Get Out Of The (Inner) Prison
Freedom can’t be bought
Personal values are fundamental characteristics and ideals that are regarded as positive and orient our actions. Values serve as a guide to a meaningful life. Personal values include, for example, security, fun, status, freedom, order, prosperity, health, justice, self-determination, and adventure. Which values are essential to one varies from person to person. Values can change throughout a lifetime. If freedom and adventure were vital to you when you were young, prosperity and health might have a higher priority later on. Sometimes you are not even aware of your values, and it is only through a loss that you realize what you value.
For me, the most important values are freedom and autonomy. I have been aware that these are important to me for a long time because, not infrequently, these values have led to conflicts in partnerships and at work. Currently, the importance of these values is being brought home to me again very clearly by the government’s Corona measures in Germany: Mask obligation, dusk-to-dawn curfew, prohibition of tourist travel within the country, closed hardware stores, etc. These orders create an inner conflict for me, as they go against my values.
In the last few days, I have noticed that I have surfed to the websites of car manufacturers and configured a VW California and a Mercedes Benz Marco Polo. Why? I’m not too fond of camping. On top of that, these camper vans are incredibly expensive. You could buy an apartment for that and even a house in some other countries. But it’s perhaps the idea that you could buy back a piece of freedom with such a camper van. Concerning the Corona measures in Germany, however, this is an illusion. The camping sites are closed, and in most areas, even standing on a parking site for hikers with a camper van is now prohibited.
What is freedom?
For decades, philosophers have been trying to find an answer to the question of what freedom is. However, there is no universal, one-size-fits-all answer. The philosophical concept of freedom is in a permanent state of flux and simultaneously implies social, psychological, cultural, political, legal, and religious dimensions.
Freedom is understood as choosing and deciding among different possibilities — the acting object is autonomous. However, since man is always part of a society, he is never wholly free because every community has traditions, norms, and rules that influence and limit the individual.
Jiddu Krishnamurti describes in his book “Freedom of the Known” that it is not freedom to be free from something. When you are free from something, it is always a reaction. For example, if one is dissatisfied with the government and protests against it to free oneself, that is not real freedom. It’s just a reaction, and nothing new is created, but the old appears in a slightly different guise.
“Freedom is a state of mind — not freedom from something but a sense of freedom, a freedom to doubt and question everything and therefore so intense, active and vigorous that it throws away every form of dependence, slavery, conformity, and acceptance.” (Jiddu Krishnamurti)
How can freedom be realized?
From the above-mentioned book of Krishnamurti, I have taken the following suggestions for myself, which are maybe also beneficial for you:
1. Take responsibility for your life Realize that you are entirely responsible for yourself, your thoughts, actions, and feelings. It is so easy to place responsibility and blame on others and feel sorry for ourselves. By taking responsibility, you face the challenge of not depending on anyone. No leader, teacher, politician determines your life but you.
2. Don’t get used to things you don’t like When fears suddenly threaten a peaceful life, you realize that you are dependent. Don’t accept the disturbances. Because if you accept everything the way most people do, you get used to it. Our minds become dull and numb over time. Recognize your limitations and act.
3. Free yourself from time Time serves many people to postpone a change into the future and do nothing now. Time is the interval between idea and action. Action is always in the now, in the present. If we believe we don’t have to act now, but tomorrow things will change, and we can take action, we are caught in the interval, in time, because tomorrow we think “tomorrow” again. So act now.
4. Understand your behavior We depend on so many things to satisfy our needs. As a result, we are not free. Look at your dependencies and learn to understand them. What do you think? How do you think? Why do you think? How do you behave towards others? What words do you use? When you consciously realize what you are doing, why, and how, then a mind becomes clear. When you see the whole picture, you are free.
You can’t buy inner freedom. Inner freedom appears when you free yourself from all that is past, from everything you have attached yourself to and depended on. Freedom means to break free from predetermined patterns completely and to question everything. Be your own student, as well as your own teacher. And not tomorrow, but now.