On Freedom – from The Path – Life Explained in 100 Pages by Dr. Joseph Cilona

“The truly free fly above even the desire to chase freedom, and know in their hearts that freedom is not a goal or and end in itself”

July 5th marks the second day of the July 4th weekend when America celebrates her Declaration of Independence from Great Britain in 1776. Ever since that moment, when the Liberty Bell and other bells rang out across the country tolling in the birth of freedom, freedom was a principle, one of the key bricks in the foundation that is this country America.  When people emigrate here from other lands it is often so they can be free – free to express themselves, free to associate with whom they choose, with what religion they choose, free to pursue an education or profession regardless of race, color, creed or gender. But what is freedom and how free are we. Is freedom a destination or is it a journey. While we in America may consider ourselves free, those who live in Tibet and Myanmar certainly are not. And how free are we? In a recent article I wrote on the publication of the book “We shall be heard” I elaborated on the stories of people who were persecuted by our very own government because of their opinions expressed or their association with groups that were labelled anti-American, insurrectionist, dangerous, communist, and the like.  The land of the free has a long history of oppression – The placement of Native Americans on Reservations, the confinement of Japanese-Americans into Detainment Camps during World War II, the placing of pacifists in camps as well, the McCarthy era, the blacklisting of communists in the entertainment industry, Segregation in schools, public buildings, water fountains, buses and neighborhoods. The post-911 histrionics have led to the Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security, which gives the government sweeping powers including wiretapping, going into public libraries to see what patrons are reading and searching for on the Internet. So how much freedom do we have and what kind of freedom should we aspire to?

In The Path – LifeExplained in 100 Pages, a book by Doctor Joseph Cilona, he sums up freedom as he interprets the 193 classic “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran:

And a man said, speak to us of Freedom, and he answered: Throughout the city I have seen you bowed at the feet and awestruck in the face of your own freedom. Like the slave whos own will becomes words and thoughts of praise for their oppressor, so many of you humble yourself and sacrifice yourself and make sacrifice in the name of freedom.

My heart bleeds in seeing many of the freest among you chained and burdened by your very own idea of freedom. The truly free fly above even their desire to chase freedom, and know in their hearts that freedom is not a goal or an end in itself.

You will not even be free when your days are without a care an your nights are without a single grief or want, But rather when your life is burdened with these things, yet you rise above them soaring unbound in the glories of life

You cannot rise above your days and nights until you reak the chains you have placed upon yourself during the dawn of your understanding. And though it’s links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes, thta thing which you call freedom is really the strongest and heaviest of these chains.

And what is it really, but merely pieces of yourself that you would gladly toss away to become free? If you try to abolish an unjust law, remember it was written with your own hand and upon your own forehead. You cannot erase it by burning your law books or by washing the foreheads of your judges with the water of the sea.

Anf if you try to dethrone a tyrantm be sure that you first destroy the tyrants thronem which is erected within yourself.  A tyrant cannot rule the free and the proud unless there is tyranny in their own freedom, and shame in their own pride.

And if you try to cast off a care, remember that the seat or your fear lies in your own heart, not in the hand of the feared. Within you there shall always be a constant half embrace, what you desire and what you fear, what you avoid and what you cherish, what you chase and that from which you run away.

These things move inside you in pairs like lights and shadows forever clning to each other. And when a shadow fadesm it clinging light becomes the shadow to anothe light. And when your freedom breaks free of its chains, it becomes the chains upon a greater freedom

Excerpt from the The Path: Life Explained in 100 Pages Copyright 2007 by Joseph Cilona