Thánh Thủy translated to English  Read in Vietnamese

In our daily life, we often are not satisfied with what we’ve got, thinking it’s never enough, compared to what we usually wish for and want. This is not just pertaining to the poor and the needy, but it’s a common mentality of the rich and wealthy people as well. It’s very strange, because often happiness would not come whenever we possess a lot of what we want. On the contrary, it is easier to be happy whenever we can let go of our worldly possession.

That is why we are usually very happy and content in our younger years; all of us have experienced it. During those tender years, we often don’t have much that could be called “our own”, but remember those happy times – careless and joyful – compared to when we become “the boss” with numerous worries, difficulties, headaches. With the passing years, we are gathering more and more of what we call our own material possession. But as always, there are oodles more of what we still don’t already own spread out in front of our eyes.

We’ve got to let go of our wants and needs to possess and to have everything. This is the first important step in order to acquire and enjoy the freedom in our lives. Because of this greediness is the main cause in transforming us into the slave of materialism. Despite the fact that we act like we are in charge of everything, in actuality, we just perform and act accordingly with the unspoken command passed on by our very own avaricious mind.

The only way to achieve the true and complete freedom from this covetous materialism is to let go of not just the concrete and physical things, but those insubstantial non-seeing possession as well - including those intangible things like our erroneous fixed ideas, our emotional attachment, or our incorrect view of common facts… Only then can we become our own boss, and have the least necessary conditions to perceive and accept the genuine and real happiness in our lives.

Letting go of materialistic possession does not mean that we negate the existence and the value of worldly things, but we have to appreciate their significance and cherish their presence as factual, and not being controlled by wants and needs. By doing this, we can create a demarcation line separating the bare necessity for our livelihood, and that of materialistic greediness. The basic necessity for our life’s demand is real and is needed in our daily use, but the materialistic possession is just manifestation of true avarice. It is this covetous greediness that constantly advocates us to possess what we love or wish to have. Once having that which we love, we often have this false sense of satisfaction that lasts just for a few instance, then right after that, once again we would wish for something else that we have not gotten yet.

The essential things for daily living, on one hand, would have its tangible and specific boundaries, while on the other hand; insatiable greed and self-indulgence know no limits. So that the concept of greed does not stop anywhere; we have no frontier in what we covet; it seems to cover practically all areas, all things, and all objects and subjects.

We can refer to a particular example in order to understand the matter more completely. Every day you have to bike more than 10 km to work, so buying a motorcycle seems to be very essential in facilitating the real necessity of your life. But to try and upgrade to a newer, more modern motorbike than the one that still works well and gets you where you need to go, is no longer included in the basic necessity. In this instance, you are already subjected to your own wanton greediness.

When you can truly realize the fundamental value and use of material things, then you are not governed by the lure of greediness; but in order to renounce materialism, we also have to understand correctly about the existence of worldly material things. In the previous article, we already spoke of the extensive property of all things which are impermanent in nature, constantly changing, and always approaching their destruction.

“All phenomena are just like… an illusory dream, a bubble in the stream, a flash of lightning in the summer cloud, a phantom flickering lamp… so as to conditioning existence is to be viewed as fleeting world.”

(The Diamond Sutra)

Thánh Thủy (The Buddhist Translation Group)

SOURCE: http://www.phapluanonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=597:n-ci-di-lc&catid=36:xuan&Itemid=56