When we hear about freedom, it is the freedom of mankind that comes to mind. To begin with, we need to remember that we owe man’s freedom to Socrates. Socrates changed the course of history because he turned his thoughts towards Man, while thinkers before him focused more on Nature. Going even further back, to the 6th century B.C.E., we have the first encoded laws created about freedom, written on stones in Gortys, Crete. These laws, for which Plato had expressed admiration, he considered essential to the “ideal state” in Crete.
In the history of mankind we see two parallel and independent lines of civilization: the esoteric and the exoteric. Invariably, one of them overpowers the other and develops, while the other fades. A period of esoteric civilization can come when external conditions, political and otherwise, are favorable. Then knowledge, clothed in the form of a teaching, appears and spreads widely.
We consider ourselves free people, exoterically, but are the current external conditions of our civilization favorable enough to allow people to be free also esoterically? Studying Plato and Aristotle, we read that a free man is one who also possesses inner qualities. These qualities are described as:
(α) the ability to take decisions independently,
(b) the ability to possess “reason and action on his own preference” (Politics), and
(c) the capability of contemplating and coming close to the gods!
“The last thing people will do is to think.” P. D. Ouspensky
Archaic Greek Statue, Thinker, 4500-3300 BC.
We can understand that a free man, externally, is one able to make efforts to set internal standards and qualities for himself. This attribute is not included in our concept of personal freedom today. The ancients who supported the above mentioned standards were free because, in most cases, their society (polis) helped to support these ideals that initiated the esoteric doctrine and delineated the true freedoms of man.
“I searched for Myself.” Heraclitus
In our day, we enjoy only the relative freedoms of man. Such freedoms as we have are not accompanied with a cushion of personal inner qualities, primarily starting with the knowledge of ourselves. On the contrary, almost everything in modern life is designed to turn us away from our noble and most real Self. We need to reexamine our knowledge. We have a real higher faculty or “mind” waiting to be developed.
The Education of Achilles by Centaur Chiron, fresco,1st century C.E.
“What people call education is usually, as regards the mind, nothing more than the acquisition of a number of stereotype negative attitudes. The mind then becomes almost dead.” – P. D. Ouspensky
Most people today think they are free. They do whatever they like, without noticing that everything turns around an axis of imagination and negative emotions.
“No one is more enslaved than the ones who wrongly believe they are free.” – Plato
Our slavery is like a cloud which envelops us, a cloud filled with our immense ego. To become free, we need to fight our identifications. These include so many things: our professional and family interests, our pride of achievement, our talents, our craving for money, and our jealousies. Generally, our identifications are byproducts of our unhealthy personalities, developed without a governing mind. The Fourth Way calls this personality ‘false personality’ that acts during our ‘waking sleep.’ The most real part of us, that we are born with, is our essence. Essence is where all development starts, and enhances the freedoms of man in a real sense. But essence in most people hides under many layers of false ideas, prejudices, and unnecessary knowledge. The fairytale of Hans Christian Andersen, ”The Princess and the Pea” illustrates these unfortunate layers.
To become free, we ourselves need to search for the sacred knowledge that will change our way of thinking, and lead us towards the change of our being. We must embark on the adventure from today’s sleep to consciousness.
“Our machine can function in its highest part, but without consciousness.” – Robert Burton
How will we recognize this sacred knowledge?
We may lack right information and preparation, but can come to possess a ‘magnetic center,’ an organ within that some seekers develop. This can direct us towards real knowledge, knowledge that will help our inner evolution. The magnetic center may lead us astray, but at the end, if we are lucky, it may bring us to a person or a group of people with the knowledge we seek. Such people can give us correct information and direction about how to untie our bonds and become free. At the same time, this journey will result in raising the level of our consciousness.
“The degree of a person’s freedom depends on the knowledge and wisdom that he finds on the path of life.” Plato
Speaking personally, I was lucky to meet this new knowledge years ago. It taught me how to build a scaffold, let’s say, which later resulted in a solid construction based on the sacred knowledge. It was the book, “In Search of the Miraculous,” by P. D. Ouspensky!
“Know that your realm is a home and a home sits on the four sides of its foundation. That home is you!” – Ibn Arabi
Maria Arapostathi is a scholar of Greek culture, author of several books on Greek history, and coordinates the Fourth Way Facebook group in Greece: https://www.facebook.com/fourthwayschoolgr.
For another article on Plato’s Ideal State and the freedoms of man, see: https://fourthwaytoday.org/author/patricia-stahl/.