Momento Espírita
Curitiba, 29 de Março de 2024
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            We live in an age of celebrities, easy appeals to wealth and riches, consumerism, devastating passions. We transit astounded by a world in which the focus goes to the one who has more.

            At all times, we see commercials on TV, ads on magazines or newspapers and billboards appealing: Buy more. Be more ostentatious. Have more and better things.

            It's a world where luxury, physical beauty, ostentation and vanity have received such a large space that ends up dominating our judgment.

            People's importance is measured by the qualities of their shoes, clothes and purses.

            More attention is given to the one who owns a better home or is situated in richer or famous neighborhood.

            Good cars are only those with better accessories that are impressive for being beautiful, expensive or new. Always, very new.

            Teenagers no longer wish to wear the same things, and look down on products that are not of brand names. Women buy all the latest cosmetics. Men take pleasure on having the expensive suits displayed on the store windows.

In short, we become slaves of the objects. Objects of desire that dominate our imagination, permeate our lives and consume our financial resources.

And how do we react? Are we doing something - in practice - to fight this situation?

Nevertheless, desire is the great cause of human misfortunes. If we overcome the desire to have things, we have, in essence, already walked many steps on the road towards moral progress.

Try looking at the store window at the mall. Look at the shoes, clothes, jewelry, chocolates, handbags, ornaments, perfumes.

For just one moment, try to not be seduced. Try to see all of these just as they are: objects.

And tell yourself: Even though I don't have this, I am happy! I am not dependent on any of these to be content.

Remember: it is in wanting such things, without being able to have them that many, opt for crimes.  They take possession of things that do not belong to them, lured by the brief sparkle of material things.

            They leave behind people suffering, people who have worked hard in order to save...

            They leave behind frustrations, unhappiness and displeasure.

            But then, there are those who become attached to people. They see others as something to be possessed, stored, locked, and not shared.

They enslave their partners, children, friends and relatives. They demand exclusivity, generating crises and conflicts.

They display, at all times, possessiveness and insecurities. Going beyond selfishness and not allowing others to express themselves or be loved by others.

It is once again, desires guiding lives, reducing people to tyrants, making the souls so ugly.

There are those who allow themselves to become unhealthily attached to certain situations.

Jobs, status, professions, relationships, talents that brings forth attention. It's enough to allow people to get carried away by brief moments.

They love the luster, the applause or what they consider to be fame, power and glory.

For them, it is difficult to part away from these moments in which they are no longer common people and start getting noticed, commented on and even envied.

What is the secret for getting rid from all of this? The word is detachment. But...how do we achieve this in the world we live in?

By constantly remembering that, all things are brief in this life. Meaning, to avoid suffering, the recipe is overcoming our desires.

In practice, this is how it works: think about the fact that all situations pass, objects break, clothes and shoes become worn out.

Even people pass by, as they travel; we become separated from them, even die...

And we need to be prepared for these possibilities. It's the dynamic forces of life.

When we think this way, little by little, the creature promotes a process of self-education that teaches to search always for the better, without creating selfish attachments.

Meaning, loving without expecting something in return.

.

Spiritist Moment Team.
March 28.2011.

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