ANOTHER ASPECTS OF EGO -
DESIROUS ATTACHMENT 

 In the last blog we attended to Ego or "self-cherishing." 
Desirous Attachment the Buddha described 
- is being attached to the object of our desire
- another aspect of the Ego identity. 
In this blog we will talk about 
attending to needs rather than wants!

 There is nothing wrong with having something but there is a karmic consequence if that object possesses us. Having things that look, and make us feel good, enriches our personas and boosts our egos but at the same time separates us from our Higher Selves.

We are inundated with the indoctrination of materialism and sophisticated marketing that distort the reality of what is truly meaningful to us in life. This makes us buy things because they are sexy and up to date. Commercials tout that if you have a Subaru you have "love" and other car makers try to manipulate us by trying to invoke a mystical, ecstatic almost religious experience with their visuals. Planned obsolescence with the ever increasing allure of totally fascinating but useless technology that make us lazy or occupies our attention is everywhere we turn.
Steve Jobs defined this best in saying; 
our job at Apple is not to give people what they need but to tell them what they want.

One cannot separate the concept of Impermanence from the understanding of Desirous Attachment. They are interconnected.  

The Ancestors teach...

We cannot take anything with us at the end of the day. The only thing we take with us when we leave the planet is our Karma.

 What do we really need rather than want? If our basic survival needs are fulfilled we can be happy. The San Bushmen hunter-gathers of the Kalahari desert were happy (with the emphasis on were) until we arrived and they discovered all the "stuff" that we had that they did not. Our Tree of Knowledge kicked them out of their Garden of Eden, where nature provided everything they needed including a rich and unparalleled healing and spiritual technology.

The rule of three for survival tells us that; we can live three minutes without oxygen, three days without water, three weeks without food and three months without love. We could add to that three hours without shelter or clothing if we lived in a cold climate. Fire and shelter are included in these basic essentials. 

If we extrapolate these principles to our modern world - clean air, and water, wholesome food, a roof over our heads, connection with fellow beings and include energy (the equivalent of fire) for cooking, transport and communication we have all we really need.

My personal experience is that whenever I downscale and get rid of "stuff," I have far less to maintain or worry about and feel lighter and happier. I now have more room for the essentials of life.

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-_MP3s/01_Let_the_Days_Go_By.mp3