The Last Inner Freedom

I get little messages in my inbox each day from thinkArete.com (which advertises itself as "wisdom for the busy self-actualizer." Is that an oxymoron?).

They are often rather timely for what is happening in my life, but not due to magical universal synchronicity. It's good common sense that floats into my inbox each day to remind me of what I already know but tend to loose sight of.

The past few have been about strength and attitude.

This was today's:

"...Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

~ Viktor Frankl from Man's Search for Meaning

Frankl, a survivor of concentration camps, reminds of the powerful truth that, no matter one's circumstances, we ultimately have responsibility to choose how we will perceive any given situation.

This message is echoed among the great teachers:

From Marcus Aurelius: "Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible."

To the Buddha: "Our life is shaped by our mind. We become what we think."

Are you owning your attitude?

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"Even though conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone. Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him -- mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp. I became acquainted with those martyrs whose behavior in camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost."

I especially like the last bit because the holocaust is a great example of the depth of human nature: the inner strength and determination for survival and the sheer ugliness that tries to break it down.

"What does not destroy me, makes me stronger."

The last inner freedom.