Theos-Talk Archives (September 1998 Message tt00144)

Jerry S:

[replying to Paul]

>>What do you consider to be "freedom"?

>The right to determine exactly what our purpose in life is,
>(i.e., why did we come into this life this time and what did we
>expect to get out of it?) followed by the right to carry it out.

A few stray thoughts of my own on "freedom" ...

Another way to define freedom is to look it its opposite,
and infer its meaning.

Freedom is the opposite of confinement, so we're not confined
to be somewhere against our will. We can get freed from
prison and various types of imprisonment. We're not locked
up in some jail, be that jail our position in life, or even
our physical plane existence.

Freedom is also the opposite of slavery, of having free will
rather than being subject to the will of others, of being
able to do what we will, rather than acting on the instructions,
behests, commands, and orders of others. We're self-directed,
acting out of an inner creativity, rather than passive,
reactive, being lead along by external circumstances and
the desires and wills of others in our lives.

In a general sense, then, freedom describes the outer
boundaries of our existence, of how and where we live
our lives. We can act freely of our own accord within
our home turf. Its boundaries are defined by the limits
of our talents, our intelligence, our acquired skills,
and of our relationships with other people and beings --
by who and what we are and who and what we know and
interact with in life.

-- Eldon