Concept
Freedom
Freedom, in the sense many contemplative paths point toward, is not simply doing whatever you want. It is less captivity to a fixed, defended identity—and the possibility of seeing and acting without that constriction as the only center.
Krishnamurti spoke of freedom from the known: from the accumulated images, fears, and conclusions that psychological thought treats as self. Buddhist paths speak of release from clinging. Advaita-related inquiry speaks of recognizing what was never bound. The words differ. The direction often rhymes: something in the habitual sense of “me” loosens, and life becomes less driven by automatic self-defense.
No teacher—and no website—can guarantee a finished state called freedom for you. It remains an open question, worth returning to from different doorways rather than treating as a trophy to collect.
A few words worth clarifying
- identification
- The habit of treating thoughts, roles, memories, emotions, or social labels as what you essentially are.
- awareness
- The capacity to notice experience—thoughts, sensations, feelings, perceptions—without immediately becoming lost in them.
Featured connections
Why are these connected?
parallel
Release beside freedom
Both describe a loosening of what constrains life—craving and clinging, or defended identity.
Buddhist awakening ends clinging that renews suffering. Contemplative freedom names less captivity to a fixed self. The direction can rhyme; the frameworks differ.
Nirvana in early Buddhism is a technical goal within the Four Noble Truths—not the same claim as psychological freedom from the known, and not Christian salvation.
Related: Siddhartha Gautama
Why are these connected?
parallel
Freedom beside self-inquiry
Both point toward less captivity to a defended story of self.
Ramana's sudden inquiry into death and the sense of “I” belongs to Advaita-related awakening language—not Buddhist nirvana, though both question ordinary identity.
Ramana's framework draws on Advaita Self-inquiry. Buddhism develops not-self and nirvana. Salvation in Christianity names yet another goal. Parallel concern is not equivalence.
Related: Ramana Maharshi
Related doors
Sources
Freedom from the Known
Jiddu Krishnamurti · 1969
Krishnamurti's title Freedom from the Known names psychological freedom from conditioning.
Primary source · primary
Jiddu Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known (Harper & Row, 1969).