Freedom and Responsibility

We all crave freedom in one form or another. It may be financial freedom, or social freedom, or political freedom, or simply the freedom to enjoy our lives. All of these kinds of freedoms are, of course, valid and worthwhile.

However, there is an aspect to freedom that many people don't understand until, surprisingly, they have the very freedom that they've craved in their hands. It's this:

The other side of freedom is responsibility.

This is very...hard to accept on a "logical" basis, because we tend to believe that by "achieving freedom," we'll be able to avoid responsibility.

However, responsibility is intrinsic to freedom. To be FREE means to be RESPONSIBLE.

Yes, it may not mean responsibility to specific things; for example, if you currently work in a challenging, unrewarding, uninspiring job and you suddenly find yourself in a financial position so you don't have to do that job anymore, you're right: you won't have the "responsibility" of that particular job.

But in a larger sense, you will have a greater responsibility; that of managing and ethically spending your money (by ethical, I mean simply spending it in accordance with the laws that you have come to understand are at work in the world, including but not limited to, The Law of Attraction).

So when you crave freedom in your life, prepare yourself for responsibility.

To whom more is given, more is expected.

Freedom

Freedom is the deepest human aspiration; hence, most of history's greatest struggles have fundamentally been about freedom -- be it political, social, economic or any other way.

However, all of these attempts for freedom, while (sometimes) accomplishing some of their intended goals, are really expressions of the deepest singular craving within the human soul: freedom.

Yet the world is a dual place -- a meeting of opposites. Night and day, yes and no, black and white. The Yin-Yang symbol is very instructive here; it informs us that our world is dual -- and with dual, come limitations.

Meditation, however, is the real path towards freedom -- because it is beyond opposites, beyond the Yin and the Yang.

Intelligence vs. Intellectualism

Many people are of the opinion -- and it really is an opinion and nothing more -- that intellectualism is knowledge. These are people who claim to know things. However, their knowledge is not known at all; it's simply remembered. It's not actual knowledge; it's knowledge about something. And that, really, makes it not knowledge at all.

Hence, many people with very high IQs and who can solve all kinds of puzzles are considered "smart" but, really, are quite stupid :) when you actually look at them as whole people.

Intelligence is not dependant upon knowledge; intelligence is based on experience, and experience is far superior to knowledge. Experience deepens a person; it enlarges their capacity to BE. Knowledge, strangely, does the opposite: it clogs up their capacity to BE. That is why knowledgeable people are so afraid, deep down inside: because they think they know, but they don't really KNOW that they know. It's also why people who claim to know so much -- regardless of the topic -- are so impatient and at times condescending towards others; because deep inside they KNOW that they don't know, and so they need to pretend. And pretension is always aggressive; that is the nature of pretension. A truly knowledgeable person -- one who has experience instead of knowledge -- has no need to belittle or humiliate someone else. Someone merely pretending to be smart, however, must always do this because without such a defense, their incredible ignorance will be exposed.

If you want to be more intelligent, then you must open yourself up to more experiences. This doesn't mean that you run away from your "life" by planning one adventure after another. It simply means that you OPEN up -- right now -- to life that is happening around you.

Remember: life is not boring. Only you can be boring. Life is utterly mysterious -- really. So if you're bored, don't blame life; it's merely a symptom that your very approach to life -- your very orientation to life -- is flawed.

Freedom and Responsibility

Many people crave freedom. It could be freedom from something social -- like a political system -- or it can be personal financial freedom, or the freedom that a healthy body allows, or any other kind of freedom.

Yet what many people fail to realize -- fail to accept, rather -- is that the other side of freedom is responsibility.

This may seem strange, because we often think that freedom frees us from responsibility. This is superficially "true" but not actually, fundamentally, or spiritually true (and hence it's untrue). To enjoy freedom means to take responsibility. It means to take ownership of your life in its totality.

If you don't want to take responsibility, then it doesn't matter what you do -- or what life "does" to you: you will not experience freedom.

Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. They are a package deal. You cannot have one without the other.

Freedom?

The post on "Gratitude FOR instead of Gratitude FROM" seems to have attracted a lot of people from all over the world, and so today I wanted to look at the same core idea, but focused on something else that I feel will resonate with as many (if not more) people: freedom.

Again, just as with gratitude, the difference between freedom FROM instead of freedom FOR is profound -- and we need only to pick up a history book to see that this is, all too often, a difference that plays itself out with cruel and unwanted consequences. Indeed, very often, the people who "struggle for freedom FROM" something -- be it a dictator or tyrant -- end up implementing a system of justice or control that is, arguably, worse than the one it replaced. Stalin is one of the most glaring examples of this -- but there are others, including many happening right now.

What is the core misunderstanding here? It's that freedom FROM is not, in essence, a positive vision. And by "positive vision," I don't mean positive thinking; I don't mean looking at the silver lining on a cloud or that kind of thing. I don't mean optimism. I mean positive vision in the literal sense: a vision that is defined by what it is instead of what it is not.

For example, many people want freedom from money problems. But if the focus -- even in a deep, unconscious level -- is revolving around this freedom from problems, even if money arrives, the underlying anxiety and disconnect with the peace and power of the present moment doesn't arrive. Indeed, we see this very often in people who have, in fact, achieved great wealth after struggling -- do they look happy to you? Do they act happy? No; they are, in many ways, more confused and frightened and before -- except NOW, with some wealth, they have a little power -- and so they can be quite destructive in their own, legal way (remember, just because it's legal doesn't mean it's right!)

Again, the core problem here wasn't one of effort -- it was of alignment. People who focus on freedom FROM often find that, once they emerge into a reality that is without the thing that they were fleeing FROM, they don't know what to do -- and they become surprisingly unhappy (and hence make other people unhappy, too :) They needed that FROM in their lives. They needed that thing to fight against -- that bad situation, that wrong-ness, that lack of money.

And now that the FROM thing is gone -- a new equilibrium forces itself upon them...and it's a shocking, unwelcome surprise. That's one reason why many people simply go from one problem to another -- the core problem is the same: freedom FROM. They're addicted to being free FROM something; and if that condition disappears or changes, they unconsciously go and find something else. Today it could be a "bad job." Tomorrow, it could be a "bad relationship." The day after that it could be a bad government, or bad whatever. Such people often see themselves as "change agents" or "fighters" who are always champions -- that's really not the case. They're just addicted to being in perpetual opposition to something; they need to exist in freedom FROM.

The consequence of this, sadly, is that they never experience FREEDOM FOR. They never enjoy the freedom that their years of hard work and sacrifice make possible.

Spend some time today, tomorrow and in the coming days, and reflect on your FREEDOM FOR. If you want wealth...why? What will you do with the freedom that comes with that wealth? If you say "I'll be free of paying bills!" then beware: that's freedom FROM, not freedom FOR.

The same goes for anything else that you want in your life; anything else that you envision. Ensure that you have a positive vision -- FREEDOM FOR -- and not freedom FROM.

You may be surprised -- strangely; surprisingly -- at how this small shift in perception changes your whole outlook...and your whole life!