Hey dear reader,
I want to share another point of view of my understanding of Freedom. Freedom basically means to be able to choose. The first question is out of what options do you want to choose. Do You have any Options or are you on an automotive path whose only purpose is to survive and not feel pain? Let's assume that it's so and you have no choices but to continue as u did then... you are making a choice. So more fundamentally one should ask what you want? there are numerous needs humans have and not all people have the same but the majority of people share the basic needs. first of course you need food and wellbeing of the body, then a safe home & financial safety, then Friends, then social acknowledgment/ Appreciation, and last but not least self-Realisation. But our needs are not necessarily what we most want. Most of the people want self-realization as a primary goal leaving behind the basic needs. out of this misalignment comes the sensation of not being free. On is not what one wants and one cannot do what one wants. This culminates in the desire to stand outside of oneself and one's emotions, feelings and thoughts or simply wanting to change one's life. this is then a problem of the ego with itself. But because the ego is a construct of ideas believes and opinions its possible to solve the problem. The cause for the problem is a contradiction between how one sees oneself and one wants to be seen. It's necessary to understand that there's also a contradiction between how others see oneself and one wants to be seen. Others will never see oneself how one wants to be seen so what is the problem about in the first place? You might guess it: it's a lack of acknowledgment and the other basic needs. But that's not the solution to the problem since you cannot fulfill your needs by thinking alone. In young years we have formed by cultural, religious influences, family and friends, expectations of what our life should look like. There we had the free choice to paint a future we thought we would like and enjoy. But right there we were missing the point, because what life did we live in the moment? And if you still live not the life you dreamed about then who's to blame? I do not blame myself because I know I was misguided. I was bombarded with illusions and made me believe if I just did it right I would succeed... to change my life. This of course cannot be denied as you always can insist that I was doing it wrong. But that's not the point as well. What's important is that I know now I wouldn't be satisfied with the life I dreamed about as well. Humans constantly look for higher goals once one milestone is reached because on the top of a climbed mountain one sees the next, mostly higher, peak. We went to the moon, were happy for some time, now we want to go to mars. I found an interesting philosophy which is called stoicism which handles with desires like fame and success differently. Stoicists don't value material achievements but virtues like courage, honesty, self-control, happiness, tranquillity. Because all material wealth is borrowed from the universe and has to return to the universe at one point in time. This gives one the freedom to take actions no matter how many adversities one faces in life. One can try to make the choice to be happy. I doubt it works instantaneously, but as one works on ones believes and attitudes one will get closer to it. And with this comes the awareness that freedom is the extent to which one can push the world around and fate is the extent to which the world pushes oneself around. So one can never be free as long as one tries to do a contradictory thing, because: the world has a fundamental structure that cannot be changed. the desire to do an impossible thing should be investigated. Impossible things require actions that are considered impossible.
