Why We Own?

They were a group of older men having a discussion about responsibilities and the various projects that were left undone around the house. They mentioned the pressure that they all felt at having things that were meant to bring them happiness, but somehow just added to the overwhelming feeling of not being able to cope. One person looked my way and said "what do you think L" ? "We know you live a life of simplicity and poverty", he said half jokingly. The reply was, its a state of mind isn't it? Its true that this person does not own much and what is owned is not owned psychologically, there is no attachment. But what is it that the mind seeks, and why does it need to own anything? G, put his hands over his face and said in a muffled voice, "well what is the key"? "Can you give me the key"? The reply, there is no key there is only the self and what is realized in the moment. If you look at your life now in this moment, and you are free to observe then that is all that is needed. You find the truth for yourself, not through the machinations of a so called expert. So if there is a key it is freedom, but not attachment to freedom as a conceptual formula. Do you see how the conditioned mind can trick you? G said that he sort of understood, but he did not see how that he could ever be truly "free" and can anyone be truly "free"? The reply, Freedom is not a activity of the self. It is not a state of existence that is an "accomplishment". Freedom, is the undefined essence of the absolute moment in which the self is not. You cannot "know" that you are free, for that is just another form of attachment. When you exist in that essence, then things fall away, as leaves from a tree, so that the new and never before can flower. It is a continuous rebirth of the joy of just being without the angst of becoming. It is not an activity of intention, which is a form of attachment, but the simplicity of seeing the truth of the moment. Your property, the things that you "own" are the identifications of self, that provide the illusion of definition. What you own labels you as this or that and can give one a sense of having become. In the moment one can look and see that they all have no real meaning. What ever the psychological affect it is always temporary and one is off looking to acquire more without having fully understood why one needs to acquire at all.

G dropped his hands on the table and said, "how do you know these things"? "Who was your teacher"? The reply, one does not "know" anything, what is, is the unconditioned which cannot be taught. What is taught by another is the illusion of self with all the conflict and confusion of a conditioned consciousness. One can only negate so that what is left is without the influence of becoming. G was silent for a time, he looked up and said smiling, you are a very different kind of person, in fact, I don't think there is another you. I smiled back at him, actually I am the same as you, in fact we are reflections of one another. That is how we see and ultimately understand. He laughed out loud shaking his head and said, "Who is this man"?

D said, "So what you are saying is that what we own can have a negative influence on us". The reply, do not think in terms of negative and positive, because then you are comparing. Comparison only leads one to conclude which is a conditioned response. Nothing new has been realized, one has just escaped the truth of the moment by referencing ones conditioned consciousness. Negate the one who knows, so that something else is possible. It may be helpful if one can look and see that one is in a prison. What you own also owns you, it is your self created prison. If you see in the moment how that all that you are (perception) is a creation of the mind and its desire, then that very seeing is the dissipation of all that limits understanding. D said "Wow, I don't know that I can really understand all that you have said, but on some level I think that it has helped me".