Fortress Made of Air

As I do my sweeping breath activities to get rid of all my emotional baggage I can't help but think of minimalism. My general understanding of minimalism is that people try to get rid of their possessions and belongings. They say let go of them.

The Problem I Have with Minimalism

The problem I see is they don't give any concrete or useful advice on how to let go of things. They just say get rid of them. That seems to be kind of like the smoker who quits smoking. He doesn't have cigarettes and he's not smoking but he still has the addiction and he still has a need, and so he replaces cigarettes with some other activity like eating and then he gets fat. I see the same problem with minimalism if you don't have a deeper approach. You just throw out things and then go and get new ones.

Strike at the Root

By getting rid of attachments, you no longer desire the things that you have. Then it becomes easy to get rid of them. Further, you don't have a desire to recover or replace them.

Impregnable

Then you have a fortress made of air. Having a fortress is a wonderful thing: it protects you. Nobody can successfully attack you if you have a strong fortress.

By having nothing it's the same as having a fortress because nobody wants to attack you to get your things. There is nothing to get. Well it’s not quite the same. Because your fortress is made of air there's nothing there. And that's the strongest fortress of all because nobody can attack a fortress made of air; you cannot destroy it. So you've made yourself resilient to the blows of the world by releasing all your attachments to it.

At the same time you have made yourself as light as the wind. You become carefree.