I hope you were all following the 'clear thinking' post from last week. As I keep saying - there is far more to life than just A levels!
OK here is pt II.
Part II of Depossessing Your Possessions Last week we reminded ourselves that we cannot actually possess anything. We can grasp objects with our hands, we can store things in a cupboard, we can lock things in a vault, we can use human made laws to attempt to prove ownership of property, but ultimately no thing belongs to us. We cannot take anything with us when we go. The belief in possession is what keeps us trapped in subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) forms of insecurity. The fear of loss or damage drains our ability to relax and be happy while influencing our decisions and directions in life. The fear of not acquiring eats away at our self-confidence and self-esteem affecting our capacity to relate to others. So the big question, if we do not possess anything what do we do with what we have gathered around us so far, how are we to now regard what ‘seems’ to belong to us?
If there were ‘steps’ towards freedom from the illusion of possession they might look like this.
1 Remind yourself that everything is simply energy. Everything is energy in a continuous state of change and transformation. Food is the obvious object that is just energy that is transformed into other forms of energy in our body. But the same happens to all solid and seemingly permanent objects. It’s just slower. No ‘thing’ is permanent. And anything and everything that is not the ‘I’ that say ‘I am’ …is a ‘thing’!
2 Take a moment to sit quietly, reflect and meditate a little, and see if you can see that what you think you possess are simply images that you create on the screen of your mind. That’s where you sustain the ‘idea’ of ‘mine’, not the physical object, but the image of the object. That happens because we are not physical forms but beings of consciousness. And it is within the faculties of our consciousness that we store the images of what we attempt to possess (in our memory) and where we check, affirm and hold on to what we believe we possess (as images on our mind). But neither is the mind permanent and most certainly thoughts/images that appear on the mind are also not permanent. And so the ‘secret’ is to drop the idea that what lies outside and inside your consciousness is permanent, that it is real. ‘Things’ are ‘there’ but they are always gone sometime later! They become ‘unreal’ because the only reality is the ‘I’ that observes all that passes. But the moment we attempt to possess we are essentially trying to make the impermanent and temporary, permanent and stationary. We are trying to make the unreal real, which is impossible. This is why any sadness, anger or fear are simply signs that we have not yet realised reality, we are having an argument with reality, we are attempting to live in an unreal world of our own mental making. Not easy to see when all our ‘conditioning’ teaches us the opposite.
3 The third step is to recognise why everything shows up in your life, including people and the less tangible thing like ideas. It takes only a small shift in perception to see the real reason that things, people and ideas come to you.
OBJECTS come for use
Things like houses, cars, clothes, toys etc just come and go. They come not to be owned but for use. Every thing has a purpose built in. Some things are bigger, shinier, more sophisticated than other things, but still they are essentially here to be used. And then, when we no longer have a need for them, someone else gets to use them until they might return to their original energy state, or to another energy state. And that of course includes our own bodies, which we have the use of until it’s time for it to return to food and dust. The inner shift that sets us free is from owner to trustee. When we see ourselves as a temporary trustee of all that comes to pass, we loosen our grasp and set ourselves free.
PEOPLE come to relate
People come and go. They come to provide us with a living context to our life. Fellow human beings are around us so we may know ourselves in the mirror of relationship, so we may play together and know the joy of living, so we may co-create together and know our capacity as creative beings. They are not there to make us happy but as an opportunity to give and share our happiness. They are not there to be possessed, to become attached to, but to learn from, to co-operate with, to commune with, to love, so we may come to know that love is what we are. Love is entirely non-possessive. To attempt to possess any thing or anyone is to suppress our nature, which is love. We already know this deep down within ourselves, but we forget
POSITIONS come to give us the opportunity to serve
Positions come and go. Whether it is within an organisation, community or family, a position is just a label for a set of accepted responsibilities. It is never permanent and cannot be possessed but it is one of those things we try to possess, and then we make our self miserable with worry (that we may lose it). A position is given by others and only remains as long as others maintain the recognition of our value and validity in that position. A position is a temporary privilege not a possession, an opportunity to be of service, not something that has to be guarded, it is a gift not a burden. A position comes with a certain power and the opportunity to use that power for the benefit of others.
IDEAS come to remind us we are creative beings
Ideas come and go. When we try to possess an idea and then force it onto others it blocks our own creativity. We are designed to be creative. Our consciousness is the portal through which ideas emerge from within our being and out into the world. Attaching to and attempting to possess an idea, ‘my’ idea, is a recipe for stagnation and frustration. When we hold onto ‘my idea’ we are in effect blocking the flow of our life energy. We are closing our inner window to the streaming light of our creativity that is bursting to get through.
BELIEFS come to tell us that we are stuck!
Beliefs also come and go. It’s hard to see but beliefs are our subconscious attempt at possession. We assimilate beliefs we are taught and then attempt to possess them, perhaps even use them as a life support. But as soon as we try to possess i.e. attach our self to our beliefs we close ourselves to deeper truths. We even argue for what we believe but that only generates conflict. We may even go to war collectively for some belief system but that only sustains the illusion that we believe there is only one right way. Trying to possess our beliefs is actually an avoidance of the truth. Not easy to see but well worth looking into! And when you see it you’ll never need to argue, ever again.
HISTORY is the experience of yesterday that we can turn into the wisdom of today
When we take what we thought happened to us in the past and commit it to memory we start to build a story, our story, a personal story, and then say that it’s ‘my’ story, that’s me! We then tell our story to others affirming that we possess a truly unique story. But it’s not, it’s just a story and stories are unreal. They are a fictional account of what we believe happened in the past and then we keep replaying it either mentally or verbally. But the replays then shape our future in ways that keep us stuck in a rut. We trap ourselves in our history when we attempt to possess our memories. It takes courage to let go of our yesterdays so that we meet the day fresh, alive and fully present. When we do, when we stop living in the past and stop relating our past to others, we are at the front of the train, ready to meet life fully, openly and freely as it comes to us. But if we hold on to our past then our ‘history’ repeats.
Being free means knowing we possess nothing and that all that comes to us, to be with us, is a temporary visitor on the journey called life. It simply ‘comes to pass’. Whatever comes to us is not designed to bring us joy and happiness, love and peace, but to give us the opportunity to give the joy we already have within us. Life itself then becomes a play and play is joys way of giving life to living to the full. When we live to play and play to live every moment has a joy that is beyond any price. But the moment you attempt to grasp that joy or grasp anything that appears in the play, your smile is destined to disappear. And even though you may be expanding what you believe are your personal possessions, your heart will inevitably shrink.
Question: In which of the above areas do you feel you attempt to possess most strongly – rank in order of strength to increase your self awareness
Reflection: Visualise ‘impermanence’, practice seeing all forms as energy in a process of change and transformation
Action: Give away some ‘thing’ every day this week and celebrate release
