Lots of good points here.

It's an interesting question, because it is human nature to aspire to things we haven't achieved yet.

Even in the case of people for whom money and travel are not obstacles, they still project out things they want to do that they haven't been able to do yet.

Can anyone among us actually say, I have no regrets for any decision I have ever made, or any action I have ever taken, because I have lived every single moment of my life to its utmost highest perfection?

Would you even believe anyone who said that to you?

I think the key here lies in self-acceptance, and living life according to the principles of compassion, and self-honesty.

Everyone starts out in the life with givens - their body, their parents, the culture and economic situation they are born into, etc. We all get to work with this raw material to shape this thing we call our lives.

That's the basic challenge, and yes, there are others here with us we have to consider too.

We have to start from where we are at, take responsibility for all that we are able to, and work intelligently to expand our freedom, happiness, and compassion.

Maybe some of us have the perfect life (I haven't seen one yet, but I'll admit for argurment's sake, it's possible).

For the rest of, us, self acceptance and taking responsibility for our thoughts and actions are where we must begin.

Paradoxically, some of my biggest screw-ups, and situations I felt the most trapped in, turned out to hold some of my most important learnings.

That is, a good chunk of my present freedom is directly due to learning the lessons from the "proxy-living" situations I found myself in.

What happens in life is information for us to learn from.

What fresh thoughts.

Amen Shabana

We are bound, our goal is freedom. And we are always on course.

Here I come
Walking again again and again
On this same hold obsessional-carpet

The air started the fabric of energy
Someone kicking my butt, I am still not sure
But I started to run and run as fast as I could

The white-floor changing to insanity
I was surprised, so surprised
The vast-room of white, infinite
But an intentional-spot was still disturbing me

The final-moment before total-white moment, I thought
I ran and kick with strenght
This final black-dot

But something or someone get mad
The dot was bouncing everywhere
On white-undefined-walls
The moments started and became unpredictable

Reading the movements of black
Calculating angles, distance and time
I was ready to write or read the book?

I said to myself;
One more observation
And I'll be master
Sat on the only circular white-chair available

The movements were fast, so fast
The dot was traveling to the speed of dark
In a flash the carpet was transformed

For the first time
Hided deep inside myself
He was there, visible
Looking at me with unusual crystal-clear eyes

I call him: Dark-Jesus
Showing a big book in his hands
My name on it...

Harb #3:

One can distinguish four basic dimensions of human existence: the physical, the social, the psychological and the spiritual.

The four “forces” :)

Mieke

To Jean:

"The point attractor":

http://www.fractalwisdom.com/FractalWisdom/fourattr.html

Mieke

Here's a related and interesting article:

Rich Kid Syndrome:
America’s burgeoning money culture is producing a record number of heirs—but handing down values is harder than handing down wealth.
nymag.com/news/features/42595/

It turns out that having *no* limitations may not produce a life of freedom after all.

Shabana Navani - Welcome to IB. Hope to see you more here.

JFD- Great poem as always.

Harb - What are we bound with? What force binds us? How to get freedom?

Dear Shabana,
I agree with a lot of what you say. Freedom is very important. Life lived by the dictates of another person or any authority - religious or political is abhorrent. And there are people even today who live in different types of bondage.
But dictates can be internal as well as external. Our own mind/ego frequently bullies us more than any external agent can. That is why even in those societies that have political and social freedom enshrined in their constitutions there is discontent and unhappiness. Overt freedom doesn't seem to guarantee free expression of spirit.It sometimes brings with it its unwanted siblings- selfishness, laziness and irresponsibility.
There is no doubt that freedom is essential but unfortunately that in itself is far from a panacea.

Do we ever lead the life we want or wish?
Well, well, proxy living and pseudo freedom will not give you that life.
Though pseudoscience invented by your mind to explain pseudo theories of your mind may calm your mind from thinking scientifically and might grant you an eternal bliss of fools. Real living comes in real wishful thinking and you can become one what you want to be in real life, not like if wishes could ride horses, then bugaboo, booger buggers would be kings but beggars would ride horses when buggers will be kings. It is not a question of not to be or be, but be what you want to be. And the answer of the question is always with a wannabe.

VER WELL SAID SHABANA

And an orator said, "Speak to us of Freedom."

And he answered:

At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,

Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.

Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.

And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,

But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?

In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle the eyes.

And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?

If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.

You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.

And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.

For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their won pride?

And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.

And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.

Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.

These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.

And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.

And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.

khalil Gibran