“The great Buddhist saint Nagarjuna used to wander naked, except for a simple loincloth—and, somewhat absurdly, carrying a golden alms bowl given to him by a king who was one of his followers.
One night, as he was about to lie down to sleep among the ruins of an ancient monastery, he noticed a thief slipping behind one of the columns.
“Here, take this,” said Nagarjuna, handing him the alms bowl. “That way you won’t disturb me when I fall asleep.”
The thief quickly seized the bowl and ran off—only to return the next morning with the bowl and a request. He said, “When you gave me this bowl so easily last night, you made me feel very poor. Teach me how to acquire the wealth that comes from this kind of carefree non-attachment.”
A beautiful story about where true wealth lies.”
I do not think possessions—or the desire for possessions—are a bad thing. On the contrary. What I do believe is that they become a problem at the moment when, because of them, we begin to lose our freedom of spirit and become overly tense and fearful.
And just as attachment does not relate only to material things, the same is true of freedom.
