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A Road to Somewhere
Georgetown Island, Maine
In cultures bombarded with messages that we never have enough, new and improved products await us, and we will be happier if we buy this or that... is that sanity? Has any thing you have purchased brought lasting contentment? Notice, when you feel an inner passion to purchase something, you get a moment of pleasure when following that felt need. Notice, also, the pleasure passes quickly. Could it be contentment is not about getting and claiming ownership of things?
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While asceticism as religious practice may appear extreme, it contains a lesson... ownership is an illusion. There is freedom in saying, "I don't own anything." What would the world be like if we saw things as something to share, not own? Have you noticed how free you feel when you freely share? Have you noticed how you want to share when you feel love for someone?
And he [Jesus] went on to say to them all, “Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because your true life is not made up of the things you own [Life is not measured by how much you own. NLT], no matter how rich you may be."
*Gospel of Luke 12.15, GNT
The lust of acquisitiveness has so totally seized upon humanity that its wealth seems rather to possess them than that it possesses its wealth.
*Pliny the Elder (Roman naturalist, philosopher... ca. 79 CE)
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A young emperor went to the desert to visit an aged, wise monk, one of the Desert Fathers. The monarch ordered his attendants to wait at a distance while he approached the monk's cell alone. He removed his crown and hid it. He knocked on the door to the cell. The monk, upon opening the door, knew the identity of his guest but pretended not to.
The monk welcomed the visitor in as a fellow monk. The two prayed and sat together. The ruler asked, "How are all the fathers in the desert?" The monk replied, "They all pray for your health." The guest looked about the cell and saw nothing except a small basket with bread, and the monk said, "Eat." The monk dipped the bread in water, poured oil and salt on it, and gave it to the guest, who ate it. The monk gave him water, and he drank.
As they continued sitting together, the emperor asked, "Do you know who I am?" The monk said, "God knows who you are." The emperor identified himself, and the monk bowed in homage. The guest said, "You are truly blessed for you do not have the cares of this world. I was born to kingship, and the affairs of my empire are a constant concern to me. I dine daily on the richest meats and cakes, and the finest wines are poured into my goblet. And, yet, today mere bread and water have satisfied me as no sumptuous feast ever has." The young ruler marveling, went his way.
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A rendition above of the Gospel of Luke 12.15 reads "your life is not made up of the things you own." Another reading is, "Life is not measured by how much you own." For Jesus, and spiritual adepts in varied religions, "life" is not about a duration we call time; life is outside time. Life is not a series of nows; life is now. Time, like all phenomena, is within life. In reply to the second translation - what we own does not measure our life for we cannot measure life. Life is an undivided whole. Life is not a thing - what is a no-thing is immeasurable.
When defining life by what we claim to possess, what we say we possess is possessing us. The return to life is a return from attachment to possessions, and we realize we have no possessions. There is absolutely nothing you can say of, "This is mine," or "This belongs to me," or "I own that."
We do not even own the body. We do not have a body. The body serves us, and we serve the body. We, therefore, live in gratitude to the body.
In losing the illusion of ownership, we are grateful to be caretakers - everything becomes a blessing, a responsibility, a means to bless.
Things pass through us. This realization leads to the joy of generosity. Generosity is not only that we give... we receive. Generosity is the reciprocal action of Spirit. This Spirit is the "Spirit of Life" (Christian Scripture, Romans 8.2).
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Letting go of our pursuit for more and more, we are freed to enjoy life and our lives more. Nonpossession frees up the heart to enjoy simple things we before did not notice or said we did not have time for. We have all the time we need for we are not living in time; the idea of time can be our servant, to use as needed, to ignore otherwise. We all need pauses in our lives where we relax our consciousness of time, enjoying the stillness and giftedness of now.
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*©Brian K. Wilcox, 2023.
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and title and place of photograph.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
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