Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The exquisiteness of experience

When we experience something
is it necessary to own it?
is it necessary to attach to it?
to treat it as mine?

It's funny but we do this
with good and bad
experiences
with things
and with people
Mine mine mine
we say

Claiming ownership
comes naturally
to our human selves

There is nothing wrong
with ownership
except
just a bit of
clear observation
shows that
it causes problems
such as fear
of losing that
which we own,
among other things

And if the problems
are an ok price
for us
that is fine

At some point however
the price of ownership
is too high
and that's when
it may be useful
to unpack ownership
from experiencing

We kind of assume
that we need to
own our experience
but is it true?

We associate
not owning
our experience
with denial
and running away
but is it true?

It would be
running away
to deny the experience,
whatever experience
arises

It is denial
to distract ourselves
from the experience
whatever experience
shows up

But it is
eminently possible
to fully experience
something
without owning it

This is not denial
or running away
This is facing up to
our reality
in the moment
exactly as it is

Herein lies
the exquisiteness
of all experience
When it is not owned
and yet gone through
when it is not claimed
and yet opened to
it is clean
leaving no residue
it is adventure
leaving no trace
it is fresh
leaving no identity
wrapped up
in the one
who owns it

What would it be like
to live life
going fully through
every single moment
of every single experience
without owning any of it?

2 comments:

Sumit said...

How do you own experience.. experience by itself is something you undergo... Do you own experience or experience of experience?

Ameeta said...

We own experience in the sense that we identify ourself as the one having the experience and then we say 'my pain' or 'my joy', or 'my adventure' or 'my thought' and so on.