Freedom

Are we born free or do we become free? Is freedom an act of thinking? I think it is an act of perpetual self-awareness and acceptance. Freedom is an achievement of human will. When we are born we are not free, we are dependent on others. We do not think for ourselves. Thinking gives us access to the inner nature of things. We become free when we truly discover who we are or at least when we discover the path that leads us to spiritual freedom. I am free in my mind where I have my own world. I felt free when I realized that I had achieved inner autonomy.

I have always admired “free” people. By that I mean, people who do not have prejudices, who are not judgmental, who do not see others and feel envy or repulsion just because they are different, people who are able to see every person as he/she really is and accept it. Those are free spirits. People who do not feel the burden of their family principles, education, social system, religious beliefs, social background, but who are able to see beyond all that, the essence, the core of an individual. We are free when we realize that we are unique, that every one of us is different from the other and that it is wonderful that it is so.

Nevertheless, personal freedom also involves a degree of acceptance of other people’s freedom. One’s freedom ends where the other’s freedom begins. One cannot interfere with the freedom of another without causing some kind of damage and discomfort. ‘Live and let live’. It is as simple as that.

Can we attain to social conventions and rules and still be free? YES we can, if our minds are free, if our perspective is free, if we are aware that they are nothing more than that, i.e. mere conventions and rules and nothing more. They are necessary in the outer social world but they completely lack meaning and become ridiculous in our inner world.

Who made all these rules anyway? Why should not we be free to be who we really are without being subjected to the critical eye of others (society, family, friends, colleagues, etc.)?

I need to be free to dream, to hope, to love, to be sad and to be happy, so that I can breathe.
I do not feel the need to live up to a standard. Who invented them anyway? By what right?
I feel free in my inner world, where I do not feel the constraints of external reality.