Words by Eva Enriquez
What a concept! Isn’t freedom what individuals seek to pursue happiness?
Yes! At least it is one way to be happy, especially if someone has been deprived of freedom under any form of captivity. I cannot imagine what it would be like not to be physically free, not to have the ability to act freely. I cannot also imagine a country where words and ideas are punished in many cases with prison or death.
I bet freedom, then, would be a big reason for these people to be happy.
But what about the rest of us who live under systems based on freedom? How do we practice freedom to be satisfied in life?
In democracy, we live under a system that promotes and protects freedom for its people, which give us the power of choice and action. Freedom opens the door to knowledge, information, interaction with others, and discussion. Of course there are rules, but rules arise from understanding and help us to respect each other.
I have been reading The Book of Understanding by Indian philosopher Osho on this subject of freedom. He presents discipline as a concept on how to practice freedom, which often is misunderstood as the contrary to freedom. He explains that discipline has the same route as the word “disciple”, which is the person who is ready to learn. So discipline can lead to that door of expansion, and consequently to freedom.
Osho states that “only disciplined people become free, but their discipline is not obedience to others: their discipline is obedience to their own inner voice, and they are ready to risk anything for it”. How many times have we heard that a disciplined sports person, student, or worker has accomplished their goals successfully? They probably feel free and happy.
As a student, discipline gives me structure, order, clarity of ideas, and as a result I can succeed in understanding, which makes me fulfilled. My mission is accomplished. Then the process continues and I have the ability to chose and act freely again and again.
I am grateful to be able to express my ideas in this article, and I am aware that not everybody in this world has this right.
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