Can Freedom Exist Without Inner Peace? Thoughts on Politics.
Welcome to Dmitry's Dover. Thank you for stepping in.
Dmitri Sarle:I hope you take a comfortable position. Breathe in. Breathe out,
Dmitri Sarle:take a cup of tea,
Dmitri Sarle:and join in, where we will explore the root of freedom, fear, desire, creativity, entrepreneurship, and what it all means. You won't be given answers, but rather questions that help you find your own. And to do
Dmitri Sarle:that most effectively, we ask you
Dmitri Sarle:to listen to episode one, which has a lot more on how to do it just right. And now, let's get into today's episode.
Dmitri Sarle:Today's episode might be a little bit strange, because I want to discuss politics. And politics is not necessarily linked to freedom in our society. In spiritual, in self development, psychological circles, politics is not exactly the topic that you discuss too often. And at the same time, I feel that it's worthy of a discussion because a lot of our life depends on the decisions of politicians and people in government. On both local, governmental, global levels.
Dmitri Sarle:And if we disregard politics from these circles, then what kind of society do we expect to have? And the reason I am curious about this topic is because I was asked to participate in the local elections in Hume, Estonia. And when thinking about giving the answer to that question, I had to ask myself, well, who should be in government? What does government mean for freedom? And what changes would I like to see?
Dmitri Sarle:So let's start with the question of freedom because this is what this podcast is all about. And my immediate answer was, well, in a perfect world, the government should focus on helping people achieve their external and internal freedom. And this combination is very important, external and internal. Because if we only focus on external freedom and we basically say, well, you can do everything you want, which might be good in some sense. But on the other hand, if people haven't worked through their traumas, haven't worked through their inner self healing, if they haven't dealt with generational problems, well, the actions that they will take and the behaviors they will exhibit might be detrimental to our society.
Dmitri Sarle:And then we have to deal with that. But if they also work through their internal freedom, and understand the deeper meaning of the word freedom, and what it truly means, then their external freedom will manifest in good things for society. Recently I had a discussion at an event here in Hima with local villagers, and it surprises me and baffles me that on a small island I can speak to almost anybody of any educational level, background, and almost always will end up in philosophy and something that I would expect to find in some sort of an ashram or a meditation hall. And here on the island, it seems to be quite normal to go deep. And one of the things we were discussing on this event, or I would rather say the word dialoguing or talking, is the fact that when people are conducting their business, and when they are looking for external freedom through money, power, the things that society tells us gets us freedom.
Dmitri Sarle:If they are able to conduct their life in such a way where they are successful in finding external freedom, say they become very rich, or they get a lot of power, what often happens is that because they focus solely on the external aspects of freedom, is that internally, because they haven't dealt with their inner world, they will still feel something truly and deeply amiss, even though they've solved their external problems. Since I worked with startups, I saw many of my friends and people that I know become extremely rich. And a lot of them have found that this wealth did not give them the freedom that they expected to receive upon making an exit and getting a $100,000,000. Quite the contrary, they found that their life did not solve itself. Their friends became more jealous and wanted to meet them only because they have a lot of money.
Dmitri Sarle:New people tried to come into life not because of who they are, but because they do have a lot of money. People started asking loans and investments and all kinds of things. And many of their relationships that were good started to break down. And after buying all the cars and yachts and airplanes, they didn't feel more satisfaction in their lives. And many of them felt great emptiness because they sold what essentially is their baby or their company, and so they didn't even have an active way of service to society.
Dmitri Sarle:So it is clear to me that by focusing on your external freedoms doesn't lead to inner freedom. So in some sense, the two have to go together. So coming back to politics, it seems to me that the people who should be running our countries and making deep decisions are the ones who have that balance, who have an external freedom. And that does not mean they need to have a lot of money or an ability to not care about money. They just have to understand that this external freedom is a possibility, that they can do what they want.
Dmitri Sarle:And honestly, you don't need that much money for that. Some do it through asceticism and knowingly not spending a lot. Some do it through minimalism. Some do it by living in the woods. There's many ways to achieve that external freedom.
Dmitri Sarle:But also have a component of an internal freedom which comes through working through your issues and problems, dealing with the traumas. And if those two are in balance, my feeling is that then this person is ready to serve others. Because if they don't have that solved, then whatever they do, they will necessarily try to solve their problem, their underlying problem. And as we know, if you've been doing a lot of work in self development, then at the core of it is the question of whether you are a good or a bad person. If you are good enough or if you are bad.
Dmitri Sarle:I am good or bad. And we are constantly trying, if we haven't worked through our problems and traumas to prove to ourselves that we are good. And whenever something says the opposite, we get triggered and angry and upset and we start conflicting with other people because our self image of a good person is questioned. And therefore, if you haven't worked through all of this, and if you don't understand all of this, then when you are using whatever means you have available to you to solve it, you cannot focus on others. It will be very difficult because you're gonna be trying to keep up your image.
Dmitri Sarle:And this is what we see in politics and many other, most other professions as well. But in politics it's very visible. Right? Because if you're coming into politics and you are in that state where there is no external internal freedom, then it is very natural for you to use politics to help you to achieve it. And usually focus on the external elements.
Dmitri Sarle:And as an example of that is if politics provides you with a financial income that you rely upon. For example, you are the mayor of a community or city, small village. And mayors get paid full time salary. And therefore, all of your income relies on this full time salary, and you are still not confident in yourself that even if you lose this position, you'll be okay, and you'll find ways to make ends meet. And therefore, you create a self image of a politician, and you focus fully on keeping this self image alive because that is your identity.
Dmitri Sarle:So what happens then? Well, when elections come, and there's a chance you might lose your position, it is only natural that you will do everything in your power to not lose it. And therefore, you're gonna make decisions and proposals that are not necessarily the best, or not necessarily good for the community in the long term. You're gonna make decisions and actions that will maximize your chances of being reelected. And you will not stand up for what you think is right.
Dmitri Sarle:You will be able to close your eyes on certain things just to get a few more votes. And that is the problem, or one of the problems with having people in government who haven't worked through all of these deeper issues, is that you will be compromised. Or you will be addicted to power, or you will be addicted to money, or you will be addicted to something else, to your self image. And so I think that is the first thing that in politics we need to address if we can, is to have some sort of a practical filter to choose people who have that level of inner work. Now it's probably not gonna happen.
Dmitri Sarle:So the one thing that we need to do is to have that inner filter. And to feel that, hey, if you have it in you, and if you work through things, maybe you should go into politics. Maybe you should go and participate in your local council. Because I have already met quite a few people on the island in Hiyomah who have worked through all of these things, but they are not going into politics. Because there is still some part of them that sees politics as this dirty work, or there is mistrust towards politicians, sometimes understandably so.
Dmitri Sarle:But my feeling is that these are exactly the kind of people that should go into politics. And in some ways, the ones who don't wanna go into politics the most are the ones who should be there the most. The other aspect of politics that is very curious to me is that in almost any other profession, it is a no brainer for us that the person performing the work should be the most qualified person for the job. Right? Imagine a situation where we have a hospital and we have surgeons in that hospital.
Dmitri Sarle:And let's say we have five surgeons working in a hospital. Now imagine if we lived in a world where we went like, okay, we need five surgeons. How do we get them? Well, how about we just make a public vote and we decide who should be a surgeon? And then everybody votes very quickly, nobody really goes into too much detail on it, nobody reads the proposal or the profiles of the surgeons, their experience.
Dmitri Sarle:They just like their name or their smile or their poster that they put in the middle of the city or the promise that they put in the video where they solemnly swear that they'll do their best to be a surgeon although they've never touched any surgical instruments in their life, and they come from a completely different industry. Well, that would be a funny world to live in, wouldn't it? And somehow that's exactly what is happening with politics. There's a lot of people who go on to politics who have no idea of how tax rates work, or how the interest rate works, or how the economy works, or how laws are made, or what effects they have, or the history of politics, or the history of economics, the history of different attempts we've done worldwide to try to make a better world. And don't get me wrong, don't wanna blame those people.
Dmitri Sarle:Right? It's not their fault. We have allowed this to be a part of our society. And many of those people are extremely good politicians. And many of these people have a lot of experience in these other fields.
Dmitri Sarle:And so I'm not complaining. Right? I'm just saying that the system that we've built is at best strange. But it does work to some extent. We have done great things.
Dmitri Sarle:I think we've focused a lot on infrastructure. We fixed a lot of things worldwide. But it also has a lot of problems. And the other problem of course with this is that we don't want people to get too much power, so we allow people to force elections every couple of years, depends on the country, four years, five years, ten years. And what that does is again, like, imagine somebody is a great surgeon and they have a lot of experience, but just because somebody doesn't vote for them, they can lose their job.
Dmitri Sarle:Now, I don't know exactly how to address this part of the equation because I do feel it's important that people in power are held accountable, and therefore if they make consistently the wrong choices, there should be a way to give them feedback on that or change them. So in some sense, these two things for me are extremely important when it comes to politics. And I also feel that in some ways, the path of freedom and the path of inner exploration should lead towards you wanting to serve people. Because once you have figured out at least some things within yourself, and you have felt for real, you have felt a real sense of freedom even once in your life. And something got you there.
Dmitri Sarle:For me, it was many things. It was Vipassana, psychological work, therapist. Many things have helped me. A lot of different tools. But I remember specifically at Vipassana there was an intense deep understanding of the word freedom.
Dmitri Sarle:Perhaps for the first time in my life. And in that moment, I also felt that there's like, once I felt it, there is no choice anymore but to try to help others to get to that feeling. Right? And a deep sensation that I cannot put any sort of barriers to that. People who wanna help others to feel free, I feel like there is almost no choice.
Dmitri Sarle:And of course, you don't have to become a politician to do that. You can do it by being a coach or a mentor. You can do it by creating some sort of course, or simply talking to your friends, suggesting which books to read. You don't immediately have to go and participate in the next elections. But if you have sensed that, I have no doubt that you will have an inner drive to serve others, and to help others to feel that, because there is no better feeling.
Dmitri Sarle:Perhaps, maybe one thing I can think about as a better feeling, although it's hard to classify it as a feeling, is the sensation when you have an experience of your ego death where you become one with everything, but that's a topic for another podcast episode. So when it comes to politics, I find that this is a good way of freedom. Because it allows you to help others quite significantly, and to have an effect on society in a positive way. And sure you'll be put in difficult situations and people will question you and scrutinize you, but that's part of the game. If you haven't worked through all your problems, you'll probably be triggered by it.
Dmitri Sarle:But if you have at least significantly done your work, you will be fine. And I guess this is why I have decided to take part in the elections to see where it takes me. So by the time this podcast is out, I might be in local government in Hima or might not be. And both options are just fine. But my intent and the reason for saying yes is because I feel that I can truly help and contribute by spreading some of these ideas to people of Hema and help them to heal.
Dmitri Sarle:Help them to heal communities, help to heal the dialogue between politicians, and to help them build a better world. But one thing that I also want to make an impact on if I am a part of that world is to help bring individuality back into the game. And this is a tall one because that's what I feel is the third pillar of the things that I saw immediately when I got asked the question whether I want to participate in this game. And that is the fact that the game of politics, because it's centered right now a lot on power and is built mainly by people who have not worked through the external internal freedom questions, then basically your individuality within politics gets lost. Because in order to win the game of politics, you need to join a tribe.
Dmitri Sarle:And by tribe, I mean a party. In some countries, have a two party system. In Estonia, there's many parties. And you have to sell your soul, your ideas, and your thoughts, and your individuality to one particular group. And you have to stick to their party lines.
Dmitri Sarle:And this immediately breeds conflict. Right? Your country gets immediately conflictual because one of the parties has to be right in our mind. We haven't learned yet as a society to keep many ideas afloat which are contradicting at the same time. We are still living in a dualistic world, and not many have discovered non duality where we can hold many opposing ideas at once in a single space and not go nuts.
Dmitri Sarle:I have never seen a debate where the debaters would be like, okay, both ideas have merit, Or hey, your idea is better, I agree with you. That that doesn't happen in politics. Right? So all of this is really a show. We just debate and it's not about who is right, it's about who has the ability to talk because nobody is gonna give in.
Dmitri Sarle:And therefore, when you are joining different parties, or you see the different party systems, what then happens is that there is immediate conflict because one or two parties of the former coalition has to be right and the others are wrong. And there is no way for you to accept some of the feelings of the opposing party because that would be weakness. And that will lose you some votes if you sympathize with somebody who is completely against the position of your party, or if you think individually that some of the things your party is doing is perhaps wrong. So that's another thing that I would actually try to help them see is that we don't need parties. We need individuals who are able to hold different ideas, who are able to see the whole and hold many ideas at once through dialogue, real dialogue, and create solutions based on those dialogues and not on party lines.
Dmitri Sarle:So, this was perhaps a weird episode, but these are some thoughts that I have on the nature of politics and how we could improve things. And if I summarize, there's three things. One is to get people into politics who have worked through their inner and outer freedom questions. There's not many of those. Two, get people into politics who are very experienced at actually running things, and who basically have been doing this for a living for a long time.
Dmitri Sarle:And here, I have to make sure that I'm clear, it's not people who are very good at playing the game of politics. It's people who are very good at actually running things. People who are very good at running companies might be a good fit for politics because it's very similar. Or people who understand economics really really well. Of course, we have to have a lot of other people who understand the intricacies of particular industries, but that's another topic.
Dmitri Sarle:And three, I feel that we need to get rid of the party system, and bring back individuality, where there's much more cross pollination of ideas, and build a system of parliaments or governments where one side doesn't have to win, where we can hold all ideas that our society presents together in one place and find common solutions there. And yes, sometimes we'll have to sacrifice, but we need to have real deep dialogues, Not just blame game all the time. It is very sad right now to watch any parliament have a dialogue because it's never really a dialogue. It's just a blame game, and we are choosing people who blame the other the best. Instead of focusing on the dialogue and all the ideas in the middle.
Dmitri Sarle:So these are the three things I would really focus on and bring to any community. And if we detach briefly from politics, I think the same applies to leadership in general, and building communities, companies, organizations. These can be good starting principles in my opinion, but again, this is only my opinion, and they're not set in stone. That is one of the problems of having a solo dialogue, is that you only base your ideas on yourself. And even though that might be good, I feel that it's always better to have a deeper dialogue together.
Dmitri Sarle:And I'm convinced if I were to have this conversation with 10 other people, who would come up with even better and more interesting ideas. So, I hope this was interesting for you, and I hope you enjoyed this episode of Dimitrius' Door. See you next time.
Dmitri Sarle:And now, let's find a few moments to meditate together. If you don't like the word meditate, can think of it as sitting in silence and observing your thoughts, which is totally fine. Because the point of this little exercise is to not simply consume content, and use it to pass the time, but to create something which will be useful to you. And so at the end of each episode I'm gonna ask everyone to sit down, give us a few minutes, and see if we can come up with some actions that we can take to change our lives, better our lives, and get more out of this experience. So, find a comfortable position, let your spine lift, in other words sit straight, soften your body, breathe in deeply, and out.
Dmitri Sarle:Start sensing your body, and if there are any sensations. They can be anything, your body touching the chair or the floor. Breathe in and breathe out, and observe your breath. Can notice the external sounds, but don't be upset by them, just let them be like background music. Simply focus on observing your breath, don't force it.
Dmitri Sarle:And you know, also look at the thoughts and ideas that come to you as a result of listening to this episode. But don't get stuck in any one particular idea and start spinning it out of control. Just notice what comes and get to the next thought. Now I'd like you to look at your life, and imagine that you would be running for political position. And let's do a small analysis.
Dmitri Sarle:Try to ask yourself if you have external balance in life. And if not, what is in the way? External balance doesn't just mean that you have the needs, and the funds, and the money. It also means what is your own relationship to these things. Is it something that enables you, or is it something that keeps you stuck?
Dmitri Sarle:Now let's turn attention to internal freedom. Do you have the internal freedom to be whoever you want? Or are you still stuck with titles, labels, fears? And if you are, that's totally okay, it's part of the journey. But it's good to pay attention to it and know exactly what you're working with.
Dmitri Sarle:Try to identify one key area that needs improvement. And now let's take a look at your abilities, your skills. If you were tasked with teaching something to someone tomorrow, what would it be? What do you want to pass on? What can you pass on?
Dmitri Sarle:It can be something you're already very good at, or something you simply would like to be very good at. In which direction would you like to grow? And how would you like to transfer value to other people? And now as always with our podcast, let's take a look at a few actions that we can take. Ask yourself, what actions am I ready to take Immediately, in a few hours, perhaps tomorrow?
Dmitri Sarle:To change my life for the better. Taking into account the ideas that you have heard today. Don't let it come just from your ideas or thoughts, but listen to your body as well. And I'll bring back your attention to reality. When you're ready, you can open your eyes.
Dmitri Sarle:I thank you for joining me in this dialogue. I hope you have found something of use to it. And as always, it helps me a lot, especially as I'm starting out, to get more ideas and to get to know you. So do reach out. It really means a lot to me, and I'm not kidding.
Dmitri Sarle:It's not about receiving likes, it's not about having followers. It's just having people to interact with, having a dialogue, a sense of community. So whenever you reply to me, leave a comment, or even put a single heart on a podcast, it tells me that I'm on the right path, and that I am providing value. And it allows me to move forward and create more of this. So, for whatever reason, if you want to talk, just reach out, and I hope to see you in the next episode.