Possessing nothing,
wanting nothing.

He is full of power.
Fearless, wise, exalted.
He has vanquished all things.
He sees by virtue of his purity.

He has come to the end of the way,
over the river of his many lives,
his many deaths.

Beyond the sorrow of hell,
beyond the great joy of heaven,
by virtue of his purity.

He has come to the end of the way.

All that he had to do, he has done.

And now he is one.

These are the last golden sutras of The Dhammapada:

Possessing nothing,
wanting nothing.

He is full of power.

Why does man want to possess? It is one of the most fundamental things to be understood. Unless you understand why there is a constant hankering to possess more and more things, money, power, you will not be able to get rid of this insanity of possessiveness. Man wants to possess because he has not known who he is; he is unaware of his inner kingdom. He thinks he is a beggar, hence he begs.

Desires are beggars. The more you desire, the more you prove that you are unaware of your own treasures. That very unawareness leads you into the desert of possessiveness. It is a desert because you will not attain to anything. You may possess the whole world, still you will remain the same hollow person, empty, your life meaningless, your vision clouded, your heart dead, your soul unborn.

Man wants to possess because he feels tacitly that something is missing. What exactly is missing he is not able to decipher, but something is missing – that much is felt by everybody – so rush and fill the gap. Naturally we start imitating others.


From Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 12, Chapter 9

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