Libertas

“In all the possibility of things there is and can be but one happiness and one misery. The one misery is nature and creature left to itself, the one happiness is the Life, the Light, The Spirit of God, manifested in nature and creature.”

William Law

Liberty is a delicate concept. Many would define it somewhere along the lines of “the ability to do what you want.” The Oxford Dictionary defines it in similar terms – “the power or scope to act as one pleases.”

I’ve grappled with this concept for some time. In effectual terms, liberty can be clearly exemplified or identified; “free” societies often stand in stark contrast to oppressive, authoritarian ones – at least historically. Free people are able to act in accordance with their own will.

“Their own will” – the basis of my conceptual grappling.

Liberty is often considered in a physical or social context. As we ascend up Maslow’s Hierarchy, the concept becomes increasingly abstract. Liberty, at a causal level, is exceedingly challenging to define – original freedom of desire, of thought, or of will itself, is a difficult consideration.

What is the cause of desire? What is desire?

Where does thought originate? What is thought?

How can the will be exercised freely, if the origin and function of the will is entirely unknown?

Can a slave to desire and thought act freely – even if external conditions are permissive?

My own proclivities lead me to believe that true Liberty is gained, or revealed, through yielding – through tempering pride, and passion, and aspiration – and submitting to the Unknown.

“All that we call human history – money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery – is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”

C. S. Lewis

In pragmatic terms, I believe that if internal Liberty could be won in the world, someone would have done it by now. From hedonists and libertines, to kings and conquerors – the most plentiful fruit of unchecked, worldly “liberty” and “achievement” appears to be suffering and delusion, culminating with the inevitable corporeal death of the individual.

I regard physical training as a method to seek out Liberty, through gradual self-knowledge. It serves as a way to separate the essential from the ephemeral; the wheat from the tares. True, causal Liberty is unchanging and ever-accessible – our own sympathies, antipathies, and “self-image” tend to conceal its presence.

I encourage you to seek out Liberty in your own grounds – to pursue that which is ineffable, and vital, and beautiful – so that we all might serve one another and step into greater degrees of Life.

Liberty is encased in a coffin of self.