I am not a materialistic person. I value spiritual abundance rather than material abundance. Simply because material things won’t last forever, but spiritual abundance will stay in the soul forever.
I have two extreme events that forced me to give up my material things.
The first experience was at the time of the big earthquake in 1995. At that time, I was living alone. The big shake broke most of my belongings such as electric appliances, furniture, and houseware. From my experience, I noticed that at the time of catastrophe, we don’t concern about material things. I think most of the people’s concerns are about their family’s safety. I was the same as most people. I went back to my parents’ house and gathered up with my parents and my brother. Everybody was safe. That was all my concerns.
The second experience was at the time of moving from Japan to America. Those days I was living in my own house so that I had lots of belongings. I sorted out the minimum requirements for me. I was surprised that all my belongings could be stored in only two suitcases. That made me realized that most of my belongings were unnecessary for me.
I think it is important for us to practice on not being attached to material things too much. It is especially important at the time of departure to our spiritual homeland. When the time has come, we all will get rid of our physical body and go back to our spiritual homeland. When we change our form from a physical body into a spirit, we cannot bring any material things. All we can bring back are wisdoms that we have learned from our experiences. And our memories and love from our loved ones.
If we tightly cling on certain material things such as houses, cars, and cash, the deep attachment to things can pull our spirit down, making too heavy to float back to the Universe.
Let’s practice for being lightly equipped in a daily life basis, by trying not to have deep attachment to material things that much. The forms will break in the course of time. But all the wisdoms will stay with us in our soul.
three wisdom 