"To be free is to be capable of thinking one's own thoughts - not the thoughts merely of the body, or of society, but thoughts generated by one's deepest, most original, most essential and spiritual self, one's individuality."
One otherwise ordinary day in 2011, three neurology registrars debated their futures in a cafe in Melbourne, Australia.
Since then, my conception of freedom has undergone several transitions.
The Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner may be one of the most under-appreciated thinkers of all time. One major reason for this is that in 1921, towards the end of Steiner's life, his ideas were attacked on several fronts by Adolf Hitler and a number of other prominent German nationalist extremists who declared a "war against Steiner" resulting in many of his ideas getting blitzkrieged.
“Behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force is my religion. To that extent, I am in point of fact, religious.”
So, perhaps real freedom is not to go with the flow of society, or do what one wants, or abandon one's desires. Perhaps real freedom is to seek a deeper awareness of the spiritual intuitions that this world is whispering to you, and then to strive to fully accomplish the spiritual life task that this world has laid out for you.
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