These days, a great many people talk about freedom without understanding what freedom really is.
Very often, what they try to sell you as freedom is the possession of freedom.
But possession is precisely a neurosis, a descent into hell. It is just another accumulation of passions.
“I want to be free!” 😏 But is that really it? There is a fine line here. Freedom is not something you need to desire. It comes of its own accord once you have brought yourself into balance.
What is the point of balance? It is when attempts to manipulate your consciousness—news, advertising, social media—no longer disturb you.
Balance is conscious behaviour: you are aware of what is happening. That does not mean that you are devoid of emotions. Depriving yourself of emotions is a distortion. Balance means recognising that all emotions are natural.
If you are in pain, you cry out, weep or get angry. That is normal. What is not normal is when there is no source of pain, but you wind yourself up anyway. That is how psychological trauma, propaganda and advertising work.
Only when you understand the processes of your own life will you become free, because you will be able to discard unnecessary emotions through a simple act of will.
We spend an enormous amount of time on emotions we do not need. Think of online shopping or watching the news: you respond to everything with desires. But these desires are empty. They carry no meaning for you.
You burn your finger: pain, emotions. The meaning of those emotions is the burn. The news shows you a picture from a particular angle to draw you in: emotions again, but these emotions have no meaning, because you have been manipulated. What is the point of shouting at a television or another device if you cannot change anything?
Meanings are certain motivating vectors that lead towards a goal.
The meaning of food is life. The meaning of emotions lies in recording negative experience so that we can avoid it in the future.
So what is freedom? Clearly not an oxidised statue, not the declarations of life coaches, not even your actions. Freedom has more to do with a way of perceiving.
Being determines consciousness, because we are physical products of the world. And if consciousness is to influence being, we must change our perception of that being. There is no other way.
Now compare this with what so many coaches offer, calling it “freedom”. Through manipulation, they make you want to Possess Freedom instead of existing in a state of freedom. You cannot sell the feeling of freedom, and you cannot sell the spiritual either. Personally, I do not consider myself enlightened or perfect, because perfection does not exist in this world! To define an ideal, you first have to define a coordinate system. And that inevitably introduces distortion.
So do not strive for an ideal, for money or for appearances, but for an understanding of life. Beauty is not about external features; it is about confidence and knowing how to present yourself. Money is not a sack of banknotes; it is about building connections and finding the right sources, about ideas and skills. Wealth is therefore not accumulation: everything in this world loses value through inflation or simple obsolescence. Your skills, your knowledge and your social connections—that is where wealth lies.
Do you see? There is no principle of possession here either. This is about being. We do not possess knowledge in the classical sense: it cannot be precisely measured or valued in a way that turns it into an object. To “possess knowledge” is a metaphor. Knowledge is always changing and continually improving, even through everyday conversation.
Social connections are people and acquaintances, simple communication, even the emotions involved in communicating. All this influences your knowledge and opportunities. But you do not possess social connections in the classical sense either. They, too, are an element of being.
Ideas are a product of social being and of your knowledge and abilities. They arise from your experience. It is ideas that allow you to create a product, which can then become money. This path is harder than clapping your hands and burning a bay leaf, but it is the real path to prosperity.
This is a path not towards possession, but towards a reasonable way of existing. That is what true freedom is, not the empty concept traded by all manner of gurus.