Are You Free?

Man lives a distracted existence. His distractions are a symptom of his enslavement.

Upon awakening to the attack of his alarm clock, he completes a circuit of distractions.

Often, when decision-making experiments are performed on rats, a button is placed for the rats to press. Pressing the button may result in food, water, or access to other rats.

Man lives his entire day pressing buttons.

The touchscreen of his phone. The joysticks of his video game controller. The keyboard of his computer. The things he says to other people. The things he does to other people.

Why does he do this?

He has been told this is how a human lives their life. That, if he presses certain buttons in a certain way, he will achieve particular results. Such an existence is all he has ever witnessed.

The ‘work’ part of his day may entail a job or school. The ‘leisure’ part of his day may involve time with technology or socialising. On the surface, it would seem farcical to say all that a man does is different forms of ‘work’ and ‘leisure.’ But, let’s examine this further.

Why does a man get a job?

Perhaps he was pressured into getting one. Perhaps he needs to fund his livelihood. Notwithstanding, don’t many people say they enjoy their jobs? Don’t they talk about the value they add to society? Don’t they talk about the meaning and value their job gives them?

Rare is the man who enjoys his job; in fact, such a man is virtually non-existent.

Don’t believe me? Well, squarely ask a person whether they would continue working their job if it only provided basic food, water, and shelter. Almost all would say no.

So, we’ve established a pure joy from working is not why a man works. So, what then could be the reason?

To fund a lifestyle. To fund a certain way of living.

Now we’re getting somewhere…

Whether he is looking to amass wealth as a bragging right or as a means to consume lavishly, man thinks his wealth and lifestyle will take him somewhere. Will bring him some sense of satisfaction.

But it doesn’t.

But he continues to live in hope that, one day, it will. He may look to amass greater wealth, or find a more ‘satisfying’ job.

But, still, he finds himself unfulfilled.

He continues to spend his day pressing buttons. Hoping for certain things. Receiving certain things.

But nothing fills the void.

Is it not strange? That everyone is working to fund lifestyles that never really get them anywhere?

What does freedom look like?

Freedom is to spend the day immersed. Freedom is to spend the day wholly devoted to something. Freedom is freedom from the distinction between ‘work’ and ‘leisure.’

The free man walks on the same Earth as you, but he is in another world altogether.

The bickering amongst friends and families. The fights that break out amongst angered strangers. All the dramas of life.

Anxiety. Fear. Envy. Emptiness.

The man who spends his day immersed is immune to it all; he has lost his need to involve himself in such things. For such things only arise when the mind has nothing better to do: It necessarily creates dramas to fill the time. It looks to create problems to keep you busy.

Because, if you didn’t have any problems, what would you do? The truth is that problems are the lifeline of the man who is not free. A man would fight you to the death if you tried to remove all the problems of his life. Without them, he would not know up from down.

None of this should motivate you to find some cause to commit yourself to. None of this should inspire the pursuit of immersion.

If you approach it like this, you will never have the requisite sincerity to become free.

A person may live in this universe as a free man when he realises this universe has nothing to offer him. Such a realisation breeds fertile grounds.

Fertile grounds for the seed of a pure and sincere pursuit to be planted; a seed that will seem to plant itself.

“From the moment they awake, they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever they pursue.”

This is a perfect day. This is how a free man lives.

To live with no appetite for this universe, but the immersion of a craft is to live in freedom.

Freedom has no rival. Freedom is what every man wants. Freedom from all the problems and suffering of life: A perfect existence.