It’s best not to be possessive about your belongings, nor to busy yourself trying to store more and more things, because possessions are an obstacle to the practice of generosity, which is one of the six perfections. If you feel incapable of separating yourself from something, you should reflect on the futility of material goods, as well as the impermanence of your own life. Sooner or later, you will have to leave your possessions behind, so rather than dying in the grip of avarice it is wiser to free yourself from them and donate them right away.
Whoever realizes how futile it is to feel possessive, and who is generous to others with the pure hope of helping them, is called a bodhisattva.
Taken from The Dalai Lama’s book of Inner Peace.
Pg 289
isbn 9780007745463
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