Are we really free?
Is our perceived freedom actually an illusion, and the reality is that we actually all enslaved without even realizing?
This small blog piece is a two haired brush stroke on an enormous canvas – the topic is vast and all I can do is introduce a few comments, which I hope will inspire or provoke a deeper discussion on the topic. It is something that I have been thinking about a lot recently…
What really drives us? Do we even know, honestly and deep down, in the eternal din of the city what is really driving us to make the decisions we make from moment to moment? I am not sure we do – well I know I certainly question if I do! Our lives are so busy, so rushed and so externally influenced that it is almost impossible that we really know where our desires come from, where their roots lie.
Yet I am sure that where the root of our desires lie is the key to our liberation – while we are blindly the slaves of our desires can we really be free? We believe we are free to do as we want, but if we don’t know where that is inspired from then we are not free but just automated robots fueled by the capitalist wheel of consumerism, and guided by superbly seductive marketing.
Looking around I see the tendency to look outside ourselves for inspiration, direction, guidance, where we are met with so much information on how to act, how to dress, how to eat, what to eat, how to travel, how to think, what to believe, etc. Overwhelming to say the least. I often look at my journey over the past 15 years as simply a process in which I was searching for my compass, but kept (and keep!) getting side tracked by what was going on around me, by things I wanted to buy, things I wanted to do, consume etc, it became impossible to hear myself and what I really wanted. How my hungry soul really wanted to be fed…
I can’t help thinking that the key to freedom lies in a shift in our focus from using the external compass to looking for our own personal internal compass. It takes courage and discipline to switch off and start to listen to our heart/soul/spirit/gut, what ever you want to call it, but this is where the real key to our freedom lies…
I write this very much on the journey to create silence within the din of London life and don’t always succeed but honestly couldn’t recommend the journey from the head to the heart more.
“Let silence take you to the core of life.” Rumi
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