How "Free" Do You Think You Are, Really?

More food for thought this week. Something's working in me here, don't know what it is but I'm following it.

Perusing Khalil Gibran's marvelous works, I came across this chapter on Freedom which caused me to ask this question "out loud" – what is freedom to you and how free do you think you are, really.

I often wonder if I question my thoughts, words and deeds enough and do I do enough to be authentic which is pretty tough at times. I dislike going with the flow because down the road it's put up or shut up.

However, I do catch myself doing so sometimes or not saying what I really mean or leaving things unsaid to avoid a hassle. Know what I mean.

FREEDOM

And an orator said, "Speak to us of Freedom."

And he answered:

At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom.

Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.

Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.

And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief.

But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you, at the dawn of your understanding, have fastened around your noon hour? 

In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle the eyes.

And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?

If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.

You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.

And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.

For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their won pride?

And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.

And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.

Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.

These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.

And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.

And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.

 

Now tell me if this isn't sublime! What's your interpretation and are you in agreement that your freedom is within you; that there is nothing to seek? So how free do you think you are, really, after reading this. 

It brings to mind Ed and Deb Shapiro's article Be the change you want to see in the world quoting Mahatma Gandhi, and their book as well Be the change; how meditation can transform you and the world.

Have a blessed day people!