It is said that caged-birds cannot survive outside the cage. If freed, they are hunted either by another predator or a human bird-hunter. But the English say, ‘there is an exception even in the exception.’ Accordingly the above either/or should have some exceptions as well. What may be some of these exceptions for any freed-bird or a human being freed from some invisible cage?

1. find a safe place with one or a few ‘others’ of the same kind;
2. find a safe place alone and stay alone; In this case, further alternatives may be:
   • a) die out of fear or depression resulting from loneliness,
   • b) feel content and joyful because of the restored freedom for the rest of life,
   The latter alternative is possible mostly if
   • i) the subject in question manages to live in Here-Now
   • ii) or live with a strong lasting hope of finding a company one day.

We all have experienced such a situation a few times in life. The most universal examples are:

1. freedom from our physical dependency on our parents and other grown-ups caring for us (completion of childhood stage),
2. freedom from the parental controlling authority when leaving home for the first time (to go to college, take a job, travel to another country and…that is completion of adolescence)
3. freedom from an unhappy, suppressive relationship (whether at work or at home);
4. freedom from sickbed;
5. freedom from any kind of long lasting habits and addictions;
6. freedom from parental duties, responsibilities;
7. freedom from an oppressive social political system or the ruling party.

What did we do after experiencing these freedoms?

Not forgetting the exceptions, the majority of us have repeatedly felt in cage again, catching our hands in speculating some of the following alternatives:

1. to surrender passively, out of weakness, out of fear of
   • a) leaving the safety of known and familiar despite its negative aspects;
   • b) falling the prey of a far worse situation again;

   risking all the known and unknown consequences of such a form of surrender with the common result of ‘suppressed anger’ that usually leads to all sorts of sicknesses.

2. to dare to say ‘No’ again and search for more active and dynamic solutions.

From one perspective, the ability to say this “No” determines the degree and the intensity of our Will to Freedom. From another perspective, it may appear that it is this very ‘No’ that is causing problems as it generally implies some kind of ‘opposition,’ ‘war’ and a relentless refusal (a determined No) to accept a universal fact of life that ‘This is life!’ or as a Persian poet puts it: You wish to make a better world?/The world is the world, how would it be otherwise? (Each time that I try to translate verses, I realize what an ‘ineffective’ translator I can be. Why did I ever choose it as one of my ‘professions’!?) So one may then choose to put the banner of ‘No’ down, and try ‘to accept life as it is.’ However, even in this case of total acceptance, there is still that underlying relentless “No” functioning, with the difference that this time, its aim is to stop fighting! “The world is the world, how would it be otherwise?”

But what may be the consequences of adoption of such a perspective? In other words, the consequences of this conscious and voluntary surrender, this ceasefire, in one word, this break in saying “No”?

Then what a world would that be? What would happen if we stop saying “No” to anything from our own small personal cages to the great cage of ‘ugliness’ ‘injustice’ ‘cruelty’ ‘tyranny’ that we share throughout the world?

Hasn’t this very “No” been the main cause of human creations? The main motive to change, if not the great world, at least one’s petty personal world?

In the world of Histrionics (theater, cinema and as such), the performer must practice (that is repeat) his/her role enough, to represent it as perfectly as his/her talent and capacity allows. This is a known fact in this domain of Arts. Nobody has any problem with it (except those very talented ones that have to repeat because of the lesser talent and capacity of other performers). And if it is true that life is an art too, then perhaps we should practice and repeat our role as many times as necessary to bring it into perfection (according to our individual talent and capacity) here too. The only difference between ‘real’ actors/actresses’ and us is that we do not know what our role is. But don’t we? Isn’t there really a way to know or ‘smell’ the main role that we are supposed to play on the stage of life? What about the repeated incidences of facing basically the same situations in life, for example, finding ourselves in cage-like states of being over and over again? Couldn’t they be the hint to the role that each of us is supposed to play and we keep repeating it in order to play it as perfectly as possible?

Buddha said, ‘life is suffering and the cause of suffering is desire, and…’ Now let us replace the word ‘desire’ with ‘ignorance’ as ‘desire’ in itself is just a constitutive part of being a living organism living on earth, it is what strengthens the Will to Live. It can cause suffering, when it is not fulfilled. And it is not fulfilled usually because of our ignorance in relation to how much desire is that ‘natural,’ life saving ‘quantity’ and how much is ‘unnatural,’ strengthening the will to pain, suffering and death. And also we may be ignorant in relation to the ways that we can fulfill them. After all we keep falling into cages because of our ignorance? But then that is the only way that we can ‘practice’ the role we are supposed to play. Is it not? Or put it another way, we keep facing basically the same cages, because we are ignorant.

First we think it is perhaps because we do not know that predators can have different appearances. And our reaction at this stage is to find a way to escape, so we try to ‘break the bars’ in any ways that we can think of, we ‘revolt.’

Gradually we realize that it is really our deep ‘unconscious’ fears and dependent personality that makes us so prone to falling into cage-like situations. (Otherwise how could we practice our ‘roles?’)

Then we see the game, the great scenario, the story of ‘god’ ‘devil’ and … Then we wish to say “No” to all of it when there is so much ‘ugliness’ ‘suffering and pain’ in it. Then we remember that according to our dual understanding and conception of life, there should surely be as much ‘beauties’ ‘joy and bliss’ in it too. And life is less than an ‘instant’ when compared to cosmic ‘times’ and ‘time is probably an illusion’ and we come into this world one day and play a certain scenario on its stage, and we go an ‘instant’ later and it is not that important to know who has been the scriptwriter, ‘god’ or ‘ourselves.’ After all, as Hafez puts it ‘from the lip to the mouth, it is not that much.’

Then we think that we should perhaps stop saying that relentless ‘No’ and ‘accept life as it is.’ In other words, we try to see what role we are playing and practice it consciously, willingly and voluntarily to excel in it with the hope that the ‘drama’ would get its final performance sooner in this way. (Could this total ‘yes’ saying be a reaction to that total ‘no’ saying of the first stage of life? If I am to play the role of in-cage-ness, I better play it to the full.) For this we naturally need to withdraw from the world as much as possible. (An actor/actress stays alone to learn the ‘words, the gestures, the act he/she has to play! The solitary cell helps the prisoner to think over his/her deeds, the role he/she had played.

Taking refugee in a temple helps one to enlighten oneself in relation to the great scenario of life.) The smaller the cage the more one has the chance to practice this role. And the smallest cell we can have is our ‘physical body.’ And we need it if only to finally unfold the scenario for ourselves. And for the first time we start caring for it for a new kind of ‘need,’ and as the only true property that we possess in this world. Again after all we come to this world naked and we leave it naked! And in order to use it most efficiently as our only instrument to attain our goal of unfolding the scenario, it has to stay as healthy and sound as possible. And in order to achieve this intermediate goal, we need lots of joy and beauty within and around ourselves. And we fail to fulfill this need mainly because of our ‘fears and insecurities.’ Joy and beauty cannot breathe in the suffocating air of feeling fearful and insecure. And as far as we feel fearful and insecure, we need to be in cage. And we can free ourselves from this cage by reminding ourselves that ‘from the lip to the mouth, it is not that much.’ And freedom is perhaps acceptance of our fatality.