Freedom is something many of us search for, perhaps most of our lives. But are we looking in the right places?
There is a famous saying on the subject of freedom, often attributed to Thomas Jefferson (wrongly, it turns out):
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”
The quote is referring to political freedom – it’s talking about nations and societies and how they interact with the individual. It refers to vigilance, about what is going on in the world around you.
On the level of personal freedom, I suggest there is a slightly different equation:
“The price of freedom is self-awareness.”
The vigilance that is needed is an awareness of what is happening in your inner world.
Without self-awareness, you are at the mercy of external events.
Others can take control of you, making you angry or jealous or sad through the things they do.
The world and the environment you live in will constantly pull you this way and that.
Without self-awareness, you may not even know this is happening to you. You will flow through life without a thought, without a compass to steer by, without a rudder with which to steer.
Or, to put it another way, no paddle for your canoe. And you know where that puts you…
You are adrift, at the mercy of the winds and the tide.
Self-awareness gives you the ability to calm the winds and the waters and make them still.
You may not be able to change the world or what other people do, but you are able to see how these things are affecting you, and make a conscious decision not to be swayed, not to be changed, not to be controlled.
So you are free to go your own way, to choose your own course through life. When others make a suggestion, you can consider it, and accept or reject it, depending on your own wishes.
Without self-awareness, you run the danger of being manipulated constantly by others. It might be by your own loved one. It might be by friends or family. It could be by advertisements and corporations, eager to take money from you.
It could be by governments, or their corrupt minions, eager to keep you under their control.
It could be by the media, by bloggers, internet marketers, by sports franchises or religious cults.
It could be by your past. Or your fears. Or your weaknesses. Or your delusions.
It could be by your own body.
To achieve true freedom, you need it both inside and outside.
You need freedom from poverty and persecution. Having control over your time and how you spend your day is important to many of us. The freedom to make our own choices about our life, even in little ways, is something to be treasured.
These freedoms alone are not enough. Being self-employed, or working from home, or quitting the day job or becoming rich, these things alone won’t make you free.
Inner freedom is more important. You need to understand yourself; how your mind works; how it interacts with your body.
These two types of freedom, inner and outer, are not two different things. They are one and the same thing.
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Footnote:
*Wikiquotes says the ‘price of freedom’ quote isn’t really Thomas Jefferson at all:
Picture: Freedom by Flowery *L*u*z*a* via FlickrThe price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Often attributed to Jefferson, no original source for this has been found in his writings, and the earliest established source for similar remarks are those of John Philpot Curran in a speech upon the Right of Election (1790), published in Speeches on the late very interesting State trials (1808):
It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.
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