Birds are flying freely in the sky. They do not own any property. Neither do they have any money nor do they have any security for the next meal. Yet they are free to fly. Why human beings do not have freedom? Human beings have created so many things in this world. They made houses to live comfortably, started doing agriculture to have the best of the food available to them, have water directly in their homes, electricity and fridge, AC, washing machines, dishwashers, televisions, mobiles, and internet for their comforts and entertainment. We have armies to protect us. We have so many industries making products of different types from pens and pencils to aeroplanes. We go to the departmental stores or malls and the markets are flooded with products of different qualities and varieties. But, are we free? Are we happy?
Have we sold over freedom cheap? In our constant efforts to make our lives more comfortable, have we not given away a significant portion of our freedom? Today, right from the 1st standard, parents are concerned about the future of their kids. They are concerned about the future of their kids because they have embraced a particular lifestyle and want the same or a "better" lifestyle for their kids. That demands money and we need a good job for the money and the "good job" requires that the kids are able to clear the competitive exams to get admission into prestigious schools and universities. Parents try their level best to get the kids admitted to the best schools and then the kids see a lot of competition all around. Different YouTube videos and coaching institutes are telling them how to clear the competitive examinations and the entire focus of the studies somehow shifts to get an entry into a prestigious college or university.
Do the kids have the freedom to live their childhood? After getting success in the competitive exam, what is going to happen? Isn't the same cycle going to be repeated? They will get married and have kids and will be more worried about their kids. How to get their kids into a better school and college? They have not lived their childhood and will not be able to live their adulthood either. Isn't our obsession with certain comforts and pleasures making us a slave of our own choices?
The reality is that there is no limit to moving away from the center of our lives. There is no outer limit to the comforts and pleasures. A few hundred years ago, there was no electricity, no cars, and no telephones and mobiles. When these items were invented, possessing them was a big luxury. Today almost everybody has a mobile or telephone. What is the reason that owning a mobile no longer makes us happy? What has changed in the last 20 years? We have got used to mobiles. We have gotten used to electricity, airplanes, cars, buses, homes, agricultural products, fridges, AC, packaged water, and so on. We feel entitled to have all these things. We no longer have the gratitude to have all these things in our lives. That is the reason why we do not feel happy.
The market will keep developing new products. Today AI is making so many more things possible. Whatever income bracket we are, we interact with the people in the next income bracket or even a few levels higher. Since the market makes products for people of different income groups, which are launched at prices that people can pay, we will always get exposed to products that are outside our income range. For example, we will always be invited to homes that are better than ours and we will keep getting tempted to have them. We will keep reading about the electronic gadgets that have amazing features and are outside our budget. We will keep listening to colleagues who had an amazing trip abroad and had several expensive activities. We will keep watching the cars with amazing features. There would always be some in our groups who would be privileged to have these products.
Our unconscious mind plays a very important role here. If we have made the center of our lives around the comforts and pleasures, then definitely all these things will attract us and we will make more efforts to get these things in our lives. Initially, these things will give us some pleasure and soon we will get used to them and after the fading away of the initial euphoria, we come back to the state of hollowness. In the process, we give away our freedom to the employer who takes away our time and energy to give a few extra pennies to us.
We do not understand the value of air in our lives till we have COVID-19 and struggle for it. We do not understand the value of freedom, till it is taken away by the big corporates in exchange for a few extra pennies to buy some extra comforts, that too will lose their shine soon to leave us hollow. However, this world is so full of temptations and wisdom is so rare that sooner or later almost everybody falls into the trap of temptations to lose freedom.
I feel that if we take some time away from this materialistic world and take our kids too, they will be able to appreciate the value of freedom. Freedom from the comforts and pleasures. Freedom from the bondage to thoughts and body sensations. In Vipassasan, we learn to observe the thoughts and body sensations. That act of observation sets us free. The experience is like coming out of the prison of our own body. I feel that the kids too need to spend some time with themselves so that they can decide whether they want to sell their freedom to get the comforts and pleasures or value their freedom by keeping their needs to a minimum and then explore life. Unless we experience the joy of exploration, it is difficult to come out of the vicious cycle of pleasures and comforts. We will keep selling our happiness in exchange for the products of comforts and pleasures under the delusion that they will make us happy.
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