Free-dom

I have considered recently how people are making a capital enterprise from "seekers." So I have been saying "Freedom is free." This evening I typed that phrase and thought, "What is the etymology of 'freedom'?

This is it:
Free: O.E. freo "free, exempt from, not in bondage,"
-dom: denoting a state or condition

Freedom means: Denoting a state or condition not in bondage.

(I love doing this!)

Bondage: c.1300, "condition of a serf or slave,"

Slave: late 13c., "person who is the property of another,"

Property: c.1300, "nature, quality," later "possession"

Possession: mid-15c., "to hold, occupy, reside in"

I am reminded of the word identity which means, from late Latin identitas, from Latin idem 'same'. So our bondage is attempting to be the same as something else. You can't be the same as yourself; you are yourself.

I don't believe you can pay any amount of money to anyone to teach you who you are. They don't know. In terms of bondage and being a slave to another, spending money for someone's "teaching," you are bond to them by thinking you will only know who you are through their teaching. Right!! There is a paradox here.