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Freedom and servitude are states of mind. One mindset liberates, the other enslaves. The essence of freedom is the mindset of self-sufficiency: the idea that all you require inheres within your very self. The essence of servitude is the mindset of dependence: the idea that you require something external to yourself.
Whether a person will experience actual liberty or actual bondage depends, ultimately, on the state of his mind. A soul filled with a sense of being free (of requiring nothing but itself) will be so in fact. A free spirit cannot be shackled and commanded effectively, for it won’t cede control to another, requiring nothing external to itself, while one who requires something more than himself has a need to be controlled and told what to do, and thus makes himself susceptible to being constrained and compelled to follow a master’s bidding.
Not only another person, in the form of a master, but any force could potentially enslave and subjugate you. A notion that holds sway over you (without you incorporating the notion into yourself, uniting with it through understanding it) enslaves. Any external power that controls you – be it desire, greed, fear or envy – is a master, and answering to its force makes you slave-like, liable to be enslaved completely and forced to produce for another person’s gain. Indeed, he who hasn’t willed himself to mental freedom will actively seek out the myriad forces of subjugation and welcome them into his feeble soul, seeking to serve the various masters called ‘desire,’ ‘greed’ etc., his slave mentality impelling him to search for owners upon whom to rely so as to forget his sorry state of ignorance, while the freeman can act only on the basis of what is in himself – his essence, i.e., his reasoned and noble character.
These are the two modes of the human condition, one a mode of life, the other of death: The free spirit never acts upon anything but himself, incorporating all he encounters and experiences into his own being so as to expand and become truly alive, and only then acting; the slave-mind delights in lifelessly executing the dictates of the other and even seeks them out, his own soul remaining small and narrow. Most of us lie somewhere between full freedom and full slavery, and must battle, intensely, for more freedom. Maximizing our freedom – our self – should be our goal and greatest desire. Indeed, freedom is the only true desire a man could have, for any other desire is not his, but some external force to which he is in thrall.
(To be clear, there might be instances wherein comporting with someone else’s desires is reasonable – but that is not slavery, it is reason, mastery. Free men – even kings – grant favors, for good reasons. Only one who suspends his own will and is controlled by another is enslaved, and only a person who seeks to be controlled instead of self-determining could be prevailed upon to suspend his will and be forced to do another’s bidding. The state of bondage cannot last for long when imposed on a person disinclined to suspending his own spirited will.)
How then does a person attain passionate freedom? How does he become a being for whom slavery – answering to an ‘other’ – clashes with his very essence, such that it wouldn’t even be attempted to be imposed on him, and if it were, its chains would surely break? By becoming one with that which is most free – the totality of being. To the degree that any force exists externally to a person, its power might control him; consequently, a person is liberated by encompassing everything within himself. He who unites with all of the universe is truly free, as free as the unchained All is.
This unity is achieved by understanding the idea of the universe entire and aligning your soul with it.[1] Your soul will become as free as the whole of reality; nothing could enslave the soul that contains within itself the principle of all being. The oneness of the pure minds is the very same wisdom that permeates all being.
For example, if you are one with it, a desire cannot enslave you. You unite with that desire by understanding its universal quality, for if you understand the reason for the desire, its function, and you know the idea it furthers, then you yourself are the desire, having the same universal reason, which is your very own mind. You and it both fill the universe entire, free.
True freedom is attainable when one universal principle underpins all of being, for this principle can answer to nothing but itself. Thus, the closer you bring your mind to the idea of unity, the closer you have come to freedom. Only where disunity has entry does slavery inevitably follow, and the human condition, theoretically simple, becomes a convoluted hierarchy of slaves and masters, a tangled web of unnecessary servitude and instrumentality.
Humankind, enchained in ignorance, is invited to expand and encompass all, until the Unity that will unshackle its chains forever becomes known. This invitation liberates all people and declares them noble and free – free to attain freedom.
Concepts:
Exodus/יציאת מצרים
Unity of Hashem/ייחוד השם
Knowing Hashem/ דעת השם
Sources and references:
Exodus 6:2-9
[1] Much in the ways discussed here: How to Fall in Love with the Universe, pt. 1 (substack.com); and here: How to Fall in Love with the Universe, pt. 2 (substack.com).
what a beautiful recipe to achieve freedom for each individual and ultimately our entire nation
A vivid picture of mental freedom! Only someone who has read the previous installments about the power of reason and can truly appreciate the importance of implementing this next step.