Listen to this podcast from San Fransisco Zen Center titled "The Zen of Going to the Bathroom." for a funny meditation on letting go. Sojun Mel Weitsman describes money like blood: circulation of it in any living system is crucial to good health. If any part of the body is cut off from blood or gets too much of it, the whole body becomes sick. The same goes for a city or a population. Obesity and anorexia are more than an epidemics wreaking our digestion systems. Cleansing can be a huge relief. The more stuff we feel we need, or have to grasp on to, the more we fear loosing what we have or not getting what we want. The more the fear, well, you know what happens.
While cleaning out a second home we could not afford to keep I read the book Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things. It is full of amazing stories of people whose attachment to things can cripple them. Most amazing is how prevalent but hidden the disorder of hoarding has become in America.
On the other hand, there is the Cult of Less folks who have used digital technology to reduce all their material possessions down to a small backpack. I am too sentimental to become a full on ascetic but some times it sounds like kind of a relief. With moderation, I vow to start simplifying my life.
