Reduce the Broken Things, Part 2

Photo courtesy of L-plate big cheese on flickr.

All week, I’ve been sending wishes your way that you’ve let go of at least one broken thing and have experienced an open, spacious feeling as a result. There is something liberating about acknowledging that some things just cannot or will not be fixed. When I was 15 years old, I remember being vastly relieved upon hearing Buddha’s first noble truth: You Should Know Suffering.  The idea is that we might want to get to know the enemy, the reason why things are difficult and why we feel that our lives — at least the happy parts – are somewhere in the future, just out of reach.  In his other noble truths, Buddha explained the reason for our painful states of mind, what we need to do to be free of them, and how to do it.

Working from the Outside In

So what does this have to do with your broken things or the things you no longer want?  Think of your broken things — or your “garbage” as we referred to it in the last post — as your painful states of mind such as anger, irritation, frustration, and longing.  As you begin to recognize that certain items can never be fixed, you either let them go or use them to create a new, entirely different object.  Let’s take a look at these useless items getting in the way of your clear mind and environment.  If, at first, you are dealing with lots of “garbage,” you might want to do this in stages. 

Stage One: Make a list of all of the things in your home you’d like to get rid of. Here’s some suggestions to get you going:

• old books you’ve read, dislike or lost interest in (The Strand on 12th and Broadway still buys books so you can make a little money on this one)
• newspapers, journals, and magazines that are more than three months old (you can find most of these online, so chuck them and start creating and organizing some bookmarks on Firefox or Safari)
• the dying plant in the corner (dump it in the garbage, a garden, or park and save the pot for a healthy plant)
• appliances that are not working well (these old appliances can be either recycled — try www.1800gotjunk.com — or given to the Salvation Army)

Find out when your building is allowed to throw out big trash items if you are indeed planning on chucking that really uncomfortable old chair. Consult the Department of Sanitation for that schedule.

Stage Two:  Start with throwing out one or two items you find it fairly easy to let go of.  It doesn’t matter what they are; let them go and then see what happens.

Next, make and add to your calendar dates and times when you will get the rest of the stuff out of your apartment, either by arranging to recycle, selling better stuff on craigslist or Ebay, or my favorite, leaving it out in front of your building with a “Please Take” sign on it.  It really depends on your neighborhood, but I’ve left many an old (but working) cassette player, TV, air conditioner, etc. down by my garbage bins outside my building that were taken within an hour. I’ve caught glimpses of very satisfied looking fellows making off with some cool loot. I do believe some folks even love the stuff that is broken and I’m assuming they are not reading this blog.

Next week: working from the inside out…