POSSESSIONS

A society that lives by organized greed or by systematic terrorism and oppression . . . will always tend to be violent because it is in a state of persistent disorder and moral confusion.

(GNV 15)

The life of riches, ambition, pleasure, is in reality an intolerable servitude in which one “lives for what is always out of reach,” thirsting “for survival in the future” and “incapable of living in the present.”

(WCZ 22)

It is those who acquire inordinate possessions for themselves and defend them against others, who make it necessary for the others to steal in order to make a living.

(ZBA 123)

. . . what the world calls good business is only a way

To gather up the loot, pack it, make it secure

In one convenient load for the more enterprising thieves.

Who is there, among those called smart,

Who does not spend his time amassing loot

For a bigger robber than himself.

(WCZ 67)

Buddhism considers that a fundamental geocentricism, “providing for the self” (with possible economic implications in a more modern context) leads to dogmatism about the self — either that it is eternal or that it does not exist at all. A truly critical attitude implies a certain freedom from predetermination by economic and sociological factors. The notion of “I” implies a notion of “mine.” I am “my property” — I am constituted by what separates me from “not I” — i.e., by what is mine “and not anybody’s else.”

(AJ 105)

He who is controlled by objects

Loses possession of his inner self:

If he no longer values himself,

How can he value others?

(WCZ 137)

“There is no limit whatsoever to the measure of sacrifice that one may make in order to realize this oneness with all life, but certainly the immensity of the ideal sets a limit to your wants. That, you will see, is the antithesis of the position of the modern civilization which says ‘Increase your wants.’ . . . Hinduism rules out indulgence and multiplication of wants, as these hamper one’s growth to the ultimate identity with the Universal Self.”

(GNV 15, quoting Gandhi, italics and punctuation as in original)