APPROACHES TO FREEDOM

Distraction

Distraction believes the obstacle to be real and unbearable to deal with. This is the approach taken when one is ignorant of the possibility of freedom or unwilling to aim for it. The purpose is to hide from the obstacle and to set up one's life in a place where it doesn't exist. This attempt at hiding is only ever partially successful at any time and the degree of how successful comes with how much one is willing to trade their mental and physical health.

Rebellion

 

Rebellion is typified with believing the obstacle to be real, external and directly threatening. We rebel in order not to be consumed by something unacceptable, which we believe to be a very real possibility. This is not freedom and doesn't work as an approach. Without the obstacle, there is no rebellion. There is no sense bringing in another element in order to deal with the obstacle. It is an immature attempt at freedom and is often the first method employed. It's association with youth not co-incidental.

Transgression

Transgression is based on believing the obstacle to be real, internal and not directly threatening. Unlike rebellion, there is not the sense of believing oneself to be under attack, but there is still the same desire to break free of an apparently real boundary. In order to do so, the transgressor acts in a way that is beyond that apparent boundary. In common with all cases that see the obstacle as a reality, the result is always destructive. Unlike the previous two however, this is the first attempt to break free from within.

Withdrawal

Withdrawal believes the obstacle to be unreal, internal and directly threatening. One attempts to ignore the obstacle in the hope that it will disappear. Using this approach as opposed to distraction comes from seeing that the obstacle's reality is only a self-construct. However it is felt as directly impeding, it's existence only being real in as much as it is felt, unlike previous states which see the obstacle as inherently existing, thus meaning that there is a greater sense of discomfort than with, for example, transgression.

Renunciation

Renunciation sees the obstacle to be non-existent but in the wider sense is an immature, true freedom. Immature because even though freedom has been found, it has not matured into an engagement with the issue. It is inner freedom at external cost. One is felt to be left by the situation, as opposed to having to leave it, but there is yet to be a return. At this stage, one is different, and is not yet free as a normal human being. As opposed to the previous cases, renunciation is not actively done, it rather happens by itself. Renunciation is not widely understood and may be the subject of criticism.

Liberation

Liberation is true freedom. One lives right within the territory of the supposed obstacle and yet there is no obstacle that could exist. It is a maturing of renunciation. The issue is freely engaged in but with no possibility of being trapped by it.