Freedom FROM and Freedom IN
This past weekend we celebrated the Fourth of July, or our nation’s independence FROM King George’s rule. Our country’s founders declared a new country, a new congress, and a new way of doing governance. A new way grew out of an old idea that no longer fit. We do this all of the time.
Everyday individuals decide to become sober as there is a rub between the addicted self and the emerging desired new. There is a past FROM which liberation is the desired goal. Likewise individuals graduate FROM a college or university as an accomplishment has been made and a status change is underway.
These are examples of Freedom FROM. The old is in the past, it is being left behind, and the new is being created with each choice, guided by internal wisdom and a lot of seeming serendipitous lure. The focal point of Freedom FROM is circumstance or behavior that is being left behind.
To have Freedom IN means the ability to be free regardless of circumstance. This is a spiritual realization from a Soul that is leading the individual. Viktor Frankl is a great examples of being FREE internally, independent of, or in spite of, the context of his life. Viktor Frankl wrote Man’s Search for Meaning, a classic now available online for free as a PDF. He was a Jewish prisoner of war who lived through the Nazi concentration camp with the realization Freedom resides as an internal spiritual quality based upon love. He wrote about his awakening state of consciousness:
For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love ….. I learned only one thing — which I have known well by now: love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds his deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance. V. Frankl
Nelson Mandela is another example of FREEDOM In, regardless of his circumstances of life in jail, he emerged more Whole after the experience. Mother Teresa would be another example of Freedom IN. Her diaries demonstrate doubt and yet in the midst of doubt, she continued to live a Faith filled life.
Circumstances are temporary and Real Freedom is not dependent upon circumstances, It is a Quality of God, a Quality of Being. The weekend is coming to a close and we are about to embark upon another Monday. My prayer for each of us is to experience the awareness of FREEDOM IN, at some point during our week.
A Virtual Hug from Me to You,
