What is freedom?
I asked AI. As freedom although we talk about it day in and out doesn't have a true definition. I've got the following answer, which is a little bit confusion. More importantly we should be asking what are we trying to be free from? Why do we want freedom? Is it not another pursuit in life that will end up in disappointment, or a brief happiness?
ChatGPT answer: What is freedom?
Freedom is the ability to think, choose, and act according to one's own will without unnecessary external control or internal limitations. It is not simply the absence of rules or restrictions, but also the ability to pursue one's goals, express individuality, and shape one's own life. True freedom involves intellectual independence, allowing us to question beliefs, challenge conventions, and form our own opinions. However, freedom also comes with responsibility, as every choice carries consequences. It does not necessarily mean doing everything we desire but having the wisdom to decide which desires are worth pursuing. Ultimately, freedom is about having control over the direction of our lives while accepting the boundaries that make living together possible.
We all know this standard answer to freedom. Let's try to enumerate what it means to us individually. If you are a teacher, freedom is your retirement, where you keep longing your whole life. If you are married, you wish to have freedom from your spouse and kids from time to time. If you are hungry you wish to have freedom from hunger with delicious food. If you are poor, you would wish freedom from poverty by learning new skills and a pile of cash. When we think about it in this way freedom seems nothing but another name for cessation of desire. Thus this could mean, the freedom we talk about every day is closely associated with desires.
"Freedom is cessation of desire"
What is free from all desire. Imagine a person, living on a mountain. Without electricity, smartphones, or even a chair in his room. He has no desire to seek anything from anyone. When he talks with someone there is no hidden agenda behind his speech. When he walks there is no desire to be in a destination. When he eats there is no greed to feel the taste or even to increase or decrease the body mass. When he breath, there is no desire to live longer or even shorter. Can such a person exist? Totally free from all the desire?
More importantly if there is such a person, can we call that phenomenon a person? It feels like there is no life in such a person. Perhaps there is cessation. Freedom that is not found in anywhere else. Perhaps we can call that person nature. However, when we think about it, every human is naturally at that stage. Only our added layer of greed creates chaos and loss of freedom we have.
The sky.
I started photographing the morning sky. It is different everyday. Sometimes it is cloudy. Sometimes it is misty. Sometimes it is pink. Sometimes it is blue. It is never the same. And continously changing. There are never two skies that we can see. There never have been and there never will be. It makes me realise human mind is the same. It changes like the sky. And there is only change.
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