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A Free Mind
by Patti L. Auber, published February 2015
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I once knew a man who spent his whole life trying to be someone he wasn’t. I thought he was a good man. He was gentle and caring. He thought deeply about life and where his place should be in it. Yet, this man spent his whole life feeling out of place. He married and had children, and although he loved his wife dearly and his children mightily, he never wore the mantle of husband and father comfortably. He was a kind and loving son to his mother, but spent many years of his life distant from her. He had a brother and a sister, but was never able to connect deeply with them. He never discovered who they really were, and never let them see him as he truly was. Indeed, he never dared to look at himself as he truly was. So convinced was he that he was unworthy and lacking, that he despised himself his whole life. He lived a very solitary life, moving from place to place, again and again trying to start over as the person he felt he ought to be. He worked odd jobs, but was always a very diligent and conscientious employee. He had some wonderful talents—he was an excellent and imaginative carpenter. He loved the land and grew beautiful and productive gardens. He could create a warm and cozy living environment no matter how modest his circumstances. He was always willing to lend a hand to a friend or a needy person. Did it ever occur to him that he was trying to run away from himself? I don’t know. I know that he prayed that God would make him different. God didn’t. This man lived a wretched life trying to be what he wasn’t. He dwelt in a prison of his own making, and missed the opportunity to bring his greatest gift, his authentic self, to the world. He died surrounded by family, but totally alone.
A sad story indeed, and perhaps more extreme than what most of us face; but I think elements of it are not unknown to each of us. Perhaps we all view ourselves with an external mirror from time to time, feeling we don’t measure up to what influences outside ourselves tell us we “should” be. It doesn’t work to begin with a presumption of what or where we want to be, and then try to shape ourselves to fit that model. I’m convinced that finding our place in the world starts from the inside out. We first have to find out who we are, and then find the place or the circumstance in the world that fits us.
Our personality, our talents and gifts, our strengths, were all given to us at birth because they were needed in this world. Our human calling is to find that place, and then dwell in it. For only when we have done that will we be truly free.
Truly being who we are called to be, and truly being free doesn’t imply doing only what we want. In fact, that which is the best fit for us may be a difficult and stormy path. It surely will call for learning and growing throughout our lives. It surely will call for facing difficult questions and having the fortitude and discipline to turn within to find our answers. It surely will call for courage to face intolerance, hatred, and injustice when they confront us along our journey.
William Ellery Channing, one of the preeminent theologians of the 18th century, spoke out in opposition to the prevailing Calvinist doctrine of the day. He was a fiery and impassioned orator, and defined the Universalist movement in the U.S. He had a profound effect on the Transcendentalist movement of that time, although he never officially regarded himself as a Transcendentalist. He spoke out against slavery, although he did not consider himself to be an abolitionist. In fact, he held himself apart from most causes and movements of his time, because he felt that voluntary associations limited a person’s autonomy.
In a sermon that Channing gave in 1830, entitled “Spiritual Freedom,” he wrote about a free mind. In my opinion, dear reader, Channing’s challenge towards a free mind is also the roadmap to finding our fit in this world. I offer part of it here for your consideration, with the exhortation to not let the flowery eighteenth century language deter you. I hope it will be useful to you in your quest for your own place in the world.
I call that mind free, which masters the senses, which protects itself against animal appetites, which contemns pleasure and pain in comparison to its own energy, which penetrates beneath the body and recognises its own reality and greatness, which passes life, not in asking what it shall eat or drink, but in hungering, thirsting, and seeking after righteousness.
I call that mind free, which escapes the bondage of matter, which, instead of stopping at the material universe and making it a prison wall, passes beyond it to its Author, and finds in the radiant signatures which everywhere bears of the Infinite Spirit, helps to its own spiritual enlightenment.
I call that mind free, which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which calls no man master, which does not content itself with a passive or hereditary faith, which opens itself to light whencesoever it may come, which receives new truth as an angel from heaven, which, whilst consulting others, inquires still more of the oracle within itself, and uses instructions from abroad, not to supersede but to quicken and exhalt its own energies.
I call that mind free, which sets no bounds to its love, which is not imprisoned in itself or in a sect, which recognises in all human beings the image of God and the rights of his children, which delights in virtue and sympathizes with suffering wherever they are seen, which conquers pride, anger, and sloth, and offers itself up a willing victim to the cause of mankind.
I call that mind free, which is not passively framed by outward circumstance, which is not swept away by the torrent of events, which is not the creature of accidental impulse, but which bends events to its own improvement, and acts from an inward spring, from immutable principles which it has deliberately espoused.
I call that mind free, which, through confidence in God and in the power of virtue, has cast off all fear but that of wrong-doing, which no menace or peril can enthrall, which is calm in the midst of tumults, and possesses itself though all else be lost.
I call that mind free, which resists the bondage of habit, which does not mechanically repeat itself and copy the past, which does not live on old virtue, which does not enslave itself to precise rules, but forgets what is behind, listens for new and higher monitions of conscience, and rejoices to pour in fresh and higher exertions.
I call that mind free, which is jealous of its own freedom, which guards itself from being merged with others, which guards its empire over itself as nobler than the empire of the world.
A sad story indeed, and perhaps more extreme than what most of us face; but I think elements of it are not unknown to each of us. Perhaps we all view ourselves with an external mirror from time to time, feeling we don’t measure up to what influences outside ourselves tell us we “should” be. It doesn’t work to begin with a presumption of what or where we want to be, and then try to shape ourselves to fit that model. I’m convinced that finding our place in the world starts from the inside out. We first have to find out who we are, and then find the place or the circumstance in the world that fits us.
Our personality, our talents and gifts, our strengths, were all given to us at birth because they were needed in this world. Our human calling is to find that place, and then dwell in it. For only when we have done that will we be truly free.
Truly being who we are called to be, and truly being free doesn’t imply doing only what we want. In fact, that which is the best fit for us may be a difficult and stormy path. It surely will call for learning and growing throughout our lives. It surely will call for facing difficult questions and having the fortitude and discipline to turn within to find our answers. It surely will call for courage to face intolerance, hatred, and injustice when they confront us along our journey.
William Ellery Channing, one of the preeminent theologians of the 18th century, spoke out in opposition to the prevailing Calvinist doctrine of the day. He was a fiery and impassioned orator, and defined the Universalist movement in the U.S. He had a profound effect on the Transcendentalist movement of that time, although he never officially regarded himself as a Transcendentalist. He spoke out against slavery, although he did not consider himself to be an abolitionist. In fact, he held himself apart from most causes and movements of his time, because he felt that voluntary associations limited a person’s autonomy.
In a sermon that Channing gave in 1830, entitled “Spiritual Freedom,” he wrote about a free mind. In my opinion, dear reader, Channing’s challenge towards a free mind is also the roadmap to finding our fit in this world. I offer part of it here for your consideration, with the exhortation to not let the flowery eighteenth century language deter you. I hope it will be useful to you in your quest for your own place in the world.
I call that mind free, which masters the senses, which protects itself against animal appetites, which contemns pleasure and pain in comparison to its own energy, which penetrates beneath the body and recognises its own reality and greatness, which passes life, not in asking what it shall eat or drink, but in hungering, thirsting, and seeking after righteousness.
I call that mind free, which escapes the bondage of matter, which, instead of stopping at the material universe and making it a prison wall, passes beyond it to its Author, and finds in the radiant signatures which everywhere bears of the Infinite Spirit, helps to its own spiritual enlightenment.
I call that mind free, which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which calls no man master, which does not content itself with a passive or hereditary faith, which opens itself to light whencesoever it may come, which receives new truth as an angel from heaven, which, whilst consulting others, inquires still more of the oracle within itself, and uses instructions from abroad, not to supersede but to quicken and exhalt its own energies.
I call that mind free, which sets no bounds to its love, which is not imprisoned in itself or in a sect, which recognises in all human beings the image of God and the rights of his children, which delights in virtue and sympathizes with suffering wherever they are seen, which conquers pride, anger, and sloth, and offers itself up a willing victim to the cause of mankind.
I call that mind free, which is not passively framed by outward circumstance, which is not swept away by the torrent of events, which is not the creature of accidental impulse, but which bends events to its own improvement, and acts from an inward spring, from immutable principles which it has deliberately espoused.
I call that mind free, which, through confidence in God and in the power of virtue, has cast off all fear but that of wrong-doing, which no menace or peril can enthrall, which is calm in the midst of tumults, and possesses itself though all else be lost.
I call that mind free, which resists the bondage of habit, which does not mechanically repeat itself and copy the past, which does not live on old virtue, which does not enslave itself to precise rules, but forgets what is behind, listens for new and higher monitions of conscience, and rejoices to pour in fresh and higher exertions.
I call that mind free, which is jealous of its own freedom, which guards itself from being merged with others, which guards its empire over itself as nobler than the empire of the world.