{"id":13289,"date":"2023-09-01T21:31:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T21:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/?p=13289"},"modified":"2025-02-15T09:50:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T09:50:15","slug":"the-freedom-to-be-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/cognitive-insights\/the-freedom-to-be-free","title":{"rendered":"The Freedom to Be Free"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Can people be asked to appreciate only one freedom, namely, the freedom to be free? Thus, not the freedom to incarcerate oneself or others?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You might already know I\u2019m talking about the ego: the self-referenced, overly conceptual part of any total person. Please read \u2018The Story of Ego<\/a>.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Ego wants an illusion of freedom.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a matter of fact, since ego lives in illusion. There is no living reality in any overly conceptual viewpoint by itself. Hindus\/Buddhists call this \u2018Maya.\u2019 I elsewhere denote it as the consequence of the basic cognitive illusion<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, within this illusion, ego is alive and kicking \u2015 if need be, all the time and to a huge degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ego also wants to incarcerate everything it cannot directly control. Logically, one can see such incarceration as the second line of control. Unfortunately, there is an infinity of lines to be encountered when one makes the utterly exhausting effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, being tired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many people who clamor for freedom are incarcerated in themselves. They get freedom at most in illusion only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The freedom to be free<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As free as the grass grows, yes, naturally free, born free, not in an illusion, but in nature itself!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is only one human freedom: the freedom of being a total person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedom of speech?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, freedom of speech is only meaningful if it\u2019s the speech of a total person \u2015 certainly not that of an illusory ego. To gain broad freedom, it is mandatory to put effort into it. This may be counter-intuitive for someone who thinks \u2018free\u2019 means something like \u2018without constraints.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think again. Ego knows no constraints \u2013 for itself. Contrary to this, it puts them on others in order to not let them (or one\u2019s deeper self) constrain itself in a zero-sum of freedom. But that is not freedom at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genuine freedom of speech is, first and foremost, the freedom to listen to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As said, ego is a great illusionist.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more, the biggest ego carries the biggest illusions. Thus, it can hold to others a mirror of freedom. In that case, look again: there is no space behind the mirror, no expansive landscape \u2015 just quicksilver, and even that only in a solid state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The freedom to senselessly scold is no freedom of speech, nor is flipping out whatever comes to one’s tongue under free speech pretense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, the freedom to manipulate others is no freedom of any total person. Therefore, it is no freedom to be free at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, the freedom to deeply fall into oneself, come out again, and strive to free all sentient beings is real \u2015 even if it\u2019s impossible to accomplish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The freedom to care is real \u2015 whether in action or warm and friendly meditation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/a>
<\/a>

Please login to bookmark<\/h3>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/form><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can people be asked to appreciate only one freedom, namely, the freedom to be free? Thus, not the freedom to incarcerate oneself or others? You might already know I\u2019m talking about the ego: the self-referenced, overly conceptual part of any total person. Please read \u2018The Story of Ego.\u2019 Ego wants an illusion of freedom. As Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/a>
<\/a>

Please login to bookmark<\/h3>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/form><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[30,93],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2187.jpg?fit=962%2C563&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Fdiq-3sl","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13289"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13298,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13289\/revisions\/13298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}