What is real freedom?
Is it a physical condition (not being behind bars)?
Is it being free to do or say or think what ever you want, no matter what?
I created this blog today having never 'blogged' before, and had to choose from a range of 'templates'. I chose the only black one. Why?
I used to have an aversion to the color black. I used to think that it is a negative, or 'unspiritual' (whatever that means!), color.
Then I realised something. Something very profound.
Nothing is negative!
Time for a great quote:
Whoever said that, and I'm not sure who it was - perhaps it was Shakespeare, or Abraham Lincoln? Like i said, no idea - but whoever it was, really understood that nothing is negative; nothing is bad.
For example: my aversion to black cut me off from a whole range of clothes and other choices. I was not FREE to choose. My choices were limited by the idea, 'black is bad'.
So today, I chose the black template just to acknowledge and celebrate my freedom from a limiting idea.
What other kinds of things limit us?
The other day, I had a client whose Mother used to say, whenever sex was portrayed on television: "look what the pigs are doing". I am sure that the Mother never enjoyed sex, or knew the beauty of meaningful physical contact with another human being. How sad.
So often, we judge the world around us. Those judgements limit us. They interrupt our freedom.
Given the choice: to be absolutely non-judgemental behind bars; or physically free but trapped in a cycle of judgement, I would choose the first option. Why? Because I know that, as Jesus said: "the truth will set you free".
When we judge, we do not see things as they really are! We super-impose an idea onto what we are looking at. Actually, we don't see at all - we just look.
When we stop judging, we stop looking for what we think we already know. Instead, we see things as they really are. We see the truth. And that is freedom, because in that moment of honest and open experience of truth, of reality, we know. We see, and we know, and we are free to choose.
That is real freedom.
ps - As you may have noticed, I changed the template from black to white - it was hard on the eye!
