Do you own possessions or they own you?

I have heard of an eastern religion or philosophy that only allows the person to own 6 possessions.

If 7 are collected the possessions start having a little ownership over the person that 'owns' them. If 200 are collected, the possessions have a great ownership over the person.

Has anybody else heard this or know the name of the religion or philosophy?

 

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“Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.”

Andre Gide


"The wise man carries his possessions within him."

Bias

"Every increased possession loads us with new weariness."

John Ruskin

"An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit."

Pliny the Younger

 

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"He who dies with the most toys is still dead" - T-shirt slogan.
Pfft.

 

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This is a material world, and there is nothing wrong with indulging in it. Posession is not a bad thing.

 

Is it now?

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They can be a liability or a distraction from spiritual development (for some people). If you are really serious about it, you should give up their pursuit. There isn't anything inherently wrong with them.

 

Years ago as graduate student I visited an aunt who was a few years older than me. She was polishing her silverware at kitchen table so I helped as we talked. (She had her own set, mainly wedding gifts, that of her mother who was in nursing care, and a set from one of her grandmothers.) After more than an hour of joint effort, she casually remarked:

"You really don't own things, they own you." (She rarely ever used them, but could not bring herself to sell them.)

There are few sentences I have heard that have been as beneficial for me. That eye-opening POV made it easy for me to sell everything I had when I retired and moved to Brazil with one suit case plus a trunk full of books and Xeroxed journal articles I liked. I could get it shipped for free,* so why not? In the 16 years I have lived in Brazil, I may have reread parts of five of the books. Everything in them is now available in the internet so I brought more than I needed to Brazil.

Summary: The less material things you own, if you mainly enjoy learning and sports you participate in, like swimming, IMHO, the wealthier you are. I no longer own a car,** and when my watch battery failed a few years ago, I ceased to wear a watch. I am retired – why should I let it regulate my life? ***

I believe Diogenes also agreed with this POV. He had a plate, knife, fork and spoon, but one day threw the fork away as he could eat with the spoon. Also a grateful rich man whose son he had taught came to ask what he could give to Diogenes. Diogenes said: My sunlight, you are blocking it. These fables are probably not true, but for a long time, the idea that you are rich if owning material things has appealed to only shallow minds.. As they say, you are not going to take it with you.

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*I had a friend who was the Baltimore representative for the Norwegian Seamen. His main job was to get the seamen out of jail and back onto their ship before it sailed. The courts trusted him and doing this saved Baltimore city funds. All the ship captains did him favors in return: Special foods from Norway, etc. One favor was to get my trunk to the port of Santos, Brazil, where I "paid" for it with a present of a bottle of scotch.

**Buses and metro are free to older people, and much faster than fighting Sáo Paulo's traffic.

***My wife does that job well, without any assistance from my watch.

PS I once had many material things that go with a big suburban house. After kids had gone to college and I had sold that house and was moving into an apartment, I used my sledge hammer to make my old lawn mower fit inside a trash can. That was the most fun I had ever had with that machine. It had owned too many of my week-end hours for much too long. It disserved every blow it got.

 

Posession is a great thing. I would die without my shamwow.

 

Just as there are philosophies based on ownership, there are philosophies based on renunciation too.

What is interesting however is that no one can lay claim to absolute ownership (we are born with nothing and die with nothing) of a single thing and that no one can be renounced from absolutely everything (its interesting to observe yogis around haridwar basically owning nothing but a mat to sit on ... and boy are they edgy about the 3 square feet it occupies!).

That is why I am more interested in the philosophy of "yukta - vairagya" - namely the appropriate use of things according to circumstance.

 

Depends if it requires maintenance and how much maintenance. How easily you can provide the maintenance .

 

My small lock-knife owns me. I take it everywhere, I feel deficient without it.

 

Give a man with lots of toys and big houses a medium dose of DMT (ayahuasca) and see how he deals with it. His car disappears, his house, his wife with gigantic breasts. If he handles the experience well, he most likely has his heart set more deeply than at first presumed.

If he freaks out and "goes to hell" for a period of time, it is more likely that he needed the DMT as a tempering experience for his soul.

Exactly.

If it eats time, hopefully it educates, increases skills, or further strengthens relationships....

 

To be owned by not having possessions is still being owned.

To have what you have when you have it and let it go with out a care when you don't is the middle way.

 

Assuming what you want costs money that is lost when you let it go will lead to ruin.

 

No. It will only lead to not having it.

 

I own my stuff, my husband's stuff owns him.
It has a lot to do with our parents.
I grew up military and we moved a lot. You don't pack rat stuff if you are continually moving.
My husband's folks were children of the Depression. They kept everything because you never knew when you might need it. 'Waste not, want not'.

 

"You possess only whatever will not be lost in a shipwreck."- Ghazali

 

Ah, that's called consumerism. First you consume it and then it consumes you. Shopping. The worldwide pastime. I'm over it all. Downsized and got rid of 90% of everything. In the end..it all winds up in a big trash dump and your stuck with the credit card bills.
So i dumped it all first. Useless and mindless..Stuff. Clutter. Frees up ones mind for more important spiritual matters i find..don't you?

 

One can be owned by the idea of non-possession as easily as by possession.

 

BTW, this is a true story, with some amendments. Diogenes was proud of he had only one possession, a bowl, until he saw a child drink water with cupped hands. "A child has bested me in simple living" and tossed his bowl away. It was Alexander who stood in his sun and was rebuked for it. He most famous and 'successful' of the Cynics, today would be considered just an entertaining bum.