Daily Meditation: You're Robbing Yourself Blind
Asteya means non-stealing. Basically, we’re all kleptomaniacs.
“Stealing is to take or use other people’s property without their permission, which includes sneaking phone calls at work; dirtying up the city that we all pay for with our taxes; or ruining the earth for the coming generations.”
— The Essential Yoga Sutra: Ancient Wisdom for Your Yoga by Geshe Michael Roach, Lama Christie McNally
Wanting what you don’t have, the desire of which will lead to stealing is rooted in attachment.
You define yourself by what you perceive to own.
But you don’t own anything.
The clothes, the car, the home you’ve purchased with money: you don’t own any of them any more than you would own the clothes, the car, the home in a video game. You’re just borrowing them for your ultimate purpose.
I remodeled my bathroom last year. I knew it would be an expensive project that would take way longer to finish than I could imagine. Even knowing it was coming, I suffered, I whined, and I cried.
After a mighty whinge-fest, a friend told me, “You’re really defining yourself by your home.”
It hit me hard, the reason I was having such a difficult time, the reason I was suffering: it wasn’t because of the bureaucratic nightmare caused by my HOA or the stress of couch surfing for three months.
It was because I thought I needed my home in order to be at home in myself.
I don’t need it.
I want it.
Life feels safer with it.
But I know that I am myself with or without that home.
That’s when I knew I had to move.
Not just for any old reason, but because I’m pursuing a master’s in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
I was scared to move. I still am. But I’m doing it anyway.
I was super attached to the idea of being a homeowner, of having my own space.
I was stealing from myself.
I was stealing the joy the next journey would bring me.
I was robbing myself of gratitude for all the sweet memories and friends I made living in that home.
What really clinched it for me was, I was stealing from someone else the opportunity to live in a sacred home with kind neighbors.
We steal from each other all day long.
It’s painful when you realize how much energy it takes to take what you don’t need from someone who does need it.
It makes life harder.
Here’s how to make life softer.