 The Parable of Freedom A man comes to a master to ask how much man is independent and free. Is he totally free or is there a limitation? Is there something like fate, kismet, destiny, a God who makes a limitation beyond which you cannot be free? The mystic answered in his own way, not logically but existentially. He said, Stand up! The man must have felt this was a stupid kind of answer. He said, I am asking a simple question and he's asking me to stand? But then he followed with, well, let us see what happens. So he stands, and the mystic said, Now, raise one of your legs up. The man, by this time, must have been thinking he'd come to a madman. What is this to do with freedom, independence? But now that he has come, and there must be a crowd of disciples, and the mystic was so respected, not to follow him would be disrespectful, and there was no harm in it. And so he lifts one of his legs from the earth. So one foot was in the air, and he was standing on one foot. And then the master said, That is perfectly good. Just one more thing now. Take the other foot up also. That is impossible. The man said. You are asking something impossible. I have taken my right foot up. Now I cannot take my left foot up too. The master responded, But if you were free, in the beginning you could have taken the left foot up. There was no binding order. You were completely free to choose whether to take the left foot up or the right foot up. I had not said anything about it. You just decided. You took the right foot up. In your very decision, you made it impossible for the left foot to be lifted. Don't bother about fate, case met, God. Just be simple in your life. The parable of freedom is a story about free will, choice, and determinism. Is there some grand plan to the universe that is guiding our every move in a subtle, yet deliberate way? While it may be comforting to think that there is some semblance of divine order, the arguably better question is, does it really matter? Many times, people will question their choices and if it's the right thing to do, and if they're doing the right thing, and often for spiritual or religious people, whether their actions are in accordance with their deity's plan for them. Ironically, the man in the story cannot see his answer from the start, and even the act of asking whether we have free will is a free act. Like many of us, he seeks some higher meaning in the answers, and in doing so deludes himself from a simple truth. There are even some parallels in this story with the recent parable of the ego that we spoke about previously, in that the man expects and is attached to a logical answer, and when he doesn't get one, he believes he has failed in his mission. While the mystic initially appears mad, at least to the man in question, it's only because he is operating at a different level of awareness than the man can understand. Like the old Maxim, no genius could exist without a touch of madness. By looking at everything separately, as single, unconnected events, the moving of an arm or a leg, rather than the act of moving a single part of a greater body of consciousness, the man cannot see the bigger picture and really can't comprehend the wisdom that he is being shown. Perhaps the lesson in this parable is to not get so obsessed with the little things in life, and to always consider an event contextually as a part of something bigger. Free will seems like a natural part of life. We can always make decisions for ourselves. How those decisions will affect the future, though, is always up in the air, and we won't always know until the time comes. Maybe in this, we too focus too much on the specifics of life, rather than taking a simple philosophy of whatever happens will be, and it is in our own decisions and ideas that make something definite or not. If you wish to look at it from a fated perspective, perhaps you could say that the man was always going to lift his right foot up and never the other one. But does it really matter? If fate exists, it is simply the final destination. The man would always end up with at least one foot in the air. The choices we make simply change the path that we take to get there. But if you spend life wondering about the final destination, you might forget to live for the simple things and even forget the journey itself.