Freedom

Freedom is something worth fighting for. At least that's the clear signal of generations of ancestors who have sacrificed their lives for us and our freedoms.

Yet what happens once we're rid of those tyrants and villains who'd take away our freedoms?

What we find is that no matter how much outward - political, legal and financial - freedom we secure, our freedom can still come under attack.

It's as if there remains one final "battle front" we must secure for the cause of freedom, namely the human mind. Here, we come under threat by a whole set of internally-dwelling tyrants like fear .

Someone who seemed all too conscious of this crucial distinction was Martin Luther King – celebrated leader of the civil rights movement of 1960s United States.

In championing the outward freedoms of racial justice and equality, King was keen to avoid the trap of losing inward ones – like the freedom from anger , and from enslavement to hate and vengeance.

When "stress forces" like fear take over, they shove our heart aside, along with our imagination, joy, love and true aliveness. Our mind is gripped by extreme “weather”.

Martin Luther King took on foes like anger and fear .

King's saying “courage faces fear and thereby masters it” clarifies this point precisely.

Likewise, at the Christmas truce of the first winter of the First World War, the soldiers reached for a greater victory than their land-grabbing overlords could ever achieve: namely, the victory of a common humanity that is capable of bridging nations and building cooperation. These soldiers had the vision to see their “enemies” as brothers, even if that meant to defy the order to keep shooting.

When our self-creativity is in charge, our mind returns to being truly ours. Then, we exist in the freedom of our truly real , sovereign state: full of joy and insight. Our thoughts, senses and mind slip their stress knots, and become like a flock of birds in flight - liberated by space and life.