Page Text
________________ is a very small window of opportunity for us to accomplish this. The window could close any moment in many ways - health-wise, culturally or naturally through end of life. Contemplation of Fulfilled Desires We need to reflect on our past to get another viewpoint on our possessiveness. Consider this - do we exaggerate positive qualities of things we are attached to; are they really worth all our troubles? How much fun is fun really, and how much is it forgetting the suffering? Do desires ever stop or is it an endless job to fulfill them? Let's look back several years and think about the possessions we desired in our lives - it might have been a new car, a better job, or a house or any number of things. Now, look at how many of these desires were actually fulfilled. Chances are we got most of what we wanted then. Let's also look at the consumer within us - and the constant barrage of things our economy wants us to acquire. In fact, we got all the things they wanted us to get - the new phone, the cars etc. Did the things we wanted to have, and the things they wanted us to have made us happier? No. That's because happiness doesn't come from things and money. We know this. We have proof of this in our own life. The happiness we are seeking is from outside, it has to come from within. Final Thought Non-possession is the one of the great vows for Jain householder's code of conduct. We must observe both our possessiveness and our motivation for possessiveness with non-judgmental self-observation. The roots of attachment are planted as soon as we begin to distinguish between "yours" and "mine". Non-possessiveness simply cannot be achieved in a single leap; only a gradual step by step ascent is possible. If we live each day with a contemplation of our fortunes, impermanence of things and our ignorance in understanding the true nature of things, it won't be long before we're living with non-possessiveness without having to think about it. So, in the coming weeks as the deluge of advertisements bombard us with messages designed to tell us what we lack, by living in content and gratitude we can blissfully smile and breathe our way through them. ellel JAIN EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION www.jaineducation.org info@jain education.org discover. learn.share.
| SR No. | 269090 |
| Book Title | This Blessed Life |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Nirmala Baid |
| Publisher | Nirmala Baid |
| Publication Year | |
| Total Pages | 4 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Article & Society |
| File Size | 140 KB |