How much belongings do you need?
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010I am realising that I really would like to posses as minimum things as possible.
Articles from my favorite sources are supporting me with fresh reminders:
limit your belongings to what you can carry on your body
and what you need to do your work serving God
posses as much property of land as you can personally handle
own as much housing as you and your family can live in at one time
never loan money to others,
if you have more than you need for the next few days or weeks,
share it with those in need
share all your material belongings that you have in excess
of what you actually use and need these days and weeks with those in need
If I have the 8 items above, I’m very happy: jeans & t-shirt, water & fruit, a book and a notebook, a walk in nature. You don’t need consumerism to be very happy — in fact, I’d argue that life is better without it.
I see that it’s not enough to stop consuming, buying new things, but that I also need to de-clutter, clean my environment – put the old stuff away.
Learn to reduce the amount of stuff carried on in life. Dump or give away or sell whatever has been useless to you for the past many months or maximum past one year. The more stuff you discard or abandon for others, the less burden you feel and the more you enjoy mobility and flexibility in life.
There are numerous examples of paring down — I whittle down my clothing collection, for example, on a regular basis. I will look at a room and remove unnecessary objects. I’ll clear out programs on my computer I don’t use.
There’s also deep meaning in following words – I never thought about it like this:
Leaving stuff behind, means you surrender your liability and responsibility to those who have to care on your behalf for your stuff. That may take their freedom to die when needed or to move on in their own life as needed to progress. You alone are liable and responsible for your own property and belongings! NO night guard, no body guard, no bank or parents or relatives ever have a true duty to care for your belongings while you are away.
It means to me, not to make problems, rubbish to others.. not leaving rubbish behind me – I can see, it really prohibits freedom of people that have to deal with this rubbish – we are really responsible for all our stuff we use or leave.
I can give you more inspired examples from my most admired persons – Ohsawa’s (macrobiotic founder) opinions on the life of Gandhi (he admired him very much), Ohsawa’s comments about Gandhi’s vows – it is written from the perspective of Herman Aihara (Ohsawa’s student) in his book Kaleidoscope.
The vow of non-stealing: Ohsawa used to say to us that it is stealing if we posses extra clothes, houses, or even foods more than we need; we stole them even if we think we paid their cost. For example, if we eat an apple every day we are stealing another’s apple because apples are not produced enough to supply the earth’s whole population. The same is true for animal foods. The rich pay a high price for meats and the poor can’t buy them. We do not consider this stealing, but in Gandhi’s sense this is so.
The vow of nonpossession: One of the macrobiotic principles Ohsawa taught was to live with only absolutely necessary things.
What then do I need 8hr money earning jobs for?
There’s so much fun with the free time I have and so much freedom without all the things around 
For more inspiration, you can read my older article on the same topic:
Peace Pilgrim – Living the Simple Life
