Your independence is valuable
"To be yourself, in a world that tries night and day to make you just like everybody else, is to fight the greatest battle there ever is to fight, and never stop fighting" E. E. Cummings
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Your freedom does not rely on anyone else - only yourself.
Equality and Freedom |
The Age of Aquarius heralds the coming of the Day of Humanity, and could indeed be classified as the "moment of puberty", for we are now challenged to establish a foothold in the House of Freedom, and whether we like it or not, it is time for us all to grow up.
During the last hundred years, the brilliance of the human mind has given birth to some incredible inventions. We have supersonic aeroplanes, satellites suspended in nothing, and rockets that fly to the moon. On the domestic front we have minute mobile phones, automatic cars, thin TVs with DVDs, and high powered talking computers - all supposedly designed to give us a life of fun and freedom.
So is
there any reason on earth why we shouldn't be happy?
Those of us who live in the West are told how lucky we are to reside in democratic countries. On the surface of it we can think what we want, say what we want, and do what we want, but - looked at closely - what is this freedom, if it traps our senses and sensibilities in a material world, dominated by personal gratification and lust for possessions and power?
So where has all this progress really got us? And with all our mental genius, are we perhaps more profoundly restricted than we ever were before?
EQUALITY and FREEDOM are part of the essential needs of all people on earth, yet so rarely available. So perhaps you would like to light a candle for democratic and objective communication between our nations, creating a platform that can be equally shared by the whole of humanity.
Real freedom means that we have to see things as they really are. We have to stop lying to ourselves, and believing that happiness is only about other people, or just the things we can see and touch. We are the creators of our own life, and there is nothing to stop us living it to the full, inspite of confrontation and challenge. We cannot blame others for our problems forever, and one day we will all be obliged to take complete responsibility for ourselves and our decisions.
So why not start now by asking yourself two significant questions? 1. Do you really know yourself? 2. How much do you rely on others for your happiness? Of course you need people for support and often their ideas are valuable, but if you start to rely on them to make decisions for you - or find their opinions so important you are fearful of being yourself - you will never ever be really free. No-one can live your life for you, nor can you live it for anyone else.
Every individual is absolutely unique. We may copy or inherit the traits of others, but these don't make us the person we actually are. Our fingerprints are unique, our DNA is unique - in fact each one of us is very special indeed, and what we are worth has very little to do with how others think of us.
A
person who is really free stands apart, but never alone. They live
for the moment, but have learned from the past, and look into
the future with a wiser eye than those whose greater sense
A free person relies on no-one, yet gives to everyone, and never bemoans their fate. And above all they never lose themselves through fear of the judgments of others, but fulfil their destiny with a full heart that encompasses not only themselves, but the whole of humankind. |
The
thought of no restrictions may sound an exciting prospect,
but those who have tasted it often complain of acute loneliness
and boredom. 
Part of this is to be able to
honestly say that you know what
you need from
life, and also how you are
likely to behave in any given circumstance.
And
we have something more that is also very special. We have another
sense beyond that of the other five. It is called the 6th sense
or intuition, and this sense allows us to "know" things
we cannot see. It allows us to open our minds to what is really right
for us, rather than follow by rote what we are led to believe.
is suffocated by disillusion and anger. The great philosopher Plato once likened humanity to a group of prisoners, chained inside a dark cave. Because they had never known anything else, when they saw the shadows of passers-by on the wall, they came to believe that these shadows were the only reality.
If
we don't do anything to break away from our chains and experience our
own freedom; if we don't go anywhere for fear of failure, then we will
never
discover who we really are, or find the sun outside and the road to
our destiny.
Instead we will believe that everything we read or see, in our small enclosed world, is the only reality of life - but there is so much more, if we only have the hope and courage to step out of the cave, and walk into the fullness of a greater future.
Each of us has our own quest, our own star, and our own destiny to fulfil, but we are a global society now, and have to work together as a team to ensure our survival, by responding to our human destiny and the equality and sanctity of all life.
It
really does make sense for us all to stick together. After all, we are
just one
fragment of life that is trying to avoid extinction on just one small
planet - in a universe
of many
stars. There are no real differences between us on this common ground
- we are all equal in that.
We don't own our houses, our land or possessions - all these things belong to the planet we live upon, and they are only on loan to us for such a small moment of time.
So yes, we are all free to remain blind to the incredible originality, inventiveness and genius of our kind; to suffocate our own excellence through fear of loss, and ignore the need to nurture and protect the equality and spiritual evolution of our species.
And yes, we are free to chain ourselves to the illusion that nothing else matters but to win our wars, flaunt our religion, our gadgets or money, as trophies of success.
But at the end of the day, when all is said and done, someone, somewhere, somehow, is going to ask - "... yes, but what did you REALLY do for the children?".
You are not enclosed within your bodies, nor confined to houses or fields. That which is you dwells above the mountain and roves with the wind. It
is not a thing that crawls into the sun for warmth or digs
holes into darkness for safety, but
a thing free - a spirit that envelops the earth and moves in
the ether. How pitiful to lop off your wings with your own hands, and suffer your spirit to crawl like vermin upon the earth. Kahlil Gibran |
Plato's Cave image © Seekers.10 | Angel image © Spiritopics.net
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All writings © J.Shell 1981 - 2005 (unless otherwise stated). All rights reserved.