HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

A colleague recently passed this article along to me: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/opinion/sunday/arthur-c-brooksabundance-without-attachment.html?action=click&contentCollection=The %20Upshot&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&region=Marginalia&src=me& pgtype=article&_r=0

It’s an op-ed piece in the New York Times by Arthur C.  Brooks titled, “Abundance without Attachment.” It explains simply and eloquently what I’ve been trying to express about the tensions between the material and the spiritual during the winter holidays.  Brooks, an economist, tells of seeking a Hindu swami in New Delhi to ask his thoughts on material wealth. This swami happened to be an IndianAmerican business man who gave up his wealth to become a monk. The swami told Brooks that wealth and material things are not problems in themselves; it’s our attachment to them or our grasping for them that is problematic, especially when one looks to these things as the ends and not the means for a fulfilled life. I know we all know this – it is conventional wisdom shared by many religions and philosophies. Yet our culture and capitalist society bombard us with a much different message about what material things can do for us. We are under tremendous pressure to consume. Brooks and the Hindu swami say enjoy your abundance if you have it but don’t let it consume you. In addition Brooks suggests three practices that promote mindfulness and help us keep our focus on joy and meaning in our lives:

1. Collect more experiences than things in your life – you’ll cherish a memorable vacation more than a new couch 25 years from now. This is the paradox of things: material things fade from our memories while the immaterial endures in us mind, body, and soul. 

2. Steer clear of excessive usefulness – in the Gospels, Jesus says, “You see these lilies of the field? No king has ever dressed finer than these, yet the lilies do not toil nor spin.” In other words, they just are.  Allow yourself to be like the lilies and toil not; rather than do something for gain, do something just for the fun of it now and then.

3.  Get to the center – There is a concept that runs through Hinduism, Buddhism, and even early Christianity: think of life as a wheel: on the outside we endure the vagaries of living in a material      world  where we can get knocked off our horse quite easily. However, at the center of the wheel is the spiritual, the divine or ultimate truth. This is where we find non-attachment. The more we can move our awareness to the inside of the wheel, the less vulnerable we are to the ever turning wheel of fortune (or misfortune) on the outside. 

This is what I wish for you in the New Year: Experience, Play, and Center. May it be so.