The Illusion of Ownership

Everything one claims to own could vanish in an instant. What is “yours” now might be “his” tomorrow. This is because there is no such thing as ownership. What we believe to be ownership is nothing more than agreement. It is ownership by consensus. I can say I own a house if the government that “owns” the land recognizes it as my house. If someone else claims to own the same house, we end up entering a legal battle to decide who truly “owns” it, which will be decided by the courts according to laws that have created by legislators. The entire concept of ownership is flawed. Because it is taken for granted, no one seems to bother questioning it.

It becomes even more apparent how absurd the idea is when you apply it to a living thing, such as a dog. How ridiculous is it to say this is “my” dog. I may take care of him, house him, and feed him. I may love him, and he may love me. But he is no more mine than the sun shining in the sky.

I find it difficult to articulate a coherent argument against ownership, because I can’t think of a coherent argument for it. Ownership exists purely on a conceptual level. There is no reality to it. Any apparent reality it seems to possess only appears because of the wide-scale belief in its existence. There is no logical way to tell someone that the emperor has no clothes. One just has to see it for himself.

When the concept of ownership is removed from one’s mind, he becomes free from that which he claimed to own. What people fail to realize is that the things they think they own actually end up owning them. They become obsessed with their possessions. There is a constant mental tally of what one has and does not have, and this brings anxiety and disappointment. When one realizes he can never own anything, he also realizes he can never lose anything. One can’t lose something he never had to begin with. Peace is a natural side effect of such a realization.

I would, however, caution you at this point. It would be a great misunderstanding to think I am advocating for you to avoid “owning” anything. You don’t have to sell your house. You don’t have to give away your possessions. Having such things is practical. I am simply saying that you “own” them only by consensus. All you must do is recognize this as the truth that it is.