What Does It Mean to Truly Be Free?
By Michael Laitman
Being free means being free from our egoistic desires, which make us wish to benefit ourselves at the expense of others and nature.
In other words, freedom means becoming free from our egoistic nature that rules over us, so that instead of constantly thinking about our personal benefit, we instead think about the benefit of others—of everyone together as a single whole.
Similarly to how we think about ourselves today, when we become free from our egos, we then think about humanity as we now think about ourselves. Also, even beyond humanity, we then think about the whole universe—nature on the still, vegetative, animate and human levels—as a single system of which we are its parts, and that there is an upper force filling and sustaining this system.
We then accept everything as our own system, which we live in and care for, and that everything and everyone in this system is equally important, equally caring about everyone to the maximum of our ability.
Reaching such a state of freedom requires mutual support, consideration and encouragement of one another to overcome our divisive egoistic desires.
How could we reach such a level of support, care and encouragement in society, to overcome the ego?
We can do so through education, i.e., by adjusting our educational, media, social and cultural influences so that we learn why we are alive, what we live for, how nature works both inside and outside of us, what nature wants from us, and that we truly reach a state of positive human connection, with friendly relations between people, nations and continents—that everyone would connect around the world “as one man with one heart.”