Yes, self-mastery in the most peculiar of ways. To let go the need to control. To master not being in control is the mastery to be achieved. And, even more amusingly, it is to be achieved without grasping for it, or it will slip away from your fingers like sand. Life really does have a sense of humour.
You have become grist for my mill. I hope you do not mind. I leave here a copy of my substack post for today.
Journal entry inspired by Guy Duperreault’s Substack, 22 Dec 2022:
What a brave thing to do! That is to “unencumber” one’s self of one’s stuff. It has crossed my mind a time or two in my life that I should unencumber myself. We encumber ourselves with things that we think we need to help us move from one point in life to another. They are crutches, really. Until we find out that life its self is the object of the journey, things will always intrude into our consciousness as things needed and wanted. Our acquisitions and our experiences in acquiring begin at an early age to define who we are. In some respect these things give meaning to a life without meaning, or without a direction. Direction and meaning? We hear those two a lot being bandied about as we mature into adulthood; yet, we can live all our life and find neither.
It is a blessing to not have everything you want, but to have all that you need. The human instinct is to have everything that one wants, thinking that is what one needs.
I just found your blog and will be reading it through. Seeing some parallels in my own life--originally lived in Vancouver, sold a condo at the wrong (e.g., could have kept it and rented it out for perpetual passive income), left BC when the lockdowns started and have scarcely looked back. Living a nomadic life for several years, around the world. I understand your quandary. I have the tendency to find and 'save' the cast-offs of our material world (something about the joy of finding something useful for free, including dumpster diving). But, yeah, the rain would be disconcerting for leaving that stuff on a verge somewhere and no doubt, your decision was right for your circumstances.
In a very tangible, visceral way, the timing was the Universe, whatever THAT, is giving me a challenge of the spirit. If we had left 5 days earlier I would have been able to 'dump' it with the Sally Ann. Lockdowns closed them. On hindsight, this has been a true spiritual journey of embodied 'aperigraha' and 'ishvara-pranidhana'. Reading about that, and practicing yoga on an organic rubber mat were no longer serving my spirit. :-D 'Radical spirituality', maybe. The time of covid really is the whole world embodiment of the need for 'radical spirituality' to cope with the embodiment of the dark energies that are working to replace light with greed and hoarding. The rich are the hoarding dragons who now want to raze the land to get more wealth. Spiritual joy is required to effectively fight that, and that joy is hindered when we are weighted down with the stuffs of mind and body that no longer serve. Wow! Letting go of the furniture was tough, and yet nothing to letting go of the old truths that at one time saved my life and served me well.
Furniture to the landfill--I couldn't do that. Better if you'd just put it out on the side of the road, like we saw up at UBC, or in an alley in West Point Grey or Kitsilano, or ANYWHERE, really. But to see what you described just going into the earth, that's what the mindless consumers do every day.
We thought of putting it on the side somewhere too. It was Mar 17th and Vancouver weather. Lots of rain. It struck me that doing that was like abdicating my responsibility and hoping for someone else to be responsible. It is a kind of emotional and psychological laziness by putting on to others both the opportunity and, more likely, the burden of throwing it away on my behalf.
That was the true practice of aperigraha, of accepting the Buddhist principle of the impermanence of *everything*.
What I learned from that is that by not paying attention to the weight of my stuff I was unable to 'gracefully' sell it off and/or give it away. Later in my story the opportunity to the same thing presented itself. This time I was much more graceful about it.
I didn't do it mindlessly, so you have misrepresented that just a little. It was with full mind and awareness of both the impermanence of my existence, and to with full heart appreciate the beauty of what that furniture was to me, and to let it go with love and grace as much as I could. Truly a challenge of yoga, the absolute renunciation that simplicity requires without burdening other people with my own discarded or more broadly, my undiscarded emotional and psychological 'stuff.'
Yes, self-mastery really is our reason for being in this life, eh?
Hello vegan warrior.
Yes, self-mastery in the most peculiar of ways. To let go the need to control. To master not being in control is the mastery to be achieved. And, even more amusingly, it is to be achieved without grasping for it, or it will slip away from your fingers like sand. Life really does have a sense of humour.
♥️🔥🔥🔥🔥
You have become grist for my mill. I hope you do not mind. I leave here a copy of my substack post for today.
Journal entry inspired by Guy Duperreault’s Substack, 22 Dec 2022:
What a brave thing to do! That is to “unencumber” one’s self of one’s stuff. It has crossed my mind a time or two in my life that I should unencumber myself. We encumber ourselves with things that we think we need to help us move from one point in life to another. They are crutches, really. Until we find out that life its self is the object of the journey, things will always intrude into our consciousness as things needed and wanted. Our acquisitions and our experiences in acquiring begin at an early age to define who we are. In some respect these things give meaning to a life without meaning, or without a direction. Direction and meaning? We hear those two a lot being bandied about as we mature into adulthood; yet, we can live all our life and find neither.
It is a blessing to not have everything you want, but to have all that you need. The human instinct is to have everything that one wants, thinking that is what one needs.
Love it! I am so happy to be grist and for the miller to speak so clearly from the heart. Lovely, Carl. Thank you for sharing.
I just found your blog and will be reading it through. Seeing some parallels in my own life--originally lived in Vancouver, sold a condo at the wrong (e.g., could have kept it and rented it out for perpetual passive income), left BC when the lockdowns started and have scarcely looked back. Living a nomadic life for several years, around the world. I understand your quandary. I have the tendency to find and 'save' the cast-offs of our material world (something about the joy of finding something useful for free, including dumpster diving). But, yeah, the rain would be disconcerting for leaving that stuff on a verge somewhere and no doubt, your decision was right for your circumstances.
In a very tangible, visceral way, the timing was the Universe, whatever THAT, is giving me a challenge of the spirit. If we had left 5 days earlier I would have been able to 'dump' it with the Sally Ann. Lockdowns closed them. On hindsight, this has been a true spiritual journey of embodied 'aperigraha' and 'ishvara-pranidhana'. Reading about that, and practicing yoga on an organic rubber mat were no longer serving my spirit. :-D 'Radical spirituality', maybe. The time of covid really is the whole world embodiment of the need for 'radical spirituality' to cope with the embodiment of the dark energies that are working to replace light with greed and hoarding. The rich are the hoarding dragons who now want to raze the land to get more wealth. Spiritual joy is required to effectively fight that, and that joy is hindered when we are weighted down with the stuffs of mind and body that no longer serve. Wow! Letting go of the furniture was tough, and yet nothing to letting go of the old truths that at one time saved my life and served me well.
Furniture to the landfill--I couldn't do that. Better if you'd just put it out on the side of the road, like we saw up at UBC, or in an alley in West Point Grey or Kitsilano, or ANYWHERE, really. But to see what you described just going into the earth, that's what the mindless consumers do every day.
Yes. That is what the mindless consumers do.
We thought of putting it on the side somewhere too. It was Mar 17th and Vancouver weather. Lots of rain. It struck me that doing that was like abdicating my responsibility and hoping for someone else to be responsible. It is a kind of emotional and psychological laziness by putting on to others both the opportunity and, more likely, the burden of throwing it away on my behalf.
That was the true practice of aperigraha, of accepting the Buddhist principle of the impermanence of *everything*.
What I learned from that is that by not paying attention to the weight of my stuff I was unable to 'gracefully' sell it off and/or give it away. Later in my story the opportunity to the same thing presented itself. This time I was much more graceful about it.
I didn't do it mindlessly, so you have misrepresented that just a little. It was with full mind and awareness of both the impermanence of my existence, and to with full heart appreciate the beauty of what that furniture was to me, and to let it go with love and grace as much as I could. Truly a challenge of yoga, the absolute renunciation that simplicity requires without burdening other people with my own discarded or more broadly, my undiscarded emotional and psychological 'stuff.'
Thank you for your comment and observation.