Simplicity

I can resist everything except temptation.
Oscar Wilde

A couple of months ago as I was sitting in the Temple, I flipped open the bible to ST. MATTHEW 19. I looked down and read the first two verses I saw:

21-And Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

22- But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

This of course got me thinking. How many of us are willing to just open our doors and sell every last great possession? And really aren’t they all just things? Do things really matter?

Sadly yes. Things do matter and we become attached to things. Just ask Daniel, when I made him throw out a wonderfully used and well loved (but horribly dysfunctional) missionary suitcase. Why was Dan hanging on to this suitcase, that wouldn’t even pass TSA regulations? Attachment.

Buddha had much to say about Attachment, and Non-attachment is part of Buddhist Philosophy:

“To understand this virtue of non-attachment, we must first understand attachment, which is an internal state of intense desire for an object, situation, person or goal. The desire is inflexible and happiness is impossible unless the desire is fulfilled. Some people are attached to their houses or cars. Many people are attached to spouses or lovers...and we are all familiar with the bittersweet experience of this attachment.”

“Attachment leads to possessiveness: MY husband, MY wife, MY friend, MY family. Possessiveness leads to FEAR of losing, fake affection out of fear, overprotection, craving, jealousy or even the feeling: I can't live without her/him/my car/my cat/chocolate/pizzas/my job/my jewelry/my music....”

"Desire can be compared to fire. If we grasp fire, what happens? Does it lead to happiness?

If we say: "Oh, look at that beautiful fire! Look at the beautiful colors! I love red and orange; they're my favorite colors," and then grasp it, we would find a certain amount of suffering entering the body. And then if we were to contemplate the cause of that suffering we would discover it was the result of having grasped that fire. On that information, we would hopefully, then let the fire go. Once we let fire go then we know that it is something not to be attached to.

This does not mean we have to hate it, or put it out. We can enjoy fire, can't we? It's nice having a fire, it keeps the room warm, but we do not have to burn ourselves in it."

[Ajahn Sumedho, in 'Teachings of a Buddhist Monk']

This idea wasn’t just taught by Jesus Christ and Buddha.

“If one's life is simple, contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness. Having few desires, feeling satisfied with what you have, is very vital: satisfaction with just enough food, clothing, and shelter to protect yourself from the elements. And finally, there is an intense delight in abandoning faulty states of mind and in cultivating helpful ones in meditation.”

-The Dali Lama-

“Live simply that others may simply live.”
-Mahatma Gandhi-

So this is my goal, to live more simply, more unattached, more willing to give up what I have and to be satisfied with what I do have. I need to distinguish between what I want and what I need…and hopefully I can rub this off on Daniel, because we are moving in a couple of weeks-and he can have attachment issues. He won’t give anything away…I mean who needs 3 pairs of old army boots? I can hear it now, “but they’re still good…”