What would you do if you lost all your possessions?
I don’t know for sure how I would respond because I have never lost everything that I had. However, I have lost a number of things that I cared about.
The Buddhists say that suffering comes from attachment. In the case of the things we have, how attached we are to them determines how upset we are if we lose them.
Knowing this, I have consciously tried to limit how attached I am to my things. When I do lose something I am able to let it go with equanimity.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t care. It means that I do not allow it to make me overly distressed.
So, I suspect that I would be upset if I lost everything but not overwhelmed.
My goal would be to prioritize what I need to replace in the order of their importance.
Access to water, food and shelter would be my first priority. Next would be to replace my medications and my cPAP machine.
Getting copies of important documents would probably be next (insurance documents, driver’s license, etc.).
I hope never need to deal with this problem!
Peter M. Hartmann, MD
Health and Culture 