Last night during a meditation on ego I had an epiphany. The meditation asked us to list mentally all the things we believe we own, this included material, spiritual, emotional and physical things. As I ran through my list I realised that I don't "own" any of it. nothing of it is mine to keep but only something I am a temporary custodian over.
To give you an example, the idea of ownership of land has always been a bazaar concept to me. How can we own a piece of something as powerful as the earth? To actually divide up pieces of the land and assign values to it is bazaar don't you think? The earth is something that has been around for billions of years it is ancient, and powerful who are we to come along and say "I'll take this piece as my own" really it still belongs to mother earth and for lack of a better word we are squatting! Also the things things we fill our houses with and our material possessions also don't belong to us, nothing does because everything is temporary. Everything will eventually decay and die.
In relation to our emotional state we don't own happiness, joy, peace and love, of course can cultivate an environment where these states are more natural but we don't own them. The other side of this is we don't own those uncomfortable emotions either such as anger, frustration, sadness, guilt these are all just temporary states passing through us in a moment in time.
As a believer in reincarnation I also think that we are temporary custodians of our physical body as well, that our soul or true self will pass on to another body in the next lifetime. Our physical body is simply a vessel to carry us through this lifetime.
In terms of being a parent we also don't own our children, they are not possessions or even mini versions of us. They are people in their own right that can be guided, loved and watched over but never really controlled or moulded to be a certain personality. I believe that our children come to this earth with pre destined personality traits and they choose us as parents to teach them the lessons they need to learn for this lifetime. I believe this is why so many people have challenging childhoods or complicated relationships with a parent/s because there are lessons that need to be learned and growing is never a comfortable experience. So we teach our children what they need to know consciously or subconsciously but we don't own their experiences.
So how can we use this knowledge to our advantage? Well it means we don't have to attached to the things in our life and with less attachment comes less pain. We don't have to get caught up in the things that can cause us angst, all the things you think you are missing out on that you could 'own' don't matter as much because you will never truly own them anyway. We don't have to get frustrated and feel like we are in a power struggle with our children when they won't do what we want them to do. Instead we can just respect that their path is different to ours and try to be facilitators in their lives rather than dictators which I think is a lot more fun. Our bodies become something we want to take care of like a well oiled machine because we know that it won't be around forever and our emotions become passing temporary states rather than something we have to get caught up in and upset by. I find this very liberating and freeing it means I can really let go. So enjoy the things that you have in this life but keep in mind it is never possible to truly own any of it.
Hope this gave you a feeling of peace as it did me,
L x
To give you an example, the idea of ownership of land has always been a bazaar concept to me. How can we own a piece of something as powerful as the earth? To actually divide up pieces of the land and assign values to it is bazaar don't you think? The earth is something that has been around for billions of years it is ancient, and powerful who are we to come along and say "I'll take this piece as my own" really it still belongs to mother earth and for lack of a better word we are squatting! Also the things things we fill our houses with and our material possessions also don't belong to us, nothing does because everything is temporary. Everything will eventually decay and die.
In relation to our emotional state we don't own happiness, joy, peace and love, of course can cultivate an environment where these states are more natural but we don't own them. The other side of this is we don't own those uncomfortable emotions either such as anger, frustration, sadness, guilt these are all just temporary states passing through us in a moment in time.
As a believer in reincarnation I also think that we are temporary custodians of our physical body as well, that our soul or true self will pass on to another body in the next lifetime. Our physical body is simply a vessel to carry us through this lifetime.
In terms of being a parent we also don't own our children, they are not possessions or even mini versions of us. They are people in their own right that can be guided, loved and watched over but never really controlled or moulded to be a certain personality. I believe that our children come to this earth with pre destined personality traits and they choose us as parents to teach them the lessons they need to learn for this lifetime. I believe this is why so many people have challenging childhoods or complicated relationships with a parent/s because there are lessons that need to be learned and growing is never a comfortable experience. So we teach our children what they need to know consciously or subconsciously but we don't own their experiences.
So how can we use this knowledge to our advantage? Well it means we don't have to attached to the things in our life and with less attachment comes less pain. We don't have to get caught up in the things that can cause us angst, all the things you think you are missing out on that you could 'own' don't matter as much because you will never truly own them anyway. We don't have to get frustrated and feel like we are in a power struggle with our children when they won't do what we want them to do. Instead we can just respect that their path is different to ours and try to be facilitators in their lives rather than dictators which I think is a lot more fun. Our bodies become something we want to take care of like a well oiled machine because we know that it won't be around forever and our emotions become passing temporary states rather than something we have to get caught up in and upset by. I find this very liberating and freeing it means I can really let go. So enjoy the things that you have in this life but keep in mind it is never possible to truly own any of it.
Hope this gave you a feeling of peace as it did me,
L x
You're a wise owl! I wish a lot of the parents at my school could read this. x
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