What does it take to be truly free?

What does it take to be truly free? What is it even like to be truly free?

Theoretically, a lot of things can make you feel truly free.  For example,  not being constrained by anyone but yourself ,not being answerable to anyone but yourself

Not caring for what others say about you.  not caring for what others think about you. 

Theoretically, the ability to do what you like can set you free. 

Theoretically, money can set you free. Give you the freedom to do what you always liked for example. 

Theoretically, the lack of attachment can set you free.  Lack of attachment to any worldly emotions, material desires etc. Or even to others and by implication, having the freedom to prioritize your own self

Theoretically, prioritizing your own self can make you feel free. I will pursue what i want,  do as I like, is theoretically as free as it can get

Theoretically, living in the present can set you free.  Unshackled by the past, unworried about the future. Or atleast as a US presidential candidate is known to have repeatedly remarked to the point of being memed " What can be,  unburdened by what has been" :)

But all this is theory.  In reality,  Can you ever be truly free at all? At any point of time,  as an adult and if you have reasonable means of your own, you have the choice to put into practise atleast some of this " theory". And yet almost all of us don't,  on some of these axis or on most of them or on all of them

Maybe because ultimately being free is not an end in itself.  It is the means to an end. The very things that constrain us from being " fully free" also provide us with the context for living our every day lives,  everything from what others think about us to money to attachment to worldly desires to even our own past selves , to our expectations of our futures. Each one of these is a constraint to us being truly free,  yet also determines the contexts in which each one of us live on a day to day basis

It's true,  some of this context can get on autopilot. Some of this context is just status quo that we don't take effort to change. Some of this is perhaps even detrimental in "freeing" yourself.  Yet we won't free ourselves unless we find other contexts, which push us to change the status quo

We are not born so much to be free in as much as we are born to find meaning


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