The Possessions We Covet and Amass
A while back, I saw a cartoon of a man on his deathbed saying: “I wish I’d bought more stuff.”
It has always amazed me that so many people keep wanting to increase their wealth — amassing far more money than they could spend or even usefully bequeath. For example, think of Elon Musk — the new owner of Twitter with a current net worth of $208 Billion. Or Michael Jordan, owner of the Charlotte Hornets with a net worth of $1.8 Billion. Or even John Travolta with a net worth of $250 Million and owns at least seven large jets.
One day I asked a wise and wealthy friend the reason for such apparent greed. She explained that many people who have gotten rich measure their self-worth only in materialistic terms. So, they stay on the money-making hamster wheel year after year. They believe that at some point, they will finally accumulate enough stuff to feel truly successful, happy, and, therefore, ready to die.
The unbalanced ego’s desire to possess things
Ego-identification creates attachment and obsession with things. That, in turn, creates our consumer society and economic structures where the only measure of success and progress is by always having more. The unrestrained craving for more things and limitless net worth are part of our society’s dysfunction.
It’s similar to the cancerous cell or virus whose only goal is to multiply itself. Unaware that it is bringing about its destruction by destroying the organism of which it is a part.
An unbalanced ego will not exist for long without the need for more. That is to say, more things to identify with. It is an addictive need, not an authentic one. An obsessive preoccupation with things consumes a large part of many people’s lives. This is why one of the ills of our times is ‘object’ proliferation.
When you feel a lack of self-worth, you will likely try to fill the hole with things. What kind of things will depend on the person’s gender, age, social status, income, taste in lifestyle, surrounding culture, etc.
You need to be alert and honest with yourself to determine whether your sense of self-worth is bound up with possessions. Do certain things in your life cause an enhanced feeling of importance or superiority? Does the lack of those things make you feel inferior to those who have more than you?
Do you frequently mention to others the things you own? Do you show off your items to increase your sense of worth in someone else’s eyes? Do you feel resentful or angry and diminished in your sense of self-worth when someone else has more than you?
Outside forces can influence your ego’s desire to possess things
The advertising industry knows all too well that to sell you things you don’t need, you must be convinced that those things will add value to how you see yourself and are viewed by others. Advertisers will try to convince you that you will stand out from the crowd by using their product and — by implication — enhance your value of self-worth.
Advertisers may create an association in your mind between the product and someone famous or someone young, attractive, and looking happy. The unspoken assumption is that by buying their product, you become like those well-off others through some magical act of transformation — or at least, the surface image of them.
And so, you are not purchasing a product as much as an “identity enhancer.” For example, ‘designer labels’ are primarily collective identity enhancers. They are expensive and, therefore, “exclusive.” They would lose their psychological value if everybody could afford to buy them. In that case, all you would be left with would be the material value of those things — which likely would amount to a fraction of what you paid.
Our corporate capitalistic culture thrives on our compulsion to consume — and to own and possess things. Our corporate capitalistic controllers do not want you to stop wanting material possessions. They do not want your awakening and aspiring to higher levels of your conscious experience.
Your higher spirit sends ripples of enlightenment into the collective consciousness of this 3D reality illusion. And such ripples are an unwelcome problem to those who are busy controlling the system and you. The controllers are using every method imaginable to manipulate your wants and desires through the lower frequencies of the human spirit.
The art of letting go
The need for food, water, shelter, clothing, and basic comforts could be easily satisfied for all humans on Earth were it not for the imbalance of resources created by the insatiable and insane human lust for more.
The greed of the unbalanced ego finds collective expression in the economic structures of this world. Structures such as giant corporations, which are egoic collectives that compete with each other for more. Their only blind aim is bottom-line profit. And they pursue that aim with absolute ruthlessness.
A ‘satisfied’ unbalanced ego is usually short-lived as it keeps looking for more. It keeps buying, consuming, and accumulating. However, letting go of possessions (i.e., decluttering your home) can be an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on to whatever you currently have.
If everyone lived in a mansion or were wealthy, your mansion or wealth would no longer enhance your sense of self-worth. You could then move to a simple cabin and give up your wealth.
It is an absolute that the less you feel you need, the happier you will be with your life. That, in turn, stimulates the contemplation of your higher purpose and deeper meaning of existence — all existence, not just your own.
Embrace a life of less
Most Eastern philosophy warns that focusing on acquisition leads to attachment and vanity which derail the search for happiness by obscuring one’s essential nature.
As we grow older, I believe it is unnecessary to continue acquiring more. Instead, we should strip things away to find our true selves — and in the process, experience a higher level of peace, contentment, and awakening.
‘Lifestyle creep’ is responsible for a lot of unnecessary spending in today’s world. Eventually, our ‘expense’ baseline is high without our even noticing it. We feel we can’t get by on less. It’s important to understand that living below your means does not translate to a boring or meaningless life.
Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. If you have them, you must take care of them. Those who have enough but not too much are the happiest. There is great freedom in the simplicity of living.
A while back, I myself awakened and decided I would rather have a passport full of stamps than a house full of stuff. By choice, I currently live a frugal life, and I couldn’t be more content and at peace. Today, the freedom I have on the other side of “having stuff” makes me genuinely euphoric! That’s the phrase I now use as a minimalist to describe the joy I have after getting rid of most of my unnecessary material possessions.
In a future article on Medium, I will offer more on the subject of ‘minimalism.’
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