People want what they don't have. If they are poor, they want wealth and abundance. If they are ill, they want health and vitality. If they are lonely and sad, they want company, love and closeness with others. With most desires, people's reactions are straightforward - we want what we don't have.
Freedom is different.
No matter the system of government, the financial situation or general circumstances of life, most people today feel unfree. I do not say that they are unfree, but that they feel unfree. That feeling may be mild or it may be an all-consuming pain, but for most people it is there.
And yet, so many people reject freedom in a trade-off for comfort, security or a simple unwillingness to disturb their own personal status quo.
Steven Pressfield wrote in The War Of Art:
"It may be that the human race is not ready for freedom. The air of liberty may be too rarified for us to breathe. Certainly I wouldn't be writing this book, on this subject, if living with freedom were easy. The paradox seems to be, as Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them."
Men are enslaved by other men, by the system and by life. There are a million things that a man can be slave to, even his own possesions. But these things that hold men and women prisoner are merely outgrowths, symptoms, of the true problem:
We THINK ourselves out of our own freedom.
I was 22 years old when I realized I did not know what happiness was or what it felt like. I experienced moments of contentment and excitement, of leisure and carefreeness, but none of these were happiness. It took me a while, but I figured it out - I was keeping myself from happiness.
I was keeping myself from happiness because I was imposing upon myself all these notions of a lack of freedom. I imposed so many limitations upon myself, upon my vision of the world, and I ended up in such a small box. I had no freedom because I did not give myself permission to be free.
It has been years since my "awakening" and there hasn't been a day where I haven't put myself into that little box again. It is getting bigger, and sometimes I can dispense with it for a little while.
I catch myself breathing in my freedom and I wonder how I ever survived without it. I find myself dreaming big dreams and it pains me to think of not having them. The little freedom that I experience is like a magical potion that transforms my life. I have finally become a hero in my own story and my journey is simple:
I listen to my emotions and they guide me by pointing out how the thoughts I choose to think are helping or thwarting my freedom.
I have only one enemy now. I shower this foe with love, compassion and positivity. He stares back at me in the mirror when I brush my teeth in the morning.
Spiritually, I believe that I am a product of freedom, of the endless joy and love of a wonderful universe and I am here, in this slightly insane, bipolar world, to experience my freedom more deeply, to jump into new heights of it.
After so many years of indoctrination, of suffocation, of self-sabotage, I am at a crossroads. This place, where I stand, is a place of limitless possibilities.
I dream of freedom in commerce, in voluntary exchanges between free individuals. I dream of freedom in exploration and invention. I dream of freedom to accept my selfishness and pursue my crazy dreams. I dream of freedom in relationships, where we, as Kahlil Gibran once wrote, "fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup". I know now that for me to live that freedom, I must free my thoughts.
I dream of freedom when I write, I dream of freedom when I walk, I dream of freedom when I laugh.
And tonight, after I brush my teeth and stare into the eyes of my enemy, I may let loose a quick smile and go to sleep.
And in my sleep, I will dream, and dream dreams within dreams, and in all my dreams I will dream of freedom.