“I am what I own” is a proposition based on a very modern view of thinking. For example, your children could be described as your other selves.
Even so, however, both your children and belongings are not something that you can freely manipulate.
Against your expectation, your children might rebel against you, run away from your home and even die of illness. Each child is an independent person and is different from his/her parents and their ways of thinking and behavioral patterns. It is not easy for you to control her children as you would wish.
You may partially or completely lose your possessions for various reasons. You might go bankrupt or your house might be washed away by a flood. If they were truly yours, you can control them as you wish.
When we think deeply, however, we cannot always control ourselves. We hope that all of our conveniences will last, but reality often betrays our wishes. In Buddhism, we understand that the nature of our lives requires us “to face the reality of impermanence.”
Buddha teaches us, “To realize that nothing is our property is wisdom and is the way to escape from suffering.” That is to say, he teaches us that all things, every material object, our minds and the environment surrounding us are not things about which we can say, “This is mine.” This is because everything in this world is impermanent and is in the process of changing.
Learning the Wisdom of Enlightenment, Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai and BDK America, 2019, Moraga.
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