![]() ![]() To become free, then, we must first seek knowledge of the way things really are, and then put ourselves into the correct relationship with that knowledge. From the Buddhist point of view, even Uncle Tom is ignorant in this sense, although he is still far ahead of his supposed owners. The reason we don’t have it yet, he says, is our ignorance. To take another angle, the central teaching of the Buddha is liberation from suffering – a freedom which surely all sentient beings desire. So he would not trade places with his masters if it required renouncing his faith and living as they do. But, though he does sometimes feel sadness and discouragement at the injustices inflicted on himself and others, as a Christian he remains convinced that the real bondage in life consists in sin. Uncle Tom, an old slave who has no political (that is, external) liberty, endures injustice and hardship, while his owners enjoy lives of comparative ease. This is illustrated in the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe. To someone who has a clear understanding of what is good and how to achieve it, the external constraints are comparatively minor. The internal impairments are the most significant. The bigger and more numerous these impairments are, the lower the level of freedom. ![]() Personal, internal impairments to freedom manifest mainly as ignorance of what is good, or of the means to attaining it, while external impairments include physical and cultural obstacles to its realization. ![]() This perfect level of freedom might be experienced by a supreme God, or by a Buddha. The perfect expression of freedom would be found in someone who, having an unerring idea of what is good, and a similarly unerring idea of how to realize it, then experienced no impediment to pursuing it. Their capacity to work towards their goal is their freedom. Desiring a particular outcome, people bend their thoughts and their efforts toward realizing it – toward a goal. Apologies to the entrants not included.įreedom is the power of a sentient being to exercise its will. SUBSCRIBE NOW Question of the Month What is Freedom? Each answer below receives a book. ![]()
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