Freedom

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On July 4th we will celebrate our freedom as a country and a people. Freedom is a word that evokes many different responses in people, depending on their life situations. Most of the time we associate freedom with politics and living in a country where we can move around at will, have the right to congregate and the freedom to speak our truths

Yet, freedom covers all aspects of life including political, social, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, physical and philosophical. The dictionary says it means “the power to exercise choice and make decisions without constraint from within or without – autonomy – self-determination.”

It is a word we generally don’t think much about, unless something happens and we have some freedom removed from our accessibility. An example of that is the many travel freedoms that have been removed as a result of 9/11.

But what does it really mean to be free? Can a person living in a jail cell be freer than a person who is not?  There is a story about a man, during the time of the Inquisition, who was accused of being a heretic. As punishment he was chained to a wall with water slowly dripping on his head for many years. Sounds like real torture to me. Yet, he transcended the whole experience through choosing not to allow the circumstances to dictate his state of mind or his true reality in each moment. They say that when he was released he glowed and it was believed that going through that very experience is what allowed him to become an illuminated being and a saint.

We take freedom for granted and yet truly how free are we? Our thoughts can keep us chained to a wall whether it’s the health wall, the work wall, the marriage wall, the frustration wall, anger wall etc. etc. Our thoughts about it have more to do with how we experience and enjoy our freedom than the actual life situation we are living.

Questions:

1. What is your own definition of freedom and what does it mean to you?
2. Where aren’t you free?
3. Which thoughts dictate how you experience life and how free does it make you feel?