In archaic times, there was a sage who lived in the Chu dynasty. He was so beloved that people came from far and wide to consult him and listen to him. When the dynasty felt that it was losing its power, it heard of this sage's fame. Every time he sent his men to fetch him and bring him to the palace, they came back empty-handed.

One day he sent his men to the sage, who he was sure would listen to the sage. They said, "The dynasty says that whatever it wishes, palaces and khans, as long as he stays here with me, let us rule the dynasty together."

Sage: "I heard that there is a room in the palace covered with gold, mother-of-pearl and decorated with precious stones, which the dynasty loves very much." "Yes, it is true," said the people from the palace. "I heard that in this room there is a beautiful chest made of gold and adorned with diamonds and emeralds." "Yes, it is true," they said. "And in it is a tortoise that the royal family loved and cherished, inherited from his father." "Yes, that is also true."

He showed the wise courtiers the turtle in the mud, which had barely crawled out of the swamp where they were standing, and said: "Go and tell the dynasty that I would rather live with my tail slapping in the mud than in a golden chest."

When we were children, we were molded in fear instead of freedom, we were blended in the sense of loss, where there is fear, the mind does not work. We are afraid of losing our jobs, we are afraid of our wives and husbands, we are afraid of the eyes of neighbors, the tongues of friends, we are afraid of dying, we are afraid of the future.
We have addictions and we are afraid of losing them. Addictions to cigarettes, to alcohol, to work, to money, even to our children.

When life is really so beautiful and wonderful, yet so short, our fears that we are caught up in without knowing that we are safe... Our fears that we are made to be...

With the burden of our identities that they started to impose and attribute to us when we were still babies, we were forced to imitate, to look like, to be like, to fit in. We are all forced into a uniform appearance, hairstyle, body type, encouraged to eat, drink and wear the same things, degenerated, alienated even from our own nature. Only in this way, we hide our fears, thinking that life is easy and safe.

Sometimes, in order to hide what we are afraid of, we lock them in the deepest chests and throw them into the deepest oceans of our souls, breaking even the keys...

But can we call that living? This is the way of fear, not the way of truth. To live is to find what is true by one's own effort. And we can do this only when we are free.

Reason is an ability that enables us to find what is true, what is right, when we are free, without fear, without being molded into a certain mold.

To be free is not just to do what you want or to break the external conditions that bind your hands, but to fully understand the problem of dependence.

Dependence, any kind of mental dependence, is a reaction. Independence is a further reaction. Freedom is not to do as you please, to encroach on other people's free space. Freedom is not a reaction, it is, as Krishnamurti says, the lushness of the essence...

There is no such thing as freedom in our age, we don't even know the meaning of freedom. In the subliminal onslaught of the global media and the consumption frenzy of the latest fashion imperialism, I know that we can succeed in making our essence lush despite the thousands of technological messages sent in a second.

When we take responsibility for our own lives, as our inner world becomes richer, our outer world will become simpler. Being aware of our addictions is the first step to ending our slavery. We are too unique and valuable to tie our life and future to a person or a substance. We are one and only one in this universe where no snowflake even looks like another snowflake. There is not another one of us! And we are so precious! We deserve to live with our tail in the mud... Every single one of us...

A merchant living in India was going overseas one day. He asked his wife, daughter and employees if they wanted anything. Just as he was about to leave, he remembered his beloved parrot living in a golden cage. He went and asked him too. The parrot said, "I don't want anything, I have everything, but say hello to my sisters far away and bring my good news."

When the man had finished his business overseas, he bought the gifts that everyone had ordered. When he was about to return, he remembered the request of his beloved parrot and went to his fellow parrots where he told him to go. He conveyed the happiness and greetings of his parrot in the golden cage... Before he even finished his last word... All the parrots started to fall on the sand. The ones on the tree... The ones flying... All of them... One by one they died.

The man sadly left and went back to his country. He gave everyone their gifts one by one. At last he went to his parrot. He was thinking how he could tell him without upsetting him. "I went to your fellow parrots, I saw them all, they were chirping and playing, they looked happy. But as soon as I said your greeting, one by one they all started to fall down and die. They all died. I couldn't understand. I'm so sorry." Before he could finish, his parrot fell into the cage and died. It lay lifeless on the floor.

The man was both very surprised and very sad. He wondered what had happened to them all at once.
He opened the lid of the cage and picked up the parrot lying on the ground without hurting it. He put it on the edge of the pool. He was crying, thinking and digging the soil to bury it when suddenly the parrot flew and landed on a tree. The man was very surprised and asked the parrot what happened.

The parrot said to its owner: "You have brought me a message from far away, from my fellow human beings!"
"FOR FREEDOM, IF NECESSARY, YOU HAVE TO DIE FIRST!!!"

Mukaddes Pekin Başdil

Researcher-Author

Source: Denizli Haber