“DD” THE SELF IN ALL THINGS
(The Upanishads) The purpose of things in your life is not for you to love them, but to love the Self in all things.
When we attach ownership to something, especially when we call it “mine,” we often become a slave to the stories we tell ourselves about the thing owned. Pain and suffering arise from one’s attachments and aversions, from expectations, desires and cravings.
When you believe the “thing” is where happiness resides, what happens as soon as the new car smell wears off and it no longer excites you? Why do we look for new lovers out of a sense of who’s currently in our life no longer excites us? Why is getting pusued, over gratitude for what we already possess?
Replacing anything with something new for the purpose of delivering more happiness into your life will only create an ending where searching starts all over again. It’s the miracle and the curse of a little neurotransmitter the ego has at its disposal: dopamine.
At best in this life, we’re stewards of what comes into our life. However, most believe they own what’s in their possession, and then when owning that thing or that person or that job proves to take a turn we didn’t see coming, suddenly life becomes unmanageable, and we choose to believe we’re victims as opposed to spiritual creations of God getting the experience to wear a human body for a while.
You don’t even own your body. Nor your thoughts. Nor your feelings or emotions. If you owned these things, you’d be able to control these things. The only thing you own is your birthright of being a physicalized spirit for whatever timeline that allows for this time around.
To own something, you would have to be that thing. You’re not anything you can see, smell, feel, taste, or experience. You’re not even what’s reading these words right now. You’re more likened to what is aware of something looking at what’s in front of you currently. You’re not the brain nor the mind, not any of your senses, not your marriage, job, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or political point of view.
You don’t even control your outlook on life from a spiritual sense, and quite honestly, at the basest level, you’re not in control of anything.
Until you realize this for yourself, the most control you have over anything in life comes in the form of choice. The choice with regards to what to choose next -- what to do with the thought, with the feeling, with money, with “your” attention and intention, with pain and suffering, fear and joy, with the next breath taken by a body you’re only renting.
Let go of your tight grip on life so you can see for yourself that the purpose of things in your life is not to love them and crave more, but to witness the Self in all things and trade dopamine hits for serotonin release.
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