By Adi Narayan Ji
One of the most powerful illusions that our mind creates, is that we are what we possess. When we desire something, it begins to cling to our mind. Our desire to attain it grows and eventually transforms into a complete clinging of the object: mentally, emotionally, psychologically, and physically. The clinging attribute of the mind breeds feelings of entitlement and ownership of the object. This occurs even before it comes into our hands.
The ‘I’ uses the acquisition of the desired object to further create a deeper sense of separation. It separates itself further from its oneness with the true Self, by projecting itself deeper into the phenomenal world. The full identification culminates in the belief that all which the mind possesses, in the world of manifest objects, is who we really are.
This clinging nature is all-pervasive. It not only operates in the realms of physical material objects, but also extends to the objectification of people in our lives: this is so that they too can come into our ownership.
To further its goals, the mind uses the concepts of time and space as its allies to project a future; a future in which the object will be with us until the end of time. We believe that it is the nature of the desired object, in and of itself, to magically bring into our lives a missing piece of our happiness. We think that this happiness will only grow stronger as our time together with the object grows. This is a happiness that we believe cannot be achieved by any other means other than acquiring the object of our desire.
Furthermore, during the mind’s processing of desires, it imbues the object of our desiring with a feeling of perfection. Ultimately, this will fall short since nothing in the manifest world can be as perfect as our mind dreams it to be. As time passes, and this illusory effect begins to dim, we are ultimately left with the feeling of loss, sadness and even over time, depression. We realize that our hopes of happiness did not come to fruition. We believe something within us failed to bring about the happiness we were seeking. Something within us, separate in our relation to the object, failed.
The mind masks the truth of the object’s inability to bring about ultimate happiness in order to perpetuate this deep clinging nature. It does this so that we continually search outwardly, as it attempts to continually curb our search from turning inward. It is likened to a bread crumb trail enticing us with object after object, and leading us further astray from our true nature and the source of ultimate happiness, the Self.