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After reading the excerpt from Sharon Salzberg's book, 'A Heart As Wide as the World', below are my thoughts:
It is indeed an irony that we lose ourselves by our ownselves. We lose our own freedom by letting our hands be tied by our own addictions to certain objects and experiences that can never bring deep and lasting satisfactions in our life. We are chasing the shadows to find our original self. I love what Rumi says, " How long we fill our pockets like children with dirt and stones? Let the world go. Holding it, we never know ourselves, never are airborne." It is difficult to wake up and see the light. It is difficult to break the chain of addictions or unwholesome attachments to things and experiences that bring superficial and short lived pleasures. I have been working on my self to get rid of those temptations and to be from those self-limiting attachments. Recognizing and accepting my own limitations and working on them to overcome has been very helpful to me. Seeing the rays of light diminishes the self-created darkness. Such awakening and awareness removes the dust covering my vision to see the purity and treasure of my original nature. Daily practice of mindfulness meditation has been one of the most effective and helpful ways for me to break the self-created chain of attachments to objects and experiences. Daily practice of meditation helps me discover the treasure of original nature and be airborne and free. Namaste!
3 Comments
Maria
3/11/2023 03:46:43 pm
It’s true that we tend to look outside ourselves to fill a need that only we can fill. We fill the biggest and most important need by opening up to who we truly are. There is no material thing that we can have forever. Everything ages and dies except our consciousness. I strive to have a more aware consciousness of who I am. My need is to align with it at every moment.
Debbie Susan Podwika
3/11/2023 04:38:42 pm
In general I agree, though with some more thought I think "well forever?" I say, "our whole lifetime, since I will not live forever" and that I can possibly see doing. I have some articles from when I was a young child which are attached to memories. Many are attached to experiences with my grandmother who died when I was 16 yrs old. Others with other family memories. I ask myself, would I have remembered those experiences without having these articles? No, I don't think. First, because the memories were from when I was little and those memories fad, and now as I get older if a memory survived until now, they are starting to fad and go. The articles help my memory and I love that it does this for me. The experiences that I am attached to are the ones full of love. I don't mind keeping those in my heart. I do not want to get rid of them. Now if we go to the idea of people being attached to things like their car or a tv saying, 'I need that.." well that I understand. I always discussed with my students the difference between a "Need" and a "Want" and how those get confused. There certainly are some extremes, who needs a gold plated toilet for example, but we also have to be careful not to assume others do not need something. There may be some things they may need when we do not think so, for example maybe their glasses are at the highest prescription possible, but they still can't see, so they need a bigger tv or they need a bigger monitor. There are many who do not critically think and look at me odd and communicate to me that I do not need a handicap placard (I've had it for decades now), because I do not "look like I need it," but when they find out all the problems I do have and am trying to avoid flaring up, then all of a sudden they realize it is a need. We certainly live in a society of "stuff." We have not throughout history lived in a circular economy or Sustainable one. Our planet and we are starting to experience the consequences of this. Though we were better in the past of say wearing clothes until they wore out and even repairing them vs fast fashion today which is thought of as a need today & mostly for the idea of acceptance of others because people do not understand this is not important in life and have not understood what real love from others is, what self love is and love from their creator. This is important to get others to understand, so that mindfulness meditation can even work for them. (PS let me know if something is unclear, I'm still having back pain.)
Elaine noonan
3/11/2023 03:50:30 pm
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