Totally Free vs Self-Controlled

[drsatish]

Totally Free vs Self-Controlled

Man! I like to be Totally Free!

Jump out of my bed…when its right….kick my legs…dance a bit…raid the kitchen…slide down the arms of the winding stairs of my apartment (why trot down step by step)…wink and whistle at a few girls…do a Sumersault, back flip and cartwheel…..Man! I have arrived for the DAY!

And I can Do ANYTHING I WANT….legal, illegal, right, wrong, impulsive, sexy, aggressive, profane……I AM FREE!

Self-Controlled!
Such a drab Life!

Satish
PS: What is FREEDOM?

 

[Willamena]

PS: What is FREEDOM?

The newst popular myth that says that people have a right to Democracy.

 

[Copernicus]

But the real question is whether you are free to disobey what you most desire to do in any given moment, because what you most desire is not really under your control.

 

[wmjbyatt]

PS: What is FREEDOM?

Freedom WITHIN the world of causality is the recognition, understanding, and acceptance of the responsibility and power of one's sphere of influence, one's lines of volition and their space of causality.

Freedom FROM the world of causality is a total recognition and understanding of the illusion of dichotomy.

Absolute freedom is both.

 

[wmjbyatt]

But the real question is whether you are free to disobey what you most desire to do in any given moment, because what you most desire is not really under your control.

You can be. Freedom is a skill like any other. You gotta practice to be good at it.

 

[Copernicus]

You can be. Freedom is a skill like any other. You gotta practice to be good at it.

I take the position that you can never choose to disobey your greatest desire at any given moment. All you can do is disobey lesser conflicting desires. And you have no control over what your greatest desire is. Hence, choice is always determined.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Freedom is a sensation only appreciated in contrast to a perceived lack of freedom. Whether this sensation of freedom is brought about by an actual increase in freedom is incidental.

 

[BruceDLimber]

What is FREEDOM?

From the Baha'i scriptures:

122 “Consider the pettiness of men’s minds. They ask for that which injureth them, and cast away the thing that profiteth them. They are, indeed, of those that are far astray. We find some men desiring liberty, and priding themselves therein. Such men are in the depths of ignorance.
123 “Liberty must, in the end, lead to sedition, whose flames none can quench. Thus warneth you He Who is the Reckoner, the All-Knowing. Know ye that the embodiment of liberty and its symbol is the animal. That which beseemeth man is submission unto such restraints as will protect him from his own ignorance, and guard him against the harm of the mischief-maker. Liberty causeth man to overstep the bounds of propriety, and to infringe on the dignity of his station. It debaseth him to the level of extreme depravity and wickedness.
124 “Regard men as a flock of sheep that need a shepherd for their protection. This, verily, is the truth, the certain truth. We approve of liberty in certain circumstances, and refuse to sanction it in others. We, verily, are the All-Knowing.
125 “Say: True liberty consisteth in man’s submission unto My commandments, little as ye know it. Were men to observe that which We have sent down unto them from the Heaven of Revelation, they would, of a certainty, attain unto perfect liberty. Happy is the man that hath apprehended the Purpose of God in whatever He hath revealed from the Heaven of His Will, that pervadeth all created things. Say: The liberty that profiteth you is to be found nowhere except in complete servitude unto God, the Eternal Truth. Whoso hath tasted of its sweetness will refuse to barter it for all the dominion of earth and heaven.”

--The Book of Laws, pp. 63-64.

Peace,

Bruce

 

[Onkara]

Excellent Bruce!
It is the pettiness of man's mind and "his own ignorance" that leads them far astray. Submission is liberation.
Somehow I feel not everyone is going to agree

 

[Quagmire]

Freedom is realizing that you have a choice about what you feel at any given moment.

 

[Copernicus]

Freedom is realizing that you have a choice about what you feel at any given moment.

In that case, we are free every moment of our lives in that we always have some choices. We are also not ever free in that we always lack choice in some things.

 

[Quagmire]

In that case, we are free every moment of our lives in that we always have some choices.

If you don't realize you have a choice, do you have a choice? What I mean is: many people don't realize that they don't have to be overwhelmed by their emotions. Something that I've learned (and keep having to re-learn ) is that when I'm in the middle of some crisis, the actual circumstances of the situation are only part of the problem. Whatever's going on is compounded by emotions: usually self-pity, anger, regret, fear, etc.

What I've learned is that it's possible to step out from under all of that, at least momentarily, and whenever I do the problem shrinks dramatically. More often than not, once I've gotten myself out of the way, there's an answer right there in front of my face.

A lot of people don't realize this is even an option for them: they're so used to being carried away by their own emotions that the idea that they don't have to be doesn't even occur to them.

We are also not ever free in that we always lack choice in some things.

True, but like Kilgore Trout says below:

Freedom is a sensation only appreciated in contrast to a perceived lack of freedom. Whether this sensation of freedom is brought about by an actual increase in freedom is incidental.

Perceived freedom is a relative thing. There are a lot of things we have no control over, but I don't think most people realize how much control they do have over other things if they'd only exercise it.

If quality of life is dependent on the way we react to things emotionally, then having control over our emotions, rather than the other way around, eliminates at least one unpredictable tyrant.

 

[Willamena]

In that case, we are free every moment of our lives in that we always have some choices. We are also not ever free in that we always lack choice in some things.

We always lack choices (i.e. options), but we never lack for choice (the ability to choose). Not as long as we imagine.