11. Freedom As Its Own Reward
It’s the little moments, the details of life, the immediacy of freedom’s function — to be free right now — that make freedom its own reward. By occupying freedom it grows, organically. Every second is a creative choice to exercise freedom.
What we do with that freedom will change, but the more we release the energy of freedom from the constraint of conditions, the more liberated we become. Imagine being a pianist or a potter and losing our hands? Imagine then getting them back? Imagine the gratitude we would feel for the freedom that our hands provide us? The idea is to have our hands and hearts on life all the time — aware that we can lose that privilege at any time.
Aung San Suu Kyi reminds us of the courage it takes to live freely as a day to day expression of finding liberation through living.
“Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death; fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood; fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure."
"The most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant, or futile the small daily acts of courage which help to preserve a person’s self-respect and inherent human dignity.”