Prison

A rat in a cage, a bird in a cardboard box, even a spider under a glass – these creatures know they are trapped. They are wild, free beasts who cannot bear to be enclosed thus and will endeavour to escape their prison, even at the expense of their physical well-being.

To be free matters more.

But we, the civilized species, we freely and obliviously allow the trappings of our man-made society to hold us, rob us of our wildness, domesticate us.

Of course, any society requires certain rules to be kept and followed, you may say. It is inevitable that where there is any group of people living together, then there must be agreed ways by which to live, to keep a balance, an equality and to sustain the society.

And the more of us humans, the more complex our social laws and structures become.

Even animals have a hierarchy, have rules, I hear you argue further.

So then, you need to answer the question, are we the same as other animals, or are we different?

What does civilized mean? To have consciousness of a self? To have morality? Choice?

If we truly live in the present moment then no rules are necessary. To feel, to have that realisation that we are one and the same thing gives us freedom, the ultimate freedom – from ourselves and each other, as we see there is no self or other.

We are free first in the mind, all else follows.