September 1, 2024
Principle 9. Liberty. Week 1
When you harm others, you remain enchained, but if you do not harm anyone, you may freely do whatever you want.
Last time: Out Growing the Old
This time: A radical proposal and a footnote*
This Week:
This week we’ll be taking a first look at this principle trying to understand its general structure and scope. In the coming weeks we’ll look at how we applied, or could have applied, this principle in the past, how we can apply this principle in the present moment, and how we might apply it in the future.
Along with our effort to delve deeply into this principle we are always trying to turn the principles as a whole into a dynamic and permanent meditation. That is to say, into a practice applicable at every moment of our lives. In that way we go on shaping a style of, or way of, engaging with life.
To help gain some new perspectives we will also play
The Game of the Week.
Find It!
The rules for week’s game are simple, and summed up in the name of the game, Find it! We are always looking for examples of the principles in our daily life and personal experience. In the game of Find It! we extend that to the cultural environment around us.
This week’s story, quotes, images might be considered as examples of what someone playing this game found. During this week keep your eyes and ears (and memory and imagination) open for things around you that illustrate the principle.
To kick things off we offer a traditional tale found in various forms and cultures. But your search can be drawn from contemporary culture, and can include jokes, songs, movies, etc. The point is that the thing you have found captures or transmits aspects of this month’s principle.
General Considerations and Personal Reflections:
These are personal reflections. I offer them in the spirit of dialogue and exchange, and look forward to hearing your thoughts about, and experiences with, this principle.
As I have said before, I find this principle astoundingly audacious. I love how, with just a few words, it challenges me not only to rethink my ideas about morality and ethics, but also my relationship to others, the world, and myself. Another thing I find exciting about it, is how it implicitly raises all these issues about the principles themselves, their purpose, how to use them, etc. Even reading it in the simplest terms that’s a lot of stuff — on top of the practical wisdom it offers.
One of the first things we might notice is that this principle starts off telling us that we are “enchained” and that making problems for other people leaves us that way. That is, treating others badly somehow blocks or impedes one’s liberating oneself — a goal and central value of this principle, and Silo’s teaching overall.
The Principle of Liberty then, makes a radical “ethical” proposal, arguably the most revolutionary one possible. It disregards all the conventional moral codes, all the ‘shoulds’, and ‘should nots’, all the ‘musts’ and ‘must nots’ and instead it says we are free to do whatever, given one condition, that we are not harming anyone.
I know people who I generally consider wise but who tell me the principle doesn’t actually mean that we can do whatever we want. They feel it has limitations that just aren’t spelled out. Sorry guys, for my part I don’t see it that way. I understand this principle quite literally — don’t harm people and do what you like. (Period). But that’s me. The principle of free interpretation tells us “let 100 flowers bloom” (as someone who hurt many, many people once said).*
Of course, there are nuances, and of course now we are left trying to figure out things like: what it means to harm someone, where self-harm fits in, and so on. Like with the other principles this one doesn’t provide any pat answers at all, rather it indicates a certain direction of thought, feeling and action. By taking the other principles into account, meditating on our accumulated experience, and clarifying our registers we can learn to turn to ourselves for those answers. What a great lesson that would be to learn!
Found!
Here’s some old stories found by someone and retold (perhaps differently than you remember them) to help us gain another perspective related to this principle:
First, a familiar story that from a probably unexpected direction casts some light on this teaching of radical freedom.
Jesus said, “Do not judge so you will not be judged. Because by the judgment you judge in the same way you will be judged and by the measurement with which you measure so will you be measured.”
In this way he showed that the harm done to one’s neighbour is also harm for the one who has done it.
It happened that Jesus was sitting and eating in the company of publicans and sinners, because there were many among his followers. His enemies seeing this said to followers, “How is it that your master eats and drinks with such people.” Hearing this Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the one who is ill.”
One Sabbath evening as they passed through a field his disciples picked some of the heads of grain. His enemies said to them, “why do you do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man. Man was not made for the Sabbath.” He explained many things and he said to them, “Go, but first learn what the holy scriptures mean when they tell us: ‘It is Mercy I desire not sacrifice’.”
Remember:
- Reflect on your basic understanding of the principle, it’s general meaning and implications.
-Play the game of Find It! Someone else found us this week’s story about the blanket. What will you find?
Consider:
I want to increasingly move toward a situation where I’m not at war with myself, where I can tap into the vital energy to face life’s daily challenges, and where I face the uncertain future joyously.
Worth Repeating:
Some forms of meditation require that you sit down and close your eyes, and that is one part of Silo’s teaching.
Coming up:
Next week we’ll continue our considerations of the principle of liberty focusing on how it applied to past situations.
*And here’s that footnote:
This was actually said by the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong, “The policy of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend is designed to promote the flourishing of the arts and the progress of science”.
He should have taken his own advice instead of stomping out any signs of diversity of opinion.
Note:
These notes have been posted on our Facebook page (Community of Silo’s Message Toronto Annex), sent to our email list, and are also on my webpage at www.dzuckerbrot.com
Don’t forget:
In some moment of the day or night inhale a breath of air and imagine that you carry this air to your heart. Then, ask with strength for yourself and for your loved ones. Ask with strength to move away from all that brings you contradiction; ask for your life to have unity. Don't take a lot of time with this brief prayer, this brief asking, because it is enough that you interrupt for one brief moment what is happening in your life for this contact with your interior to give clarity to your feelings and your ideas.
Silo_ La Reja, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2005
