Learning Non-Materialism

[Brian]

Question:

I am fairly new to Buddhism, though I have been interested in the
Buddhist system of beliefs for many years. I am wondering if you can
suggest any practices to help develop non-attachment, particularly in
regards to food and material things. Perhaps you have covered this in
a previous episode, I have not listened to all the back podcasts yet.
Thank you for your time and for the work you put into the website and
podcasts. It is very helpful to a novice Buddhist like myself.

Answer:

No, I don't think we've covered this before, at least not from the
"how-to" perspective, and yes, it's a difficult thing to master.

In the Four Noble Truths, Buddha himself explained that one of the
primary causes of suffering is attachment. He meant more than just
attachment to material things; he meant attachment to ideas, people,
emotions, beliefs, and much more. But let's focus on just worldly
material possessions for today.

In the East, historically, it has been tradition for householders to
support wandering monks, mendicants, ascetics, and other traveling
"holy men." It was completely possible for these men to survive owning
nothing but the clothes on their backs, and in some regions, even
clothing was an option. With modern society in the East, and even
moreso in Western countries, this lifestyle just doesn't work well
anymore. Generally speaking, we don't look at "homeless people" as
holy men; often it's quite the opposite. Clearly, for most of us, we
need to find some kind of middle way between being totally homelessand
propertyless and blatant greedy materialism.

There's nothing wrong with having a job, driving a car, wearing decent
clothes, and owning a few "toys." The trick is not to get too attached
to them. How would you react if somehow you lost it all tomorrow?

In my own life, I never really learned this lesson until I went to
Japan. Basically, all I took with me was the contents of two
suitcases, and had to make do with those items for the duration of my
stay (finding clothing in my size over there was not something I ever
managed to do). It was tough, but it was also easy to visualize how it
could have been worse; I wasn't broke and I did have options if there
was something I really needed. Still, I had a house full of
possessions back in the States that I was giving up, and it turns out
after a couple of weeks, I didn't miss those possessions at all. Upon
my return, I have been slowly working at getting rid of many of those
things. It's just "stuff" now, and I see now that "stuff" is just
another ball & chain.

So I'll open up the question to all of you: How do you manage your
attachment to material things? Is it a problem for you, and if it's
not, then why not?

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