Baggage

In your house, you have all your comforts. You are surrounded by stuff.

You take ownership of it and, in strong and subtle ways, you carry it with you. In fact, you are possessed by it.

In owning, you are owned. With baggage, you are not free.

When you go on holiday, you cannot take your whole house and all your belongings with you. So you simplify. You select and then carry only what you regard as essentials.

As a seasoned traveler, those perceived necessities are far fewer than for a less secure or experienced adventurer. You can get by with very little. Even as an indulgent person, you accept relative frugality when you go on holiday.

While away, when you go to the beach, you select from your already distilled possessions just what you feel you need for the day. Now you are down to a small bag, to minimal baggage. You are wearing very little, carrying very little, needing very little, and feeling quite free.

Then when you go for a swim in the sea, you leave almost everything behind. Your shelter, car, gadgets and money are not needed. They are a hindrance. All you have on you is perhaps some skimpy clothing, which is really just for your walk to and from the water. Inside the sea, you need nothing.

In the ocean, you need only to breathe. You are reduced to your most basic. It is like being back in the womb. You can remove even your swimming costume and enjoy total freedom. Your baggage has been dropped, left behind. Step by step, you have shed the burdens that bind you, and found nakedness.

Floating on your back with you eyes closed, you hear only your breath coming in and going out.

Here, you are clear. Even your thoughts leave you eventually and you become true.

As a drop in the ocean, you start to see that you are one with it. Looking up, you sense that you are the sky as well.

Suspended, you are the whole of existence. Breathing, you are infinitely blessed.

Without baggage, you are yourself.