how do i get rid of the desire for material things?

Don't :2thumbsup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CQHIP-38jA"]YouTube - Madonna - Material Girl [Official Music Video]




Hotwater

 

Listen to him. He's the smartest person I know.

 

Start by knowing yourself better, just like Zen teaches. When you realize that you are more that you have heard from everyone including your mind, the love that was given to material things will take another direction.

 

I know a family so wracked by poverty that simply buying their kids shoes will move them to tears. Nothing I could buy for myself would ever mean that much, so helping them with the basics takes care of a lot of my frivolous needs. It really is part of what it means to be a Hippie for me

 

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Materialism is a sort of addiction that should be dealt with as such. The pushers are all around us and their messages saturate air waves and cover pages of print. Limit your exposure to the messages designed to make you want something and you'll realize that it's the act of acquiring something new that gives the materialist his/her "high"... once you have something it quickly loses its appeal.

 

i think that sometimes you need to take action first, and let your mind follow...

 

Make love to someone each time you find yourself wanting another piece of materilistic crap in your life.

I'm not making jokes when I say that. My wife was a woman that had a terriable time with wanting "crap." She had a hard time understanding that I only became a lawyer in order to stay out of Vietnam and I didn't give a damn about expensive cars or similar garbage. I'm was/am a weirdo and I really embraced all that, as they used to say, weird long haired faggot hippie shit. In the early days of our relationship, this because a serious problem for us.

We had been to marriage counseling, spoke to ministers, our parents, etc. The solution was always the same. Cut my hair, have a baby and that would make everything just fine. So one day I asked a friend of mine what would he do to fix this problem. He told me, "love is the solution to every problem."

HE WAS RIGHT !!

So everytime my wife wanted something we didn't need or was just plain for the purpose of impressing other people. I showered my wife with attention, affection and made love to her until she eventualy forgot about the crap or stopped caring about it. And eventually, just like pavlov's dog, she started asking for things just to have me pay attention to her.

My wife passed away 3 years ago and we were married probably longer than most of you young folks have been alive.

So my advice rests. When there is something you want but don't need. Go make love to someone and keep doing it until the feeling of greed goes away.

 

If you want to take things low, spend some time volunteering at a soup kitchen, or other charity involving the poor. Try spending some time talking to some people outside of the burbs.

Spend less time having things advertised to you by engaging more with a wider variety of people.

And every time you buy something, rate you're excitement with the item on a scale of one to ten before you buy it.

Look at it six days after you've bought it, try and objectively rate your satisfaction with the item on a scale on one to ten. Then you may realize that it's not the item in itself you're desiring. It's some other sense of satisfaction that desiring an object brings to you in the store and while buying it, taking it home that seems momentarily satisfying.

I don't think giving up the desire for material things is really the key to happiness. But a need for acquiring crap you don't need is a recipe for a bit of emptiness.

 

The process proceeds always, thought, word, and deed. The thought always comes first, even if you didn't recognize it because on many occasions it happens so quickly, or the impulse comes from a deeper unexamined sponsoring thought, (belief).
Animus, (mind), animates animal.

What action do you think would purge the desire to buy things?

 

But for Christ's sakes, don't go bareback all the time. The world is overpopulated as is...

 

Especially with lawyers.

 

There are other forms of birth control

 

a more useful question would be "how do i get rid of the desire to get rid of the desire for material things?"

 

sooooo true.

 

get yourself a terminal illness or disease

all materialistic wants and needs disappear rather quickly

 

This is so true.
When you make friends with your own mortality. You suddenly understand that death can come without warning, without reason and at any time. Therefore you could die in the next 5 minutes.

When that truth gets passed all of our thick skulls. You know that each and every day might very well be the last day of your life. It's at the moment, you stop caring about the material things.

So let me share with you my list of some of the things that I love.

I love to go to the park and sharing a meal with whoever might be sitting on the bench next to me.
I love to feed and hug that loud old ugly and annoying bird my wife purchased before she died.
I love my children and my grand children.
I love getting old. (It means I can lend my tools and not worry about getting them back)
I really love making love. (Bad love making is better than a good day fishing)
And I love sharing a little bit of time talking to all the young folks on this forum.

 

Life is far too short to deny yourself the simple pleasures we are allowed in this life. Take what you want from the world and never apologize! So you like new shit enjoy yourself, go on gurl treat cho self!

 

I do not think there is anything wrong with wanting material things as long as you do not feel that they are an answer to everything that is wrong or not going well, as in a magic fix.

People who I know who get into a jam with the material things dilemma are the ones who have the desire to own with the expectation that it solves their issues. That it fills a void emotionally.

If you stop having an appreciation for the things that are non-material then perhaps you need to evaluate wants and needs.

I do think that there can be a balance between the wants and needs and the non-material side of a person. It does not have to be one or the other.

 

You don't have to give up desire of material things. You just have to find a balance. That's all. You don't have to completely deny yourself. And balance comes in appreciation of the simpler things in life.