What did Janice Joplin mean when she said "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose?” After drinking a little too much wine last Friday night, Bobby McGhee came on, and the song has been my earworm all week.
I highly value freedom, so I wondered, what did she mean? What actually exists that one could lose? If I have to “lose everything”, what does “everything” even refer to? Maybe I should start there.
It could refer to material things, certainly. One could lose their phone, their keys, their car, their home, and even their loved ones. I often say, “Everything you own, owns you.” So, in a sense, once you "lost everything" you'd be free.
But what does “free” mean? You’d only be free of material possessions. Some people do renounce possessions, monk and minimalists, for example, but even they don’t give up everything.
I don't think that's what she meant. Let’s go deeper.
In actuality, we all are free at all times. It's society's programming, and our own minds that keep us “imprisoned.” We all have anxieties, fears, desires, attachments and guilt. Are these feelings real? Or do these feelings exist only in our minds? And, since we all have the ability to control our own minds, do we have to allow these thoughts at all?
If you sit down in a quiet room and meditate, by which I mean “observe your own thoughts”, you'll start to see that these feelings are constructs of our worldly self, our ego, and our programming. One by one we can learn to let go of them…to "lose" these feelings of the world.
At their root, these worldly feelings come from fear...a fear of loss. We might fear a loss of income, a loss of a loved one, a loss of social status, or the loss of an opportunity. But ironically, the thing we truly need to lose is the fear of losing things! “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.” Yoda told Luke Skywalker.
All the great mystics teach this idea. Jesus said, “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” “Eternal” doesn’t just mean “forever.” The “Eternal” can be here and now and refer to an “eternal truth” or “eternal self.” Your worldly self has to “die”, so that your eternal self can live.
And, once you've done that, once you have "nothing left to lose", then, and only then, will you be truly, “eternally” free.
