How can I (or any of us) overcome a love for worldly posessions?

Worldly possessions are totally awesome. The perceived obligation to overcome them is senseless and historically contingent—as, actually, is the idea of ‘the worldly possession’ in the first place. Try Nietzsche.

I think perspective is key here. You’d need to experience something like extreme poverty or suffering to realize how pointless many if the things we strive for are. Therefor shedding the need for them in relation to the experience.

Spargett’s on to something. If you truly want to overcome your love of worldly possessions, you should rid yourself of all worldly possessions. Give away everything you own to charity, quit your job, and devote your life to self-study and poverty. When you discover that life loses no significance when you lose possessions, you will have lost your “love” of them.

Go to a third world country and live with the local people for a while – I did in Southeast Asia for 6 weeks and it changed my perspective completely. Unfortunately, it wears off after a couple of months (it’s hard to resist the relentless bombardment of consumerism in the US).

Become as rich as ethically possible until you decide to focus on a charity.

Go on a bike tour. When you have to carry every single one of your worldly possessions with you every where you go on a bicycle you’ll find you quickly develop a distate for anything that is not absolutely essential and lightweight.

Meditate. Take a spiritual journey. Devote yourself to a charity, a loved one, or the betterment of mankind in general. Start to cut down very gradually on your use of material possessions until you feel they are unimportant. Become aware of the simplest of things in nature, yourself, and your loved ones that can really make life a great place. When you discover these things, not only will your life be better, but you will also feel fulfilled without flighty material possessions.

I read back issues of Adbusters magazine for a while back in high school and proclaimed complete anti-consumerism for nearly a month. Then I got a job and had to find something to do with my paycheck.

Look to build yourself instead of buying more things and only buy necessities. Take long long walks, meet new people (whether nice or unpleasant), bring a camera along. Read more classic novels and new ones as well. Live healthily. But in the end, I guess its okay to have one or two things that you absolutely love :)

Hmmmm. Great question. I think it is ok to love worldly possessions as long as it doesn’t consume you. If you are the kind of person who can still appreciate the value of family and friends, personal health and safety and live a life where you are not constantly in the pursuit of the next hot thing then its cool!