Three things have to be understood. First, there is a kind of freedom that you are acquainted with: that is freedom from. A child wants to be free the master, from the boss. This is freedom from; it is a reaction, it is the ego asserting itself. And I am not saying there is anything wrong in it; you just have to watch the different colours of freedom.
So when you are seeking freedom from…. For example, if you are searching for freedom from the society, the established society, then you will fall into the trap of some alternative society. You will become a hippie or a yippie or something, and there you will become a hippie or a yippie or something, and there you will again be in the same trap. This is not a true freedom.
Then there is another kind of freedom: freedom for -- the second kind of freedom, which is far better than the first. The first is negative. The second is positive: one wants to be free to do something. For example, you want to be free of your family because you are in love with music. You are not really against the family. You are for music, and the family creates a hindrance, so you escape from the family. You are not family, against the parents, but they want you to become an engineer and you want to become a musician.
If you want to be musician are a poet, be a musician, be a poet. And this is a second kind of freedom: you will be at least happy that you are doing your own thing, not somebody else’s thing.
And this is my experience: that to be doing one’s own thing is the greatest joy in the world – whether that thing is appreciated by the society or not, valued by the society or not, whether it can be sold in the marketplace as a commodity or not. If it is the thing that you passionately desire, intensely desire, then do it; and whatever the cost, sacrifice yourself for it.
This is the second kind of freedom: freedom for. This is a positive approach, better than the first. The first type of person becomes a politician. The second type of person becomes a poet, a painter, an artist. The first freedom is negative, the second freedom is positive -- but remembers, they are aspects of the same thing.
The real freedom is the third kind, the transcendental freedom. What is that? It is neither from nor for; it is simply freedom. It is just freedom. That to moksha: just freedom. Neither against anybody – it is not a reaction; nor to create some future – there is no goal. One simply enjoys being oneself, for its own sake; it is an end unto itself.
Freedom from creates the politician, the reformer, the social servant, the communist, the socialist, the fascist. Freedom for creates the artist, the painter, the poet, the dancer, the musician. And just freedom for its own sake creates the sannyasin, the spiritual person, the truly religious.
Your question is. “We must be free. Yet where does freedom end and selfishness being? “The first two are selfish, ego – oriented. The first, freedom from is very egoistic. It has to disobey, it has to destroy, it has to conspire against the status quo. It needs great ego. But more delicate, more subtle, not so gross as the politician’s. The musicians has the ego, but nice, sweet, not so bitter as the first. They are both ego expressions.
Only in the third, pure freedom -- neither against nor for – is there no ego and is there no selfishness, because the third freedom happens only when the ego has evaporated. If the ego is still there, the freedom may be either the first or the second. The third requires as basic the phenomenon of the disappearance of the ego: :Fana. One has to understand the ego to attain the third freedom.
Watch the ways of the ego. Go on watching. There is no need to fight for, no need to fight against; there is only just one need: to watch and be aware of how the ego functions, its mechanism. Because the ego can exit only in unawareness. When awareness comes and the light comes, the ego disappears like darkness. And then there is freedom. That freedom knows no ego.
And that freedom is love, and that freedom is God. That freedom is nirvana, that freedom is truth. In that freedom you exit in God, God exists in you. Then nothing wrong can ever happen through you. Then your life is virtue. Then your very breathing is meditation. Then you walk and it is poetry. Then you sit silently and it is dance. Then you are a blessing to the world. You are blessed.
So when you are seeking freedom from…. For example, if you are searching for freedom from the society, the established society, then you will fall into the trap of some alternative society. You will become a hippie or a yippie or something, and there you will become a hippie or a yippie or something, and there you will again be in the same trap. This is not a true freedom.
Then there is another kind of freedom: freedom for -- the second kind of freedom, which is far better than the first. The first is negative. The second is positive: one wants to be free to do something. For example, you want to be free of your family because you are in love with music. You are not really against the family. You are for music, and the family creates a hindrance, so you escape from the family. You are not family, against the parents, but they want you to become an engineer and you want to become a musician.
If you want to be musician are a poet, be a musician, be a poet. And this is a second kind of freedom: you will be at least happy that you are doing your own thing, not somebody else’s thing.
And this is my experience: that to be doing one’s own thing is the greatest joy in the world – whether that thing is appreciated by the society or not, valued by the society or not, whether it can be sold in the marketplace as a commodity or not. If it is the thing that you passionately desire, intensely desire, then do it; and whatever the cost, sacrifice yourself for it.
This is the second kind of freedom: freedom for. This is a positive approach, better than the first. The first type of person becomes a politician. The second type of person becomes a poet, a painter, an artist. The first freedom is negative, the second freedom is positive -- but remembers, they are aspects of the same thing.
The real freedom is the third kind, the transcendental freedom. What is that? It is neither from nor for; it is simply freedom. It is just freedom. That to moksha: just freedom. Neither against anybody – it is not a reaction; nor to create some future – there is no goal. One simply enjoys being oneself, for its own sake; it is an end unto itself.
Freedom from creates the politician, the reformer, the social servant, the communist, the socialist, the fascist. Freedom for creates the artist, the painter, the poet, the dancer, the musician. And just freedom for its own sake creates the sannyasin, the spiritual person, the truly religious.
Your question is. “We must be free. Yet where does freedom end and selfishness being? “The first two are selfish, ego – oriented. The first, freedom from is very egoistic. It has to disobey, it has to destroy, it has to conspire against the status quo. It needs great ego. But more delicate, more subtle, not so gross as the politician’s. The musicians has the ego, but nice, sweet, not so bitter as the first. They are both ego expressions.
Only in the third, pure freedom -- neither against nor for – is there no ego and is there no selfishness, because the third freedom happens only when the ego has evaporated. If the ego is still there, the freedom may be either the first or the second. The third requires as basic the phenomenon of the disappearance of the ego: :Fana. One has to understand the ego to attain the third freedom.
Watch the ways of the ego. Go on watching. There is no need to fight for, no need to fight against; there is only just one need: to watch and be aware of how the ego functions, its mechanism. Because the ego can exit only in unawareness. When awareness comes and the light comes, the ego disappears like darkness. And then there is freedom. That freedom knows no ego.
And that freedom is love, and that freedom is God. That freedom is nirvana, that freedom is truth. In that freedom you exit in God, God exists in you. Then nothing wrong can ever happen through you. Then your life is virtue. Then your very breathing is meditation. Then you walk and it is poetry. Then you sit silently and it is dance. Then you are a blessing to the world. You are blessed.
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