How To Be Truly Free

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free

- John 8:32

When you think of complete freedom, what do you imagine? Maybe you think of sleeping and waking up whenever you want, eating whatever you want without any restrictions, saying whatever you want without having to worry about offending anyone etc. People often think of freedom as acting however they want and feel like without anyone telling them not to or stopping them.

For example, for a meat lover, freedom would mean eating as much meat as they want whenever they want, however they want. And for a vegetarian or a vegan, freedom would mean being able to eat all types of different vegetables whenever, wherever. Similarly for an alcoholic, complete freedom would mean being able to drink as much alcohol as they want whenever, wherever they want. But for someone who doesn’t drink, freedom would mean being offered a non-alcoholic beverage option and being able to participate whatever activities without being pressured to consume alcohol. 

Therefore, if an alcoholic were to be at a place where alcohol consumption is prohibited, like a monastery or a temple, they would complain about their freedom to drink being taken away from them. However, if someone who’s sober were to find themselves at a place where alcohol consumption were not only expected but pressured, such as at a college fraternity party, they would seek freedom to not drink and stay sober. As you can see, our freedom isn’t related to any particular behavior or environment, but rather depends on our preferences, our likes and dislikes, whether you want it or not. If our preferences match our environment or other’s behavior, we’d say our freedom is met, and when they don’t match, we’d say our freedom is violated. 

Problem here is you will always be bounded by your environment or other’s behavior and your freedom will be depended on external factors, which means you can never be completely free. Then how can you be completely free regardless of external factors? Can you experience complete freedom whether our environment or other’s behavior matches your preferences or not?

You can be completely free by giving up, or letting go, of your preferences. If there are two factors that are needed to achieve complete freedom, your environment and your preferences, which is easier to fix to achieve freedom, outside environment or your preference? It’s much easier to fix your preference because it’s often impossible to fix your environment or other’s behaviors.

So if you’re an alcoholic but find yourself staying where drinking is prohibited, instead of complaining about your freedom to drink being taken away, you can give up your preference to drink during your stay and chose to experience being sober for a change. Then instead of your freedom to drink being taken away, your freedom to be sober is being granted. On the other hand, if you don’t drink but find yourself in an environment where drinking is being pressured, instead of complaining about your freedom to not drink being taken away, change your preference to allow yourself to enjoy drinking for a night. (or if you can change the environment by getting out of the party, that’s an option too)

This is the way of living circumstantially, living like water. Instead of being rigid and fighting against the current or environment, you’re being more fluid, shapeless like water, and moving along with the current and being part of your environment. This way you will always be completely free because by letting go, or being fluid, of your preferences, your likes and dislikes, you can always match your preference to your provided environment or other people’s behavior, which means you will always be completely free.