Have you discovered the bliss of minimalism?
If not, then I’d suggest you try it. There is a real freedom that comes from owning less stuff.
If yes – if you already use minimalism as a way of increasing your wellbeing – then I’d like to offer you an even greater possibility.
The gift of minimalism does not come from the reduction of stuff in the material world, it actually comes from the reduction of ownership.
When you give up ownership as a way of relating to the world, then you can have the bliss of minimalism without giving up your stuff.
There are two insights that generally produce the willingness to give up ownership.
The first is to see that ownership exists only in your mind. It is a concept, a way of relating, that has no tangible or actual existence in the world.
(As an interesting fact, on the continents of what are now the Americas, the concept of ownership did not exist amongst the people here until it was introduced by Europeans. And we can see how that worked out for them! ?)
In the wake of realizing that ownership is a facade and discovering you actually have a choice in how to relate to stuff, the second insight that produces the will to transcend ownership is to see a better choice.
What you want is a way of relating to stuff that has the ‘useful’ aspects of ownership but leaves out the ‘non-useful’ aspects of it.
One such transcendent way of relating is that of stewardship.
To steward the material world rather than own stuff, you maintain the present moment reciprocal way of relating which provides fulfilment. There is true pleasure and joy in giving to and receiving from the material world. However, as a steward of stuff, you no longer concern yourself with controlling it. You are free of the burden of what might happen to it in the future.
Everything you own, owns you.
So you can either give up the stuff…or you can stay with the stuff and give up the ownership.
Either way, you will be free.
But as steward, you can be both free and immersed in the infinite pleasures of the material world.
Loving you, JP ❤️
