Musashi's Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone)

Precept 14:
Do not hold on to possessions you no
longer need
“There are only two kinds of freedom in the world; the
freedom of the rich and powerful, and the freedom of the
artist and the monk who renounces possessions.” —
Anais Nin
Monk:
The woman sat across the desk from me and talked about cleaning
out her father’s home after his death. Her father had put everything
in order, from final instructions to legal paperwork, all the way down
to the boxes in the attic that he had neatly stacked and labeled.
Nevertheless, it was still hard for her to go through everything as you
can well imagine. Up in the attic she came upon her rocking horse.
An only child, her parents had kept it in hopes that that she might
have a child someday, but she had chosen not to do so. So, now the
painted eyes of her childhood toy were staring back at her. A little
wooden rocking horse that held the memories of childhood, and
quiet hopes for the future.
She threw the rocking horse away.
Reading about this incident our emotions want us to go directly to
the rocking horse and her tossing it into the dumpster. We might
wonder why she couldn’t have given it away to some kid who could
have used it instead. After all, it was meaningful enough to her father
that he’d kept it for decades. Maybe she had friend or relative with a
small child who would similarly cherish the heirloom. Seems

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heartless doesn’t it? A dumpster?! Stop, don’t focus on how she
chose to get rid of the rocking horse, but why.
When something is no longer useful, it is important to let it go. This
can refer to emotions, items, and even memories. All of these three
things take effort and energy to hang onto, so it can easily become
energy poorly spent if we focus on the wrong things. Repeatedly
reliving bad experiences is a waste of energy just like reshuffling old
boxes of VHS tapes when we no longer have a player that can be
used to view the movies on. Useless emotions, worn out objects and
hurtful memories are all rubbish and should be treated that way. This
doesn’t mean that we can’t learn from them, sort of like recycling to
keep the analogy, but if anything is no longer useful it ought to be
discarded.
And, of course, there’s the question of whether or not we truly own
anything in the first place? The answer clearly is no, we don’t
actually own anything we only borrow it for a time. With this simple
knowledge we should look at the things in our life and ask the
question, “Do I need this?” We must evaluate whether or not we truly
need it while being brutally honest with ourselves and our emotions.
Musashi lived a life of few possessions except what he considered to
be truly important. If he had no use for something it was discarded,
or more likely never considered for inclusion in the first place.
Most of us aren’t ascetics or hoarders, our lives fall somewhere in-
between. But, most of us err on the side of holding on to too much
stuff, crowding our lives, our homes, and even our heads with junk.
Take some time to do an honest self-audit. How much stuff are you
holding onto that you no longer need? Toss the clutter and you’ll be
far better for having done so.