The Question That Defines The Human «I»

Question: It says that at the level of this world a man has no freedom of choice. But I don’t feel myself as being not free. It seems to me that I am free!

It does not matter, animals never feel the lack of freedom. When a dog is running on the street, sniffing for food, she thinks that she is free. Every living being, from the most primitive to the most complex ones, to the extent they feel their own existence – so they feel free. Neither a small ant or a tiny baby feels unfree. Only if you limit him by restricting his desire, then he will feel that you somehow dominate him.

However, there is no such feeling under normal circumstances. I am going to take a walk somewhere, there is no pressure, nothing holds me down – I feel entirely free. What does it mean to be free? Nobody dominates over my desires. So I feel it in that way and I think that I am free.

But at some point a person begins to feel that his life doesn’t belong to him. He starts to doubt and asks “Am I able to do something in this life or not?” “Sooner or later, tomorrow or after some number of years, I will certainly die – will be something be left after me or not? I want to understand: What is the meaning of my life?!”  After all, while I am still alive and not dead yet, every moment anyway turns out as suffering, because my consciousness that my life eventually comes to the end gives me daily hardship.

I can’t escape that feeling and I can’t always be drunk! I look at my life and see that moment by moment passes. Not that I would like to catch them and stop … but I have to understand: what it is for and what is happening to me?

There are many questions that make people to seek the meaning of this life.  From this search we’ll find out that the root of life is a force that has created us.

How can I reach that root? I will do it, if I open my «I»! What is my «I»? This is the true source of the eternal question: “What do I live for?” Only this question defines the human person, because in that case, I ask about myself, not about something external running around.

If I ask about myself, then against my own «I» I reveal who created  my personality. That is why it’s so important for me to disclose it.

This post is an excerpt translated from a larger article found at http://bit.ly/5B3U8