EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT FREEDOM . ALL AROUND the world different
people, different races, different countries are fighting for freedom. But what is
freedom? In America we speak of living in a free country. But are we really
free? Are we free to be who we really are? The answer is no, we are not free.
True freedom has to do with the human spirit — it is the freedom to be who we
really are.
Who stops us from being free? We blame the government, we blame the
weather, we blame our parents, we blame religion, we blame God. Who really
stops us from being free? We stop ourselves. What does it really mean to be
free? Sometimes we get married and we say that we lose our freedom, then we
get divorced and we are still not free. What stops us? Why can’t we be
ourselves?
We have memories of long ago, when we used to be free and we loved being
free, but we have forgotten what freedom really means.
If we see a child who is two or three, perhaps four years old, we find a free
human. Why is this human free? Because this human does whatever he or she
wants to do. The human is completely wild. Just like a flower, a tree, or an
animal that has not been domesticated — wild! And if we observe humans who
are two years old, we find that most of the time these humans have a big smile
on their face and they’re having fun. They are exploring the world. They are not
afraid to play. They are afraid when they are hurt, when they are hungry, when
some of their needs are not met, but they don’t worry about the past, don’t care
about the future, and only live in the present moment.