What makes a person free? Each of us at least once asked ourselves this question. There are many definitions of the concept of "freedom", as well as a huge number of points of view on the topic of who he is - a free person, what are the criteria for this state. Let's try to figure it out.
You can look at freedom from different angles. A prisoner in prison is far from free, because he cannot leave the confines of his cell, but a journalist who quietly travels around the country also complains of harassment. They take away his freedom of speech. Here is a teacher in a rural school. He is constrained by material problems, forced to constantly think about how to feed himself and his family. What kind of freedom are we talking about? However, a successful businessman is also a hostage of circumstances - the state does not allow him to develop his business, puts spokes in the wheels.
There are many more such examples. All these are external causes of our lack of freedom. This is how society and the world as a whole works. Created for the benefit of man, he gradually turns him into hisslave. Conventions and rules put pressure on people from all sides, often penetrating not only into the external manifestations of our life, but also into the inner world of each person, preventing him from exercising one of his main freedoms - freedom of thought.
It seems that can be easier than free thought? No one can stop you from thinking. Even if your brain generates unfavorable ideas from the point of view of the government, society or family, no one will know about it (unless, of course, you tell everyone about them yourself). But what is the problem then, why is freedom of thought so important?"Freedom has nothing to do with the outside world. True freedom is not political, not economic: it is spiritual. It is not in your hands. But what not in your hands cannot be called true freedom."
These are Osho's words and it's hard to disagree with them. What makes a person free? It is difficult to live without money, it gives a certain freedom, but funds can easily disappear. You can leave the state that oppresses you, but this does not mean that everything will go smoothly in another country. To achieve the right to speak openly everything that you think? It is achievable, but there are pitfalls here too. Everything that happens inside of us cannot be taken away, spoiled, lost, only if we ourselves do not want it. A free person is an internally unlimited individual who is in harmony with himself and the world.
Here we come to the most interesting and important point of our reasoning. What makes a person free? We have seen that the keys to the desired stateare within us. But what can prevent them from being used?
There is an opinion that the main enemy in a person's achievement of freedom are the ideas taken for granted (most often in the process of upbringing and education). These are external conditionings that have been transformed into his own opinion, but in fact have nothing to do with what he really wants, feels and thinks. It is not so important what message these ideas carry, positive or negative. If a person does not understand that it is not him, but only a thought, an idea, he cannot become free. It is not necessary to give up your beliefs, you just need to realize them. This applies to children's complexes that do not allow us to develop, and to religious ideas that prevent us from understanding what we really believe in, and to our schemes for the right life. Because of the latter, we are often in constant planning for the future, forgetting about the present, striving not for what we want and can, but for what we somehow have to want.
What makes a person free? We have found the answer. Awareness of oneself apart from ideas, search for oneself, inner work. You need to be constantly aware of yourself, not to act mechanically, to be here and now. This is true freedom.
