This comes from a blog by Ciaran Healy; http://ruthlesstruthdotcom.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/second-kind-of-freedom.html
Freedom. What is freedom?
Well, there's two different kinds. One, is freedom FROM something. The other is freedom TO DO something you couldn't do before.
Yeah? Positive and negative freedom. Everyone tends to think of negative
freedom. Freedom as the removal or this tyranny, or that tyranny.
Negative freedom is freedom from something bad. The civil rights
movement, for instance, is a case of people fighting for negative
freedom. Freedom from discrimination, freedom from inequality. Freedom
from.
That's not to say it's not important, it is. But there's also another kind of freedom.
Freedom to. Freedom TO. That's something different.
Freedom TO is the addition of an option you never had before. If you are
suddenly granted a pair of wings, that's not freedom from not having
wings. It's freedom TO. Freedom to fly.
You don't have to fly. You can just sort of sit there. But you can, if
you want, spread your new wings and take off. If you want. You don't
have to. You just have the option to. The freedom to.
Freedom to.
Enlightenment is classically seen - and we have seen it, including
myself, from the start - as freedom FROM. We've been looking for the end
of suffering, freedom from suffering.
The problem with freedom FROM is that unless something VERY intense
happens, you'll never fully root out the thing you want freedom from.
Racism is a good example. Did the Civil Rights movement deliver freedom
FROM racism? Well, it definitely reduced the tyranny of it, absolutely.
But no, there's still racism.
What it did deliver is freedom TO. With the new laws passed against
discrimination, and the groundswell of public support for their cause it
meant that black people had a new option, they were free TO live in
ways that had previously been blocked to them.
Freedom TO.
Does liberation + gate + void end deliver freedom FROM suffering?
Nope.
Does it help?
Yup.
Does it deliver any FREEDOM TO's?
I would argue that with this eternal stuff, yes. Yes it does. It is brilliantly delivering a very CLEAR freedom TO for me.
The freedom to be cool. The freedom to be chill. The freedom to be
balanced. The freedom to focus. The freedom to be open. The freedom to
empathise. The freedom to apologise. The freedom to live an emotionally
balanced life.
Yeah?
