranger sands.
“There is a girl sat staring at her own reflection. But the girl she sees staring back is not the one she recognises. It is a stranger. A stranger with cold calculating eyes and a blank face. A blank face like a blank bank of sand whose temporal imprints are washed away with salty tides, always returning back to this same blank bank of sand. With each tidal wave of salty waters a layer of sand is carried away. Pulled away. Torn away. Slowly eroding. These grains of sand, once hers, are swept in tides to another's' shore. Given away. Settling to someone else’s bank of sand.
She raises a hand to touch an intangible glass and it tingles, passing through to meet her own stranger. She pulls her into this mirrored world. Now they are one. Shaking hands touch this face. Except, now gone. All that remains are two cold calculating eyes. They do not look outward, only in. The place in which her own eyes were once anchored are mere mounds of sands, crumbling under her fingertips. Little by little these tiny grains continue to fall under her touch. Muffled screams hide under sounds of crashing tides that pound the blank shores over. And over. These white-horse-waters pounding heavy hooves. Eroding the sands. Carrying the sands. Digging at her sands.
Afraid of losing herself she reaches out with quivering hands, searching for something like a mirror. Only the mirror was never there. She is trapped inside this body of a stranger, trapped in this world which is slowly eroding her. The more she tries to grip on and hold onto these sands, the more they crumble between her fingertips. Falling like salty tears on plump mounds. Falling like the dawn falls upwards. Nonsensical. Misunderstood. Dawning on her that this is, as it always was. The person in the mirror had always been her. The person in the mirror is the person others saw, not the one who had been seeing.
Swarms of questions begin to gyre round her mind; answers being their prey. At which point did this stranger become her or were they always one? Like the winds had changed course causing her face to stick. Stuck sinking into these sands bit by bit over time, until, this was her. At which point had there been herself, only separate to this “other” self; this self that she used as a glass guise to hold up to the world. This glass mirror she would hide behind, so that others would only see what they wanted. As she would hide, the reversed image would use those cold eyes to judge all that she would do. Coward.
When did they become one? When did she lose herself to the stranger who fit the mould others put out for her. She was sand after all. And would mould exactly into what they wanted from her. Into what they wanted from her form, or whatever mould she would make for them. She was only of value to the sand castle she could build for them, for their use. This had once been a coping mechanism. This was a means of making it through the sands of time without shattering glass. But as time passed, so did she. The sand moulds created would be no longer needed and the tides would tire as bit by bit the facade crumbled.
Defeated hands fall to her sides as the winds echo defeated sighs, and acceptance falls blinded eyes. She tries. To stand. But finds hers a body of sand. She has melted into the Earth. Mind. Body. Soul. Earth? One. She stops. A stillness settles like the feather of a seagull rests gently on a windless ground. And there she remains still for a figureless sum of time. Still in a figureless form, but silent in herself. No longer fighting to hold onto her strangers’ face and failing as she slips through broken fingertips. Just stillness. Still waters. Windless air. Flowing thoughts that remain unattached.
Maybe no time passes. Maybe hours, years or millennia. In this state these formalised numbers mean nothing, because there is no something for time to be relative to. She is just existing. Without her eyes she sees everything. Differently. Voiceless, she hears all that voice deafens. Formless, she feels the vibration of the Earth and the hum that life can bring. It restores her. It strips bare the body and castle she built of sand to protect but trap herself. It stripped bare the body of the false-self she wore as an armour, hardened sands in the sun, built like brickwork.
She was made vulnerable. She was made vulnerable by seeing herself.”
This has been a challenging time for many of us, but in the face of our greatest trials, we have the greatest opportunity to grow. Face these barriers of your freedom with love, acceptance, forgiveness and surrender. Find your own internal quiet stillness and let your body speak to you. It often holds the truths we busy ourselves to deafen. Once you learn to listen you will find answers that hold the key to your own personal freedom within the greater external world.
But first, find space.