When traveling, I met many who lived by the mantra of self-sufficiency. It seemed both to liberate and consume them.
Daily now I see people living on the street with a lot more, but still with needs of all sorts.
In some schools of Buddhism, the tradition was to live with only one bowl and one spoon. The practice was to beg daily - yes, for food, but mainly to submit to the judgment of society as to whether one's practice is worth it to others. The premise was that people would give if they see you as worthy, not because they pity you.
I would ask the OP to reflect publicly on what he discovered about his own attachments, sense of place, and relations with others and himself. That could be helpful even to people in more tangled circumstance.
It requires that there be people who aren’t monks, as monks are the ones out begging. Lay people can own lots of stuff, such as houses, hence the term “householders” to mean lay people in Buddhist literature.
> In some schools of Buddhism, the tradition was to live with only one bowl and one spoon. The practice was to beg daily
It still exists today. A friend of mine was a monk for many years and would make daily alms rounds.
It also happens in other lineages of Hinduism too. A Baul teacher of mine was supposed to do a short teaching tour here in the US a few months ago and actually got turned away at SFO by immigration because the immigration officer just couldn't understand that she doesn't make money and eats all her meals from alms. He told her no one exists like that anymore, detained her, and sent her back to Bengal.
Daily now I see people living on the street with a lot more, but still with needs of all sorts.
In some schools of Buddhism, the tradition was to live with only one bowl and one spoon. The practice was to beg daily - yes, for food, but mainly to submit to the judgment of society as to whether one's practice is worth it to others. The premise was that people would give if they see you as worthy, not because they pity you.
I would ask the OP to reflect publicly on what he discovered about his own attachments, sense of place, and relations with others and himself. That could be helpful even to people in more tangled circumstance.