On The Meaning Of Freedom

Freedom, these days, is the great religion; the holy grail; the spirit of our generation. Whether we really know what the word means (or not) makes no difference.

You’ll hear the words on every corner - to be free; free to be myself; free to be normal; free from society; free from the Government; free from our parents; free from our religion.

So can we truly be free? And, if so, what does that actually mean?

One dynamic I’ve often seen amongst strangers and friends alike is the freedom-discipline paradox. Put simply, it goes like this:

You run after fewer and fewer rules and restrictions and end up in an empty void, without any structure, guidelines or sense of meaning whatsoever…

AND/OR

You chase more structure, routine, discipline and become trapped in a strict cage; with no sense of spontaneity, curiosity or surprise remaining at all…

Freedom, in reality however, is a bit of an illusion. We’re always stuck inside various paradoxes - of work and play, stillness and movement, fact and fiction, knowledge and intuition, resistance and surrender.

If freedom exists then it’s the fluid (‘free’) movement between these polarities as and when required - ‘strong yet yielding’ as expressed in the great Tao, or ‘firm but flexible’ one might also say.

It’s the magic pill it seems; that eternal balance between our necessary evils and the smooth regulation of subtle, internal energies inherent in each. Strength, after all, when overused is weakness, just as ‘controlled violence’ can be both compassionate and loving in the right context.

I dream of cultivating a body-mind that moves ‘like the river’ between each of my emotional tools, immediately prepared for action (or surrender) as and when required.

This might be the only true freedom we, as humans, can ever hope to have at our disposal…

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