DETACHMENT FROM EARTHLY POSSESSIONS 1

Theme: DETACHMENT FROM EARTHLY POSSESSIONS

Source: The Gospel according to Spiritism, XVI: 14 and 15.
DETACHMENT FROM EARTHLY POSSESSIONS
14. My brothers, sisters and friends, I am come to offer you my contribution with the object of helping you
to advance fearlessly along the pathway to improvement into which you are entering. We are all indebted one to
the other. Therefore it is only possible to achieve regeneration by means of a sincere and fraternal union between
Spirits and incarnate beings.
Attachment to earthly possessions constitutes one of the strongest obstacles to both moral and spiritual
advancement. Through this attachment all faculties for loving are destroyed as these are only devoted to material
things. Let us be sincere with each other: do riches bring unmixed happiness? When your safes are full of money
do you still feel an emptiness in your hearts? At the bottom of this basket of flowers is there not a viper? I
understand the satisfaction which is experienced, and quite justifiably so, when by means of honorable and
assiduous work a fortune has been gained. But from this same satisfaction, which is very natural and has God's
approval, to the attachment which absorbs all other sentiments and paralyzes the impulses felt by the heart, there
is a large gap. As large as the distance which separates exaggerated extravagance from that of sordid
covetousness, two vices between which God has placed charity, that saintly and cleansing virtue which teaches
the rich man and woman to give without ostentation, so that the poor may receive without being debased.
Whether the fortune has come to you from your family, or whether you have earned it by working, there is
something you should never forget, which is that everything proceeds from God and everything refers us to Him.
Nothing belongs to you on this Earth, not even your own physical body: death strips you of it even as it does of all
earthly possessions. You are merely trustees and not the owners, so do not delude yourselves. God has only lent
these things to you and they must be returned. What is more, they have been lent to you under the condition that at
least the surplus should go to those who lack what is necessary.
One of your friends lends you a certain sum of money. However lacking in honesty you may be, you make
a point of scrupulously restituting what was lent and are grateful to that person.
Well then, this is the exact position of the rich man or woman. God is the Celestial Friend who lends you
riches, wishing nothing more for Himself than love and recognition for the loan.
However, He does demand that in turn the rich man or woman give to the poor, who just as much as he or
she, are sons and daughters of God.
Ardent and demented greed are aroused in your hearts by the possessions which God has entrusted to
you. Have you ever stopped to think that when you allow yourselves to become immoderately attached to a
valuable or perishable object, which is just as transitory as yourselves, that one day you will have to account to
God for what has been done with that which came from Him? Have you forgotten that by means of riches, you
assume a sacred mission of charity here on Earth, to be intelligent distributors? Hence, when what was entrusted
to you is used only for your own benefit, does it not follow that you are unfaithful trustees? What will be the result of
this voluntary forgetfulness of duty? Inflexible and inexhaustible death will tear away the veil under which you have
been hiding, so forcing you to give an account to Him Who has been forgotten and Who, at that moment stands
before you as Judge. It is useless to try to delude yourselves while on Earth by covering up, under the name of
virtue, what is usually nothing more than selfishness. It is useless to call that which is only greed and cupidity by
the name of economy and foresight, or to call that which is only prodigality for your own advantage, by the name of
generosity. For example, a father abstains from practicing charity, economizes and accumulates wealth so that, as
he puts it, he may leave his children the greatest possible amount of property in order to avoid their ever knowing
misery. This is very just and fatherly, I agree, and no one can censure him for this. But is it always the only motive
behind his action? Does he not frequently feel bound by his own conscience to justify this personal attachment for
earthly possessions, both in his own eyes and those of the world? However, even if paternal love be the only
motive, is that reason enough to forget his brothers and sisters before God? When he has a surplus, will he leave
his children in misery if they have a little less? In this manner, is he not giving them a lesson in selfishness and
hardening their hearts? Will it not cause their love for their neighbours to wither away? Mothers and fathers, you
are labouring under a grave error if you believe this is the way to gain affection from your children. By teaching
them to be selfish with others you are only teaching them to be selfish with you too.

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Study given at the Spirit Center Joana d’Arc, São João de Meriti RJ. On 05/ 04/ 2011.

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 The man who has worked very hard in his life and who by the sweat of his brow has accumulated
possessions, is commonly heard to say that the value of money is better appreciated when it has been worked for.
This is very true. Well then! This man who declares he knows the full value of money should practise charity; his
merit will then be greater than the one who, being born to abundance, is ignorant of toil and work. But also, if this
same man who remembers his own sufferings and endeavours, is selfish and unmerciful to the poor he will be
more guilty than the
other, since the more each one knows for themselves the hidden pains of misery, the greater tendency
there should be to help others.
Unhappily, in men and women who possess riches there is always a sentiment as strong as their
attachment for the riches themselves, and that is pride. Not infrequently the newly rich can be seen making
someone who asked for assistance, dizzy with the tales of their successes and abilities instead of helping, and
then end by saying: "Do as I did". According to their way of thinking God's goodness doesn't even enter into the
matter of their having obtained these riches. The merit for having obtained them being theirs alone. Their pride has
blinded their eyes and deafened their ears. Despite their intelligence and aptitudes they still do not understand that
with only one word God can cast them down upon the Earth.
The squandering of riches is not a demonstration of detachment from worldly goods, merely carelessness
and indifference. Man, as the trustees of these goods, has no right to dissipate them, neither has he the right to
confiscate them for his own benefit. Extravagance is not generosity; rather it is frequently a type of selfishness.
Someone who spends money by the handful in order to satisfy a fantasy will perhaps not give even a penny to
someone in need. Detachment from worldly goods consists in appreciating them according to their just value, in
knowing how to make use of them for the benefit of others and not exclusively in self-benefit, in not sacrificing all
interest in a future life for them, and in being able to lose them without a murmur, in case it pleases God to take
them away. If due to unforeseeable circumstances, you become as Job, then say as he did: "Lord, You have given
and You have taken away. Let Your Will be done." This is true detachment. Above all else be submissive and trust
He Who, having given and taken away, may once again restitute what was taken. Resist disanimation and
desperation with all your courage, as these paralyze your strength. When God causes you to suffer a blow, never
ever forget that alongside the most painful trial He always places a consolation. Above all, ponder the point that
there are possessions infinitely more precious than those to be found on Earth and this thought will help you
towards detachment. The less attachment you have for something means the less sensitive you will be to its loss.
The man or woman who holds on to earthly possessions is like a child, who sees only the moment, whereas the
person who is able to detach themself is like an adult, who sees the more important things in life because they
understand the prophetic words of the Saviour: "My kingdom is not of this world."
The Lord orders no one to dispose of what they possess, since this would condemn them to voluntary
pauperism, seeing that those who did this would turn themselves into social encumbrances. To proceed in this
manner is to misunderstand the true meaning of detachment from worldly goods. In fact this is a selfishness of
another kind, because it means that the individual exempts themself from the responsibility which riches have
placed on all who possess them. God gives riches to those He considers apt to administer them for the benefit of
others. The rich person is given a mission which can be beautified by him and be personally profitable. To reject
riches when God has bestowed them, is to renounce the benefits of the goodness it can do, when administered
with good judgment. By knowing how to do without them when you do not have them, knowing how to employ
them usefully when you receive them, and by knowing how to sacrifice them when necessary, you are proceeding
according to God's wishes. Well then, let those into whose hands has come what in the world is called goodly
fortune, say: "My Lord, you have entrusted me with a new mission; give me the strength to fulfill it according to your
wishes." My friends, here you have what I wished to teach about detachment from worldly possessions. I would
summarize what I have written by saying: Know how to be content with only a little. If you are poor, do not envy the
rich, because riches are not necessarily happiness. If you are rich, then do not forget that these riches at your
disposal are only entrusted to you, and that you will have to justify the use to which you put them, just as you would
have to give an account of na investment for which you are responsible. Do not be an unfaithful trustee, utilizing it
only for the satisfaction of your own pride and sensuality. Do not think you have the right to dispose of a loan as if it
were a gift, exclusively for your own benefit. If you do not know how to make restitution
then you do not have the right of request, and remember that the person who gives to the poor is settling a
debt contracted with God. - LACORDAIRE (Constantina, 1863).

15. Does the principle, according to which Man is merely the trustee for the fortune which God has
permitted him to enjoy during his life-time, take away the right to transmit it to his descendants?

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 Man has a perfect right to transmit after his death that which he enjoyed during his lifetime, because the
effect of this right is always subordinate to the Will of God, Who can, when He deems fit, prevent those
descendants from enjoying what was transferred to them. This is the reason why many apparently solid fortunes
collapse. Man's will then, is impotent when he desires to maintain his fortune in the hands of his descendants. This,
however, does not take away his right to transfer the loan received from God, seeing that God can take it away
whenever He judges opportune. - SAINT LOUIS (Paris, 1860).
*****
Some main points given by the spirits Lacordaire and São
Luis:
1) - the pieces of advice given by Lacordaire, they are to help to move forward for the path of the
improvement.
2) - the attachment to the ownership of possessions destroys the faculty of loving.
3) - proposes if the wealth provides a happiness without stains mixture?
4) - suggests to the rich to donate without ostentation, so that the poor may receive without baseness.
5) - that the whole wealth comes from God; because we are receivers and not proprietors
6) - God lends us and in our turn, we should donate to the poor who are also His children.
7) - to be careful with selfishness, because that sometimes one accumulates goods saying that it is to
leave for one’s own children exaggeratedly, but that at the bottom it is for his own selfishness, and that, that
steals from him his loving desire towards his neighbor.
8) - if one succeeds in life, to let not his pride consuming telling his neighbor “do as I did"
9) - in short that one should be satisfied with little that he may have and not to envy the rich ones,
because the wealth is not necessary to the happiness. If one is rich, not to forget that possessions are just
trusted to us and their uses should be used conscious and responsibly.
10) - from São Luis there is an important point out which is:
We can transmit our goods to the relatives before death, but that doesn't leave out that the goods
belong to God who will remove them when he judges it opportune.
*****
CONSIDERATIONS:
The pieces of advice given by Lacordaire and São Luis, do show an experience practical of life in the
Earth and their pieces of advice are very explicit in the approachment of the theme of today which is
‘detachment of the terrestrial possessions', Now to talk about the morals in possessions is not easy, because
everyone creates their own ideals on what to do with their riches, therefore the subject is complicated, each
person removes from oneself his own: 'how to live', from his moral preparation from the atmospheres of family,
social and religious joining to his own intuitions and natural instincts, according to his degree of constant spiritual
progress in his character and personality, that person expresses from himself to his exterior his way of being and
of understanding life.
In agreement with our previous study' the true property' it is the one of the spirit according to his
spiritual degree that expresses what he is, we can also understand that the' detachment of the terrestrial
possessions' have a lot to see with the spiritual degree of each one, because each person's reaction does not
always coincide with what is expected from all, because there are people who are already born kind, others who
were already been born selfish, others were already been born tolerant, others were been born rebellious, others
were been born smiling and cheerful, others more for the sadness side, another who sees everything positive,
while another might be negative in everything, here is there also the general differences in the use of goods:
personal, social or common, since there is a certain generalization of selfishness as if it were a general need,
maybe it has to do with the preservation law or the survival one, but that only to God it fits to judge.
Of course when being born people brings their acquired moral tendencies in the progress of his spirit
through lives chiseled up in the past, but that doesn't mean to come to continue perpetually of the same way,
because in his evolution he continues getting himself better, therefore the need to accept the teachings of our
divine Master Jesus, which incites us to the improvement of our spirits; here is Jesus' Gospel words:’ get up and
walk',2 yes when we do err and fall we should not allow ourselves fallen down indefinitely, but to look to the
heavens for God and get one selves up.

2
Mark, II: 9.

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 Therewith also of Jesus' words:' sin no more', 3 now my concept of sinning is to contract debts against
God and oneself, it is to provoke to wither away, to have a relapse, to do badly to himself, therefore if one is in
mistake of anything that might be: be it addictions, hates, bitterness, getting angry against others, one ought to
try not to sin anymore, not to err, one should try to harmonize oneself, one should try to evangelize oneself, to
seek out harmony with God and with His declared Laws which were created to serve us
The good itself would be there to be a good harmony and a good consensus among all, be personal,
be individual, be social, be institutional, be national, or be worldly, since we all are responsible before God and
Jesus said be it in authority, be it in natural doctrine or natural reality of the natural laws and of the one of love,
Jesus recommended: “be perfect as your Father in Heaven",4 that demanded perfection is pertinent to the "love
one another." 5 And that influences us a lot on our material goods, so as that we may not be selfish, thence the'
true detachment of earthly possessions' in our moralization effort and spiritual progress, of a conscience, clean
free from faults or remorses as well as psychic anxiety that corrodes and drives one to discomfort and madness.
To have possessions and to seek progress in the increase of those possessions which one may have,
it doesn't mean to say to be greedy or selfish, but to use the laws of progress harmoniously, without offending
God nor the neighbor, paying a fair wage to whom works for himself, and to be aware of the constant blessings
of God in his life, because if he has the gift of progressing, not to forget that he who gave him that blessed gift or
talent undoubted was God through times and ages, although he deserves them, nevertheless he should live
thankfully to God, because the farmer can throw the seed to the Earth, but only God can make it to sprout and to
grow.
Thence of Jesus' words in the rich man's parable: (Luke, XII: 16-21)

“And he spake a parable unto them, saying. The ground of a certain rich
man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, what shall I
o, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
And he said, this will I do: I will pull own my barns, and build greater; and
there will bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou
hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be
merry.
But, God said unto him, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of
thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided. So is he that
layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
*****
Let us see in the Spirits’ Book some questions on
possessions:
The Instinct of Self-Preservation.
702. Is the instinct of self-preservation a law of nature?
"Undoubtedly so. It is given to all living creatures, whatever their degree of intelligence; in some it is purely
mechanical, in others it is allied to reason.”

703. To what end has God given the instinct of self-preservation to all living beings?
"They are all necessary to the working out of the providential plans; and therefore God has given them the desire
to live. And besides, life is a necessary condition of the improvement of beings; they feel this instinctively, without
understanding it."

Means of Self-Preservation.
704. Has God, while giving to man the desire to live, always furnished him with the means of doing so?

3
John, V: 14.
4
Matthew, V: 48.
5
John, XV: 12.

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"Yes; and if man does not always find them, it is because he does not know how to avail himself of the resources
around him. God could not implant in man the love of life, without giving him the means of living; and He has
accordingly endowed the earth with a capacity of production sufficient to furnish all its inhabitants with the
necessaries of life. It is only that which is necessary that is useful; that which is superfluous is never useful."

Enjoyments of the Fruits of the Earth.

711. Have all men a right to the usufruct of the products of the earth?
"That right is a consequence of the necessity of living. God cannot have imposed a duty without having given the
means of discharging it."

712. Why has God attached an attraction to the enjoyment of material things?
"In order, first, to excite man to the accomplishment of his mission, and next, to try him by temptation."
- What is the aim of temptation?
"To develop his reason, that it may preserve him from excesses."
If man had only been urged to the using of the things of the earthly life by a conviction of their utility, his
indifference to them might have compromised the harmony of the universe. Cod has therefore given him the
pleasurable attractions that solicit him to the accomplishing of the views of Providence. But God has also willed,
through this attraction. to try man by temptations that incite him to abuses against which his reason should
protect him.

713. Has nature marked out the proper limits of corporeal satisfactions?
"Yes, limits that coincide with your needs and your well-being. When you overstep them, you bring on satiety,
and thus punish yourselves."

714. What is to be thought of the man who seeks to enhance corporeal enjoyments by inventing artificial
excesses?
"Think of him as a poor wretch who is to be pitied rather than envied, for he is very near death."
- Do you mean to physical death, or to moral death?
"To both."
The man who, in pursuit of corporeal satisfactions, seeks an enhancement of those satisfactions in any kind of
excess, places himself below the level of the brute, for the brute goes no farther than the
satisfaction of a need. He abdicates the reason given to him by God for his guidance: and the greater his
excesses, the more dominion does he give to his animal nature over his spiritual nature. The maladies and
infirmities, often occasioning death, that are the consequences of excess in the satisfaction of any corporeal
attraction, are also punishments for thus transgressing the law of God. Necessaries and Superfluities.

715. How can men know the limit of what is necessary?

"Wise men know it by intuition; others learn it through experience, and to their cost."

716. Has not nature traced out the limit of our needs in the requirements of our organization?
"Yes, but man is insatiable. Nature has indicated the limits of his needs by his organization; but his vices have
deteriorated his constitution, and created for him wants that are not real needs."

717. What is to be thought of those who monopolize the productions of the earth, in order to procure for
themselves superfluities, at the expense of others who lack the necessaries of life?
"They forget the law of God, and will have to answer for the privations they have caused others to endure."
There is no absolute boundary-line between the necessary and the superfluous. Civilization has created
necessities that do not exist for the savage and the spirits who have dictated the foregoing precepts do not mean
to assert that civilized men should live like the savage. All things are relative; and the function of reason is to
determine the part to be allotted to each. Civilization develops the moral sense, and, at the same time, the
sentiment of charity, which leads men to give to each other mutual support. Those who live at the expense of
other men's privations monopolize the benefits of civilization for their own profit they have only the varnish of
civilization, as others have only the mask of religion. Voluntary Privations.

718. Does the law of self-preservation make it our duty to provide for our bodily wants?
"Yes; without physical health and strength, labour is impossible."

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719. Is it blamable in a man to seek after the comforts and enjoyments of corporeal life?
"The desire of corporeal well-being is natural to man. God only prohibits excess, because excess is inimical to
preservation; He has not made it a crime to seek after enjoyment, if that enjoyment be not acquired at another's
expense, and if it be riot of a nature to weaken either your moral or your physical strength."
720. Are voluntary privations, in view of a voluntary expiation, meritorious in the sight of God?
"Do good to others, and you will thereby acquire more merit than is to be acquired by any self-impose privations."
-Is any voluntary privation meritorious?
"Yes; the self-privation of useless indulgences, because it loosens man's hold on matter, and elevates his soul.
What is meritorious is resistance to the temptation that solicits to excess or to indulgence in what is useless; it is
the cutting down even of your necessaries, that you may have more to give to those who are in want. If your
privations are only a vain pretence, they are a mere mockery."
*****
We conclude then that the' detachment of possessions' it is not to dispossess ourselves of all our
goods and to go to live in poverty, but to live without exaggerating, to seek a balance in our needs, not to
accumulate superfluously, but to pass on to somebody in need something which one considers superfluous, it is
not to waste away handfuls as a disrespect to one’s own goods with unhealthy pride saying: ‘it is mine I do what I
want with it’, the person has to live in agreement with his spiritual morals, the person has to have healthy
harmony with his own possessions with certain responsibility before God, knowing that everything comes from
God, thence with that positive thought life will be happier for him, much more ample and more reasonable.
To be a Christian and to have possessions it is to act always with responsibility and care to his own
goods, allowing not anyone to give him wrong agreement or deceive him and he must not be of soft heart who
for everything and for anything he opens the hand, until he be without anything careless and naive and to turn
out to be a clown to whom all make mockery and laugh of him for having lost everything
Yes, everything is from God, but God lends us and He makes us responsible, the person is
responsible, because the world is full of moral problems, therefore carefulness and the whole caring is little,
because the responsibility is of the one on whom God deposits His possessions and on the right time God will
ask him what have you done with the goods which I did grant you.
Jesus didn't say that the rich greedy man would go to hell, but that God would abbreviate his life,
especially because his madness would only lead to owe to God a possible incalculable debt, and God in his
kindness would abbreviate his life to avoid future sufferings which he might come to contract against himself.
Here is a recommendation of Jesus:' he is my brother who does the will of God' (Mark, 3: 35);
accentuating above everything that we should seek out to do the will of God.
Well, may God be with us as formerly today and always.

We conclude then that the' detachment of possessions'

It is not to dispossess ourselves of all our goods and to go to live in
poverty,
But to live without exaggerating, to seek a balance in our needs,
Not to accumulate superfluously, but to pass on to somebody in need
Something which one considers superfluous,
It is not to waste away handfuls as disrespect to one’s own goods
With unhealthy pride saying: ‘it is mine I do what I want with it’,
The person has to live in agreement with his spiritual morals,
The person has to have healthy harmony with his own possessions
With certain responsibility before God,
Knowing that everything comes from God,
Thence with that positive thought life will be happier for him,
Much more ample and more reasonable.

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Extract of the Study given at the Centro Espírita Joana d’Arc on 05/ 04/ 2011.