Materialism Quotes

Life is about early detection of the reversal point beyond which your own belongings (say, a house, country house, car, or business) start owning you.

The things you own end up owning you.

Stop accumulating stuff and start accumulating experiences.

experience

This is the struggle of every person: be free or be a slave.

freedom

The greatest victory in life is to rise above the material things that we once valued most.

wealth

We have to shift our emphasis from economic efficiency and materialism towards a sustainable quality of life and to healing of our society, of our people and our ecological systems.

environment

THE TYRANNY OF THINGS

I am trying to rule
over ten thousand things
which I thought belonged to me.
All of a sudden a doubt take wings:
Do they...or could it be..? 
A hardhanded hunch in my mind's ear rings
from whence such suspicions may stem:
that if you posses more than just eight things
then you are possessed by them.

As wanderers, we monks and nuns are free of shadows from the past. This wandering life, with no material possessions, unlocks our souls. There is a wonderful sense of lightness, living each day as it comes, with no sense of ownership, no weight, no burden. Journey and destination became one, thought and action became one, until it is as if we are moving like a river into complete detachment.

clergy spiritual detachment