Practicing non-attachment

One of the core Buddhist beliefs is that attachment, usually driven by desire, is the root cause of suffering. From experience, I've found this to be the case. (As an aside, I am more in tune with the mystics of various religious traditions, who emphasized experiential ways to access the divinity within and without.)

When I owned a house, there was lot of details regarding its care and maintenance that I was forced to worry about. This caused me needless angst which I did not like one bit.

Now, being a rootless nomad, floating from continent to continent - I feel a sense of deep joy stemming from not worrying about objects. I have slowly cultivated a sense of deachment from almost all my material possessions. I was recently informed that my brother had to toss out all my books/notebooks/coursematerial from B-school from forking over $70K in tuition) that were boxed in my parents house, after it got flooded. It didn't faze me a bit, while about 2 years ago I would have indulged in prolonged hand-wringing and/or chest beating.

The world of material objects is impermanent and fleeting - all maya (an illusion). None of us will be buried pharaonic style - along with all our possessions. Can you picture yourself lying in a coffin with a sweet-ass 60 inch plasma TV at your feet, and the latest iPod pumping rap in your ears? I didn't think so. So, it is futile to obsess or stress about chunky metal or plastic.

Joy stems from pursuit of the infinite - the sensual and the sublime, the magical and the mysterious, the towering transcendental.

“An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with material senses. Such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them.”

“To the illumined man or woman, a clod of dirt, a stone, and gold are the same.”

“Thou hast power only to act not over the result thereof. Act thou therefore without prospect of the result and without succcumbing to inaction."

- From The Bhagavad Gita