Dispossession

To a Mountain in Tibet. He was referring to his meeting two monks as he trekked to the sacred Mountain known as Kailas, men who owned nothing at all and who had a joy and lightness that was almost blissful because of it. He admired the freedom that came from renouncing every aspect of materialism but, looking at them with the eyes of a westerner, he imagined the loneliness that came from nothingness. The monks were unusual in that they had transcended the world of matter while retaining their humanity, in body and personality and part of their community but with values based on being not having. They had reached the place each of us is striving - often unknowingly - to reach, and I felt a great poignancy and longing as I imagined how it would be to be dispossessed. Being a westerner also, my common sense tells me that for me it would be unrealistic to give away all I own because of the practical issues that would ensue, for one thing, but also because my challenge is to find the freedom of dispossession while being a part of the everyday world, to live by the values of dispossession while having and enjoying possessions but not letting them matter. The story of the monks has reminded me about attachment and excess, and I am encouraged once again to review what I have and discard what has become a burden, for I know it will serve me well.]]>