Chapter 12: Humans Are Deceived by Freedom
Today, let’s continue to explore the reality of life. First, let’s talk about the conventional understanding of freedom.
From the perspective of humans, freedom is believed to be the right to do whatever one wants within the boundaries of laws and morality. In other words, as long as one doesn’t impede or infringe upon the freedom of others, one can do whatever they want, and that is considered freedom. So, freedom is conditional; it is subject to constraints. The condition for freedom is that individuals must restrain themselves, not violate laws or morality, that is, not impede or infringe upon the freedom of others.
When a person exercises their legal and ethical right to freedom, if they face interference, constraints, control, compulsion, or even force by others, then their freedom is impeded, violated, or deprived by other individuals or groups.
Please note that the key point of the freedom: “I can do whatever I want” is the word “want”, which conveys willingness, liking, and preference. When a person is driven by their karmic habit and compelled by their karmic force, that is, compelled by the pervasive suffering or pain, in order to alleviate these suffering, they generate the thought of wanting to do something. The thought: “I want to do something” seems proactive but is actually passive. Next, they need to obtain the freedom to do it.
When a person has the freedom to do whatever they want, the next step is to obtain the conditions to achieve that freedom, which include having sufficient wealth and various supporting factors, as well as being free from interference, constraints, control, or infringement by others. If they fail to obtain the conditions necessary to achieve freedom, then their pervasive suffering and pain will persist, and they can only endure them.
When a person has obtained the conditions to achieve freedom, their willingness to do something varies. Willingness can be categorized into stages of interest, hobby, obsession, and addiction.
If a person’s willingness to do something is at the stage of interest, then the pervasive suffering and the suffering of not getting what one wants that they experience are not intense, and they can still restrain themselves.
If their willingness has increased to the stage of hobby or obsession, transitioning from a sense of compulsion to a sense of agitation, then the pervasive suffering and the suffering of not getting what one wants that they experience become very intense. At this stage, if they have the conditions to achieve that freedom, they will find it hard to restrain themselves. They may often disregard the feelings of their family, friends, or colleagues and do whatever they want, or even infringe upon the freedom of others.
If their willingness has turned into addiction, they will experience intense pervasive suffering and suffering of not getting what one wants. At this stage, if they have the conditions to achieve that freedom, they will find it hard to restrain themselves. They may become consumed by madness and harbor intense resentment when their desires are not satisfied, or even resort to physically harming others, stealing, or robbing others’ possessions. This aligns with the saying, “Better to die than to live without freedom.”
The choices made by humans based on their willingness and preferences are actually driven by karmic habits and compelled by karmic force. That is, in essence, the pursuit of freedom is to temporarily alleviate pervasive suffering and pain. In summary, humans desire freedom and the conditions to achieve it, because they experience pervasive suffering and pain. To temporarily alleviate these suffering, they have to follow their karmic habits to do what they want.
Most people are ignorant. They desire freedom and the conditions to achieve it, but in reality, they are deceived by freedom. When humans freely do what they want, their karma is repetitively habituated, thereby reinforcing their karmic habit of “wanting to do something”. As the karmic habit strengthens and attachment grows, the pervasive suffering and pain intensify. Consequently, humans tend to do what they want more frequently, in order to temporarily alleviate the pervasive suffering and pain. This creates a vicious cycle. As a result, humans’ pervasive suffering and pain become more and more severe, leading to even stronger greed and avarice. The most terrifying thing is that this situation tends to worsen over time, leading humanity to fall into the abyss and become trapped like devils, unable to free themselves.
Let’s take smoking as an example. A person who never smokes doesn’t have the karmic habit of “craving smoking”; they can freely choose to smoke or not without pervasive suffering.
Whereas, a person addicted to smoking has the karmic habit of “craving smoking”. When they crave smoking and can do so, they feel they have the freedom to smoke. When they have the freedom to smoke, as well as the necessary conditions, they feel they have achieved the freedom to smoke.
Let’s recap. Humans refer to the right to temporarily alleviate pervasive suffering and pain as freedom. However, as they freely do what they want, the karmic habit of greed grows. Since there are too many things humans desire to do, as the karmic habits of various desires grow, the objective conditions to achieve freedom become more and more difficult. The pursuit of freedom will inevitably impact or infringe upon the freedom of others. Therefore, the freedom of humans will be subject to more and more constraints or control and may not be allowed. As a result, humans will eventually lose freedom in the pursuit of freedom. This is an inevitable result.
In reality, the freedom that humans pursue is not true freedom. True freedom is inner freedom. Inner freedom means one can choose to do or not do something, without pervasive suffering, pain, or the suffering of change (happiness), without the notion of being free or not. This state is called inner freedom.
So how can we attain inner freedom? Let’s continue using smoking as an example. When a person with a smoking addiction starts to quit smoking, they still have the tendency of “craving smoking”, but rationally, they want to quit smoking, and behaviorally, they restrain themselves from smoking. During this process, they may experience the pervasive suffering, the suffering of not getting what one wants, and the suffering of separation from what one loves. However, as long as the method is right and one perseveres, their smoking addiction will gradually weaken, and the pervasive suffering, the suffering of not getting what one wants, and the suffering of separation from what one loves will also diminish. After this person has completely quit smoking, they no longer have the tendency of “craving smoking”, and thus they are free from the pervasive suffering, the suffering of not getting what one wants, and the suffering of separation from what one loves. They no longer need the so-called freedom; they have regained inner freedom.
Therefore, to attain inner freedom, we must completely eliminate the pervasive suffering and pain. To achieve this, we must use the right methods to weaken karmic force and reduce karmic habits, rather than blindly following the karmic habits in order to temporarily alleviate the pervasive suffering and pain.
This is the biggest misconception for most people: if they blindly follow their karmic habits to achieve temporary freedom, the result is an increase in those habits and the growth of attachment, creating a vicious cycle and eventually losing freedom.
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