During this weeks’ philosophy session we were discussing the idea of not stealing, it is one of the pillars in the Sanatana Dharma which I’m learning about little by little through the sessions. This particular pillar was hard for me to resonate with as I have never stolen anything in my life. Or at least that’s what I thought, until I started rethinking the definition of stealing and realised that I was referring to a very narrow definition related to objects and or materials.
It wasn’t until I expanded the notion of not stealing to a broad context of the intangible that I realised that I have actually stolen a lot from myself and others. When I started recognising that one can steal someones attention, time, energy etc. it became apparent that we actually do steal from others and ourselves more often than we realise. Sometimes this is intentional for example you want your partner to give all their attention to you, even when they’re in a middle of something important to them. This is an intentional attempt at stealing their attention and time away from what they’re doing and redirecting it towards what you need. Other times, it’s unintentional, for example when you organise a meeting at work to discuss a topic with someone, but you’ve not taken the time to think through what it is you’re trying to achieve from that meeting. So, you end up stealing their time and your own, by reactively organising a meeting that doesn’t end up being fruitful.
Then I went even further to reflect on what I steal from myself and I realised that I continuously steal peace from my mind. In addition, I rob myself of joy, recognition, celebration, confidence and trust, because at some point in my life I chose the opposite to all of these and then started practicing them so deeply that they’re now deeply held beliefs and or ways of operating that I can’t even recognise in myself anymore!
This notion of stealing has really opened up my eyes to how we go about our experiences on a daily basis and how we define ourselves in the world based on what the world has defined for us. The law is the only mechanism we have in modern day to define stealing, but in old scriptures of philosophy there were different ideas attached to these concepts and it’s important that we review and re-evaluate them because it will help us determine the types of lives that we seek and therefore experience.
There is a lot of food for thought here, a lot I still need to reflect on, but I truly hope that I become better at catching myself in the midst of stealing the intangible and the invaluable from both myself and others.
What have you been stealing?
Love Always,
M
Souloom™ 