Freedom
We can only choose what direction to take
June 1st 2018
To what extent do we have freedom in life? Only in the choice of the direction we wish to take. Beyond this, nothing depends on us. Let’s say you want to go on holiday, and you can choose between the sea, the mountains, the desert, the countryside and the forest. Imagine you choose the mountains, the Alps. From that moment on, you know that you will see certain rivers, certain lakes and certain peaks. If you had chosen the sea or the desert, it would be completely different. Thus, only the choice of direction is yours, after which you will find yourselves in regions that existed long before you and will exist long after you.
The same thing applies to our inner life. Only our choice of destination is up to us: quicksand, swamps, dangerous forests – or else fertile plains, or parks filled with flowers and birds. Every misfortune, every happiness already exists; they are sorts of regions known to others before us. It depends on us alone whether we visit them or not.