A Joyful Practice

What Does It Mean to be Free? (the “missing” Monday post w/links) June 19, 2023

Happy Juneteenth!! Happy Pride!! Many blessings to all!!!

This is the “missing” post for Monday, June 19^th. It includes links to two (2) other Juneteenth posts. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice. Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.

“FREEDOM, noun

1. A state of exemption from the power or control of another; liberty; exemption from slavery, servitude or confinement. freedom is personal, civil, political, and religious. [See Liberty.]

2.  Particular privileges; franchise; immunity; as the freedom of a city.

3. Power of enjoying franchises.

4. Exemption from fate, necessity, or any constraint in consequence of predetermination or otherwise; as the freedom of the will.

5. Any exemption from constraint or control.

6. Ease or facility of doing any thing. He speaks or acts with freedom

7. Frankness; boldness. He addressed his audience with freedom

8. License; improper familiarity; violation of the rules of decorum; with a plural. Beware of what are called innocent freedoms.”

– quoted from Webster’s Dictionary 1828: American Dictionary of the English Language

Not long after people from outside of what we now call “the Americas” started colonizing, settling, and being moved to the continents, languages started to change. To be more specific, new languages started to be created. One of those languages is what we now know of as Standard American English (SAE) – what most Americans probably think of as just “English” (even though it’s not Standard English, a.k.a. “English English”). Motivated to codify this new language, Noah Webster, the “Father of American Scholarship and Education,” started creating education tools, including the “Blue-Backed Speller” and An American Dictionary of the English Language.

The 1828 dictionary was Noah Webster’s second dictionary and it took him over twenty years to compile. Part of the reason it took him 28 years to publish this dictionary was that he needed to learn twenty-eight languages (including Old English, Gothic, German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, Welsh, Russian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit), in order to provide the etymology for the words he was collecting. He also had to collect the words, collect the meanings, decide upon pronunciation and spelling standards, and decide which words (generally related to the British empire) not to include. And, he collected a lot of words!

The original, 1828 publication of An American Dictionary of the English Language contained 70,000 words – about 12,000 of which had never been published in a dictionary before. These were all words that Noah Webster considered to be American English words (and some of which he might have even described as being “uniquely American.”) While the words “freedom” and “free” are not “uniquely American,” they were obviously included in Webster’s 1828 dictionary. After all, Americans have a unique understanding of (and relationship with) these words and concepts.

“FREE, noun [Heb. See Frank.]

1. Being at liberty; not being under necessity or restraint, physical or moral; a word of general application to the body, the will or mind, and to corporations.

2. In government, not enslaved; not in a state of vassalage or dependence; subject only to fixed laws, made by consent, and to a regular administration of such laws; not subject to the arbitrary will of a sovereign or lord; as a free state, nation or people.

3. Instituted by a free people, or by consent or choice of those who are to be subjects, and securing private rights and privileges by fixed laws and principles; not arbitrary or despotic; as a free constitution or government.

   There can be no free government without a democratical [sic] branch in the constitution.

4. Not imprisoned, confined or under arrest; as, the prisoner is set free

5. Unconstrained; unrestrained; not under compulsion or control. A man is free to pursue his own choice; he enjoys free will.

6. Permitted; allowed; open; not appropriated; as, places of honor and confidence are free to all; we seldom hear of a commerce perfectly free

7. Not obstructed; as, the water has a free passage or channel; the house is open to a free current of air.

8. Licentious; unrestrained. The reviewer is very free in his censures.

9. Open; candid; frank; ingenuous; unreserved; as, we had a free conversation together.

   Will you be free and candid to your friend?”

– excerpted* from Webster’s Dictionary 1828: American Dictionary of the English Language

*NOTE: There are a total of 20 definitions listed for the word “free” as a noun.

I think everyone (whether they are American or have never been to America) has an understanding of and relationship with the concept of “freedom.” However, we may not always understand each others understandings and/or how one person’s freedom balances with another’s experience of freedom. In Eastern philosophies like Buddhism and Yoga, “freedom” is to be free of suffering and, also, to be free of the root causes of suffering, which include avidyā (“ignorance”) and attachment. While that type of freedom is not necessarily an easy thing to achieve, it is a relatively easy concept to understand – however, it is not something that can be legalized.

As my phenomenal yoga-buddy Julie and I have discussed, some cultures do not have specific words for “free” and “freedom,” because in those cultures – including some indigenous cultures around the world – there is no need for a legal definition of freedom. One could argue that some have no need for a legal definition of “freedom,” because to infringe upon someone else’s way of living would be tantamount to killing them (i.e., the same as taking their life). The United States of America, however, was born out of a desire to be legally free. Yes, it is ironic, that that it’s very foundation was built on the backs of people who were not free; but, that’s a story for another day.

No! Wait!! That is part of the story of the day. Because today is Juneteenth.

“Juneteenth” is a portmanteau of June Nineteenth. Also known to some as “Emancipation Day,” today is the day, in 1865, when General Gordon Granger on the balcony of Ashton Villa (in Galveston, Texas) and read General Order #3, which proclaimed “… all slaves are free.” Of course, what that meant in 1965 and what the means today may be different: – depending on who you were/are and where you live(d).

Click here to read General Order #3 and to discover why Juneteenth is personal to me.

“FREE, verb transitive

1. To remove from a thing any encumbrance or obstruction; to disengage from; to rid; to strip; to clear; as, to free the body from clothes; to free the feet from fetters; to free a channel from sand.

2. To set at liberty; to rescue or release from slavery, captivity or confinement; to loose. The prisoner is freed from arrest.

3. To disentangle; to disengage.

4. To exempt.

   He that is dead is freed from sin. Romans 6:18.

5. To manumit; to release from bondage; as, to free a slave.

6. To clear from water, as a ship by pumping.

7. To release from obligation or duty.

   To free from or free of, is to rid of, by removing, in any manner.”

– quoted from Webster’s Dictionary 1828: American Dictionary of the English Language

There is no playlist for the Common Ground Meditation Center practices.

A 2021 playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for ”0619 Juneteenth 2021”]

Click here for an additional (and also personal) reflection on Juneteenth, which includes a 2022 update about military bases.

### “Oh, freedom, Oh, freedom / Oh freedom over me” ~ Odetta ###