Awakening to Wholeness is a series of prompts, reflections, and teachings about how holding the tension of opposites can help us to heal division and experience wholeness. If you feel moved to share your own reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
There are many takes on the meaning of freedom. The teenager might yearn for the freedom to do what they want, in defiance of their parents’ rules. The asylum seeker might pursue freedom from an oppressive government, or the veteran might strive for freedom from the forces that cause conflict and war. The citizen might believe in the freedom for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—which might in turn bring them right back to the quest for freedom to do things their own way.
The nuances of the prepositions of freedom really do make a difference. Freedom to tends toward individualist and self-centered postures. Freedom from suggests dealing with some form of limitation or oppression, often social. Freedom for leads to possibilities of interest in the common good, but can get sidetracked.
What might religious perspectives say about freedom? Often, similar patterns emerge. Some religious ideas of freedom are really just freedom to judge others and tell them how to live, or freedom from authentic responsibility—even freedom for proselytizing “our” ideologies in the world.
Sometimes the least popular forms of freedom are the most life-giving. In spiritual paths that involve self-emptying and surrendering to the will of forces beyond one’s self, we might propose the preposition in: spiritual freedom is freedom in the Spirit.
To be in the Spirit suggests the retention of a self—but a self is situated within a larger One. Remaining a self “within” a larger One is hard work! This spiritual path to freedom requires endurance, patience, and humility. The seeker who walks the path of surrender isn’t weak or fickle, but rather, moving toward spiritual freedom, they become strong and wise. For paradoxically, freedom in the One allows anyone who undertakes this path to become increasingly expansive—even as they let go again, and again, and again.
Contemplative Questions
We offer the following questions as prompts to help you reflect on the presence of opposites in your spiritual practice and your life.
- How do you most often conceptualize freedom within your own life? Can you think of instances when you’ve sought freedom to, freedom from, freedom for?
- What kinds of ideas about freedom (whether freedom from, to, or for) are present in the religious tradition(s) you belong to or grew up in?
- How have you experienced freedom in the Spirit? What prayer forms or spiritual practices support you on the path to freedom in the Spirit?
Join the conversation! If you feel moved to share your reflections, we invite you to email us with the subject line “Wisdom of Opposites” or tag us on social media with #EHoPWisdomOfOpposites.
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Christine Luna Munger
Christine Luna Munger, PhD currently serves as the director of the Episcopal House of Prayer. She previously served as Coordinator of the Spiritual Direction Certificate and Professor of Theology at St. Catherine University. She regularly writes, teaches, and leads group prayer sits at EHoP.
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