Do you think you are free? Contemplate this for a few minutes before reading the rest of this post.
Imagine a mighty river charging at full speed. There is a school of fish swimming in the river. Are the fish in the river free? What might freedom for the fish look like?
The roaring river, by the nature of its onward flow, places constraints on the fish. This is in addition to the constraints already placed by the fish’s biology, other species in the vicinity, the seasons, the weather at that moment in time, the nutrient profile of the river etc. Given all these constraints on the fish, what is freedom?
On a day-to-day level, the fish has limited control of its environment and behavior. For example, in a slower section of the river, it may choose to swim faster or slower. But in the ultimate sense, the fish has no control. Why? Because its behavior is purely a product of its own nature and the environment. Neither of which are under its control.
Our lives are no different. Life is the mighty river and we are the fish. On a day-to-day level, we seem to have control. We can choose what we want to do for work, who we want to marry and what T.V shows we want to watch.
But why do we choose what we choose? Why does one person like gummy bears and another doesn’t? Why does one person like math and another dread it? Just like the fish, in the ultimate sense, we have no control. In the ultimate sense, our behavior is purely a product of our own nature and the environment. Control is an illusion.
If control is an illusion, then what is freedom? If we don’t actually control anything, how can we have freedom? In the absence of control, being able to surrender to the flow of life is freedom. But this is not a passive surrender. It’s an active surrender. Life shapes us and we shape life. We are a participant in life, not just a passive spectator.
Again, we have the principle of balance showing up. At the ultimate level, we have no control. But on a day-to-day level, we have some control. Being able to balance both perspectives is how we can attain freedom.