Difference between revisions of "Freedom without purpose"
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| + | ==Chaotic, meaningless freedom without purpose== | ||
“Freedom without purpose is quite meaningless. What is the value of freedom if there is no purpose? It is only license to be chaotic.” | “Freedom without purpose is quite meaningless. What is the value of freedom if there is no purpose? It is only license to be chaotic.” | ||
| − | <ref name="wgcI8">'' | + | <ref name="wgcI8">[https://www.newmessage.org/the-message/volume-5/wisdom-greater-community-volume-1 ''Wisdom from the Greater Community Volume I''], Chapter 8: Preparing for the Future</ref> |
| + | “Do not call chaos freedom, for this is not freedom. Do not think because others do not limit you that you are in an exalted state. Realize that your freedom is to enable you to find your purpose and to fulfill it.” | ||
| + | <ref>[https://stepstoknowledge.com ''Steps to Knowledge''], Step 94: My freedom is to find my purpose</ref> | ||
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| + | "What is the value of freedom if there is no purpose? It is only license to be chaotic. But the true meaning of freedom is so true purpose may continue to be discovered and expressed. To have this freedom, you must learn to live in Knowledge and use Knowledge.” | ||
| + | <ref name="wgcI8"/> | ||
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| + | ==Personal freedom without purpose== | ||
“To give up your personal freedom is to reclaim God and all your real power. Your personal freedom is driving you crazy.” | “To give up your personal freedom is to reclaim God and all your real power. Your personal freedom is driving you crazy.” | ||
| − | <ref name="wgcI7">''Wisdom from the Greater Community Volume | + | <ref name="wgcI7">[https://www.newmessage.org/the-message/volume-5/wisdom-greater-community-volume-1 ''Wisdom from the Greater Community Volume I']', Chapter 7: Freedom</ref> |
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"What is freedom to the personal mind except the right to surround itself with more and more layers of deception and to offset its sense of isolation and misery with fruitless and desperate attempts at happiness?" | "What is freedom to the personal mind except the right to surround itself with more and more layers of deception and to offset its sense of isolation and misery with fruitless and desperate attempts at happiness?" | ||
<ref>''Living The Way of Knowledge'', [https://www.newmessage.org/the-message/volume-3/living-way-knowledge/building-spiritual-community Chapter 8: Building Community]</ref> | <ref>''Living The Way of Knowledge'', [https://www.newmessage.org/the-message/volume-3/living-way-knowledge/building-spiritual-community Chapter 8: Building Community]</ref> | ||
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“What is worth protecting if it denies you your freedom? What is worth having if it binds you and bonds you to the past? Who is worth being with if all that they can do is remind you that you are weak and pathetic and unable to follow what you know? These are all valid questions. The impediments to freedom are still greatly valued, and freedom is looked at with anxiety and uncertainty. Your prison cell door is open and has been all along. But are you willing to venture out of the seeming security of your bondage?” | “What is worth protecting if it denies you your freedom? What is worth having if it binds you and bonds you to the past? Who is worth being with if all that they can do is remind you that you are weak and pathetic and unable to follow what you know? These are all valid questions. The impediments to freedom are still greatly valued, and freedom is looked at with anxiety and uncertainty. Your prison cell door is open and has been all along. But are you willing to venture out of the seeming security of your bondage?” | ||
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“Why do people destroy all that they have created that makes them so secure? Because it is imprisoning them, and they cannot stand it anymore. They would rather start all over again. So if your own stability begins to eliminate your possibility for progress, you will destroy it. You will destroy your financial state, your health, your relationships—whatever seems to be infringing upon you."<ref name="wgcI8"/> | “Why do people destroy all that they have created that makes them so secure? Because it is imprisoning them, and they cannot stand it anymore. They would rather start all over again. So if your own stability begins to eliminate your possibility for progress, you will destroy it. You will destroy your financial state, your health, your relationships—whatever seems to be infringing upon you."<ref name="wgcI8"/> | ||
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“You do not know what to do with your freedom. God is not interfering. You can do anything here, but very few people know what to do with their freedom. It is very sad because you have everything and you are still empty. Your true desire inside has not been quenched.” | “You do not know what to do with your freedom. God is not interfering. You can do anything here, but very few people know what to do with their freedom. It is very sad because you have everything and you are still empty. Your true desire inside has not been quenched.” | ||
| − | <ref>''Wisdom from the Greater Community Volume | + | <ref>''Wisdom from the Greater Community Volume I'', Chapter 11: [https://www.newmessage.org/the-message/volume-5/wisdom-greater-community-volume-1/power-and-responsibility Power and Responsibility]</ref> |
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| + | ==Freedom to find your purpose== | ||
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| + | “To Knowledge, wealth, [[beauty]] and power mean nothing, and to be free of these seductions is to have a freedom in life that is so unparalleled. When you are free like this, everyone else will look like they are in chains, slaves. And whether the chains are made of iron or made of gold, they are all the same.” | ||
| + | <ref name="tfc"/> | ||
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| + | "There must be a fundamental shift in your understanding of freedom. Said most simply, your freedom here is to find your purpose and to fulfill it. All of the other freedoms that you seek—the freedom for stability, the freedom for certainty, the freedom to find the truth out about your life, the freedom to think, the freedom to feel, the freedom to know, the freedom to express yourself, the freedom to go where you need to go, the freedom to become educated, even the freedom to survive, are for this greater purpose. If you take the desire for freedom to its full expression, if you take it down to its absolute foundation, it is about this. To finally come to this realization after you have tasted the pleasures and the sorrows of this world, after you have tried to fulfill yourself with people and places and activities and holidays and hobbies and sports and every other form of distraction that may be available to you—when you finally come to yourself, whether it be from a great disappointment or a sudden realization or a lucid moment in your hectic life, when you finally come to this, you will realize there is a greater need within you and that it cannot be fulfilled by all the desperate attempts at happiness that everyone around you is attempting and committing themselves to." | ||
| + | <ref name="nmof">[https://newknowledgelibrary.org/audio-mp3/the-new-message-on-freedom-audio-download/#_ga=2.238066245.491623735.1558560618-1857208979.1549163997 The New Message on Freedom] (February 23, 2008)</ref> | ||
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| + | "If you are discontented with your life as it is, then you will have an incentive for Knowledge. You will want to find freedom and purpose. Yet if you still think that your life is fine, and you are comfortable with it up to a point, then Knowledge will seem like a great threat. You will avoid it, which is tragic, because you will be avoiding yourself. You will be avoiding your deepest feelings, your emotional honesty, your integrity and your deepest and most fundamental values. This is why people are strangers to themselves. They are identified with things on the outside, but they have very little relationship with themselves on the inside. They are not free. They are not free to be who they are, what they are and to follow their deepest inclination. Even if they are free on the outside and have political and social freedom of movement, which is rare in the world, this freedom does not reach to the depths of their own nature. And so they are not free." | ||
| + | <ref name="tfc">[https://www.newmessage.org/the-message/other-revelations/first-commitment-relationship-god The First Commitment (September 25, 2008)]</ref> | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
<references/> | <references/> | ||
Latest revision as of 22:27, 23 May 2019
Chaotic, meaningless freedom without purpose
“Freedom without purpose is quite meaningless. What is the value of freedom if there is no purpose? It is only license to be chaotic.” [1]
“Do not call chaos freedom, for this is not freedom. Do not think because others do not limit you that you are in an exalted state. Realize that your freedom is to enable you to find your purpose and to fulfill it.” [2]
"What is the value of freedom if there is no purpose? It is only license to be chaotic. But the true meaning of freedom is so true purpose may continue to be discovered and expressed. To have this freedom, you must learn to live in Knowledge and use Knowledge.” [1]
Personal freedom without purpose
“To give up your personal freedom is to reclaim God and all your real power. Your personal freedom is driving you crazy.” [3]
"What is freedom to the personal mind except the right to surround itself with more and more layers of deception and to offset its sense of isolation and misery with fruitless and desperate attempts at happiness?" [4]
“What is worth protecting if it denies you your freedom? What is worth having if it binds you and bonds you to the past? Who is worth being with if all that they can do is remind you that you are weak and pathetic and unable to follow what you know? These are all valid questions. The impediments to freedom are still greatly valued, and freedom is looked at with anxiety and uncertainty. Your prison cell door is open and has been all along. But are you willing to venture out of the seeming security of your bondage?” [5]
“You lose your freedom every day when you lose contact with Knowledge, when you are lost to yourself, when you act in such a way that betrays your true understanding, when you say things you don’t mean to say and do things you don’t really intend to do and when you follow others mindlessly out of fear and concern.” [6]
“Why do people destroy all that they have created that makes them so secure? Because it is imprisoning them, and they cannot stand it anymore. They would rather start all over again. So if your own stability begins to eliminate your possibility for progress, you will destroy it. You will destroy your financial state, your health, your relationships—whatever seems to be infringing upon you."[1]
“You do not know what to do with your freedom. God is not interfering. You can do anything here, but very few people know what to do with their freedom. It is very sad because you have everything and you are still empty. Your true desire inside has not been quenched.” [7]
Freedom to find your purpose
“To Knowledge, wealth, beauty and power mean nothing, and to be free of these seductions is to have a freedom in life that is so unparalleled. When you are free like this, everyone else will look like they are in chains, slaves. And whether the chains are made of iron or made of gold, they are all the same.” [8]
"There must be a fundamental shift in your understanding of freedom. Said most simply, your freedom here is to find your purpose and to fulfill it. All of the other freedoms that you seek—the freedom for stability, the freedom for certainty, the freedom to find the truth out about your life, the freedom to think, the freedom to feel, the freedom to know, the freedom to express yourself, the freedom to go where you need to go, the freedom to become educated, even the freedom to survive, are for this greater purpose. If you take the desire for freedom to its full expression, if you take it down to its absolute foundation, it is about this. To finally come to this realization after you have tasted the pleasures and the sorrows of this world, after you have tried to fulfill yourself with people and places and activities and holidays and hobbies and sports and every other form of distraction that may be available to you—when you finally come to yourself, whether it be from a great disappointment or a sudden realization or a lucid moment in your hectic life, when you finally come to this, you will realize there is a greater need within you and that it cannot be fulfilled by all the desperate attempts at happiness that everyone around you is attempting and committing themselves to." [9]
"If you are discontented with your life as it is, then you will have an incentive for Knowledge. You will want to find freedom and purpose. Yet if you still think that your life is fine, and you are comfortable with it up to a point, then Knowledge will seem like a great threat. You will avoid it, which is tragic, because you will be avoiding yourself. You will be avoiding your deepest feelings, your emotional honesty, your integrity and your deepest and most fundamental values. This is why people are strangers to themselves. They are identified with things on the outside, but they have very little relationship with themselves on the inside. They are not free. They are not free to be who they are, what they are and to follow their deepest inclination. Even if they are free on the outside and have political and social freedom of movement, which is rare in the world, this freedom does not reach to the depths of their own nature. And so they are not free." [8]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Wisdom from the Greater Community Volume I, Chapter 8: Preparing for the Future
- ↑ Steps to Knowledge, Step 94: My freedom is to find my purpose
- ↑ Wisdom from the Greater Community Volume I'', Chapter 7: Freedom
- ↑ Living The Way of Knowledge, Chapter 8: Building Community
- ↑ Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training, Step 46: In the Greater Community, you will not be free
- ↑ Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training, Step 69
- ↑ Wisdom from the Greater Community Volume I, Chapter 11: Power and Responsibility
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 The First Commitment (September 25, 2008)
- ↑ The New Message on Freedom (February 23, 2008)