Entering into The Experiment of Non-Ownership
Entering into The Experiment of Non-Ownership
Transcript
The following is a transcription of Truth Talk: The Experiment of Non-Ownership in Depth, which is part of Robin’s “Truth Talks” series during his experiment in non-ownership.
For the full series and depth to this practice, visit: The Experiment in Non-Ownership – Robin Greenfield in Los Angeles.
What I want to share with all of you today is this experiment of non-ownership. As you know, some of you know, or all of you know, at this moment I own absolutely nothing. A lot of people would say, “Well, how are you — how could you possibly own nothing? You have a blanket on, and you have clothes underneath there.” And so, when I arrived at Griffith Park two nights ago, I gave away everything that I owned. And then these are the few items that I’m borrowing. So right now, I’m borrowing a blanket from Andrew, another Andrew, the top and the bottom from Ant, and then I also have a sleeping bag from Keith that is up in the hills where I’m sleeping. And so, I have just those four items that I’m borrowing, and I don’t own any physical items whatsoever.
Today, I’m going to share a little bit about the experiment of non-ownership in the physical realm, but also the mental realm, and then also the digital realm. Because it’s very easy to … it’s very easy in this time, in this day and age, to say I don’t own anything but have terabytes worth of stuff stored online — photos and videos and documents, and endless accounts, etc. So we’ll be talking about the physical, the digital, and the mental realm. And then I’m also going to share the basics of how I’m going to meet my needs while practicing non-ownership with just all of the basic aspects of life.
So first, I’d like to share why I am on this experiment of non-ownership, because there’s certainly a lot of people out there who would just say, you know, “What? Why? Why would you possibly want to do that? It just seems like pain and suffering,” or “It just seems like a show.” But for me, this experiment is sort of the pinnacle of what I’ve been working towards over the last 13 years, 14 years … 13 years since I awoke to realizing that what we call the American dream is the world’s nightmare.
Me getting to this place of owning absolutely nothing actually is just the natural flow of the progression of what I’ve been doing over the last ten years. Forty-eight hours in, I literally own absolutely nothing. I have no money, yet I don’t feel any different than I did two days ago, or three days ago, or a week ago. I would have imagined that I would have felt some major shift. I mean, a lot of people, if they had nothing, they would be existing in a state of panic, you know, tenderness, concern, worry, and I, in getting rid of everything and having no money, feel, I do feel a little different in the sense that I feel lighter, more of a bubbling joy inside of myself. I feel more content.
I would say I feel just more in the present moment, and also this is one of those areas where it’s a little hard to put words to, but I’m sure some of you can relate to this, but somewhat of a feeling of just non-existence. Like, this morning when I woke up, there was just more of a sense of time, timelessness, and so, so far, you know, just two days in, it’s been nice to just experience. And today, I want to share some of the practical aspects, and as the weeks progress, get to share more of what the actual experience is like.
So the journey of getting here to non-ownership really started about 13 years ago. I was living a pretty typical lifestyle, very focused on material possessions and financial wealth. My goal was to be a millionaire by the time I turned 30, and I was happy. I was healthy. I was … I had romantic relationships, I had friendships, I was traveling the world, my business was successful. Life was what I wanted it to be, wanted it to be.
And what happened was I started to educate myself, and I just learned that the way that we’re living here in the United States and for a lot of us privileged people, just everything that I was doing was causing such a level of destruction to the world, to people, to the plants and animals, and to the planet as a whole. And I just said to myself, “I don’t want to live in a way where meeting my basic needs comes at the expense of others. I want to live in a way where my existence, my material possessions, my hobbies, my connection, my everything is at least neutral to the world, but at best is actually beneficial.”
So a big part of that was shedding consumerism, breaking free from all of the corporate beliefs that we needed to own things in order to be contributing members of society and that we needed to have a lot of money to be successful. And so, it’s been a long journey of downsizing and simplifying, and that started with, you know, I had a three-bedroom apartment in San Diego, and it started with just downsizing my stuff by half, and by half, and by half, and eventually moving from the biggest room in the apartment to the closet — just living in the 6′ x 6′ closet and then renting out the rooms. And then, after a few years, I got my life down to living in a tiny house that was 50 square feet — so very small. Everything at that time I could fit onto my bicycle and my bike trailer.
When I moved into the 50 square foot tiny house, I couldn’t go very far, but it could fit onto there. And then, after multiple years, I got my life down to 111 possessions in 2016. So, dating back eight years ago, I was already in the realm that I’m in now, you know, just having 111 possessions to my life. But I certainly could not have lived with nothing at that time; like those possessions were very vital to my existence. And then in 2020, I got my life down to 44 possessions just before COVID began, about two months before that. And that was a big step in the experiment of breaking free from needing, breaking free from individualism, I would say, and entering into more of a communal way of existence, a more connected way of existence, and breaking free from the separation.
And after that, I kind of got back into the rat race a little bit, running an organization and accrued quite a few possessions for running the … having a team of people … and kind of lost this, I … this possibility of my goal of entering into non-ownership.
And I think what really tipped it over the edge that got me back was two years ago, I lost my passport. I had already gotten rid of my driver’s license and my Social Security card in 2016. In 2022, I lost my passport, and then with that gone, I said, “You know what? I’m going to compost my birth certificate,” which was my last form of identification. So then, in 2022, the summer of 2022, actually out here in Los Angeles, is where my passport was lost. Then, that’s when I started to realize, “Okay, now that I no longer have a form of ID, which is really one of the possessions that’s hard to replace, that would be hard to let go,” this dream of entering into the realm of complete non-ownership reawakened.
So within the last about year or so, I decided, “I’m going to do this. I’m going to explore this depth that I would like to.” And so, for me, what non-ownership is, is it’s a … I’m not going to go my whole life with not owning anything, probably. I can’t say for sure. For me, this is a way to deeply explore a lot of the realms that I’m very passionate about. I made notes of a few of them. Oh, so I mentioned I have four items. Well, I also have this piece of paper. I took this out of the garbage, put some notes on here with a borrowed pen, and afterwards, I’ll either give this to somebody who would like it or I’ll compost it. So this is a very temporary item that I have.
But, so first of all, my life design is based on simple living, based on impermanence, based on non-attachment, based on being just deeply connected with the Earth, being a part of community. So much of what I’m doing naturally just sheds the need for ownership. You know, ownership comes largely by being a part of a society that believes that we are separate from and disconnected. There are many cultures that have existed that don’t even have … there are many cultures today that don’t even have a word for ownership. It’s just not what they do. Owning is not the way that they do. And so, for me, this also comes relatively naturally.
So that kind of comes to the realization that ownership is just a concept in our society. It’s a little hard to wrap our head around that concept,that ownership is just a concept, because for a lot of people, it’s like, “No, ownership is real. It’s tangible.” It is, but in reality, it’s just a concept. We created the concept of ownership only within probably the last handful of thousand years, maybe within the last 5,000, 10,000, something years, and we’ve existed for hundreds of thousands of years. So it’s a very new concept, and it’s just that, a concept. Now another part of this experiment is that I’m … I … and this was kind of came by accident, but I realized, well, if I’m going to be practicing complete non-ownership, that means I’m not going to have any money because I’m not going to be holding onto anything.
And so this also has entered into three months of having no money, which was not expected. So the other part about that is that money is also just a concept. I’m sure that all of you probably have — each of you, like, dived into that a little bit –that money is just an idea that humanity has created. Is that something you’re exploring today? Some, yes, the collective faith we put into these symbols? Yeah, yeah. Money only exists because enough of us believe that it does, but only because we believe it. If we stopped believing in the dollar, it would lose its function. It’s just basically a piece of paper, but moreso, it’s numbers on screens today.
So this is me. A lot of my practice is non-delusionalism, which I’m not sure if that’s an actual word, but it’s something that I say — non-delusionalism — which is to embrace … you could … the opposite of non-delusionalism you could say is truth. And I’m not talking about my truth versus your truth, some universal truth, like this is the Earth we are sitting upon, the sky is above us, you know, we are here. In one sense, these types of truths — not my president, my God being best, worst, things like that — just these basic truths. Another core practice for me of this is the practice of living in service.
And my belief is that the less that I own, the more that I can dedicate my life to being of service, that I don’t need to own anything to be of service. And the more that I own, for me, kind of the harder it is to be of service because, as a lot of us have heard, like our stuff ends up owning us. It ends up taking so much time to deal with our own stuff, and the more stuff we have, the more of a little insulated unit we build where we’re less connected. And so, for me, this is part of the path of deepening my practice of living in service, owning nothing. A big part of this is a connection with the Earth. So by owning nothing, it’s kind of a guarantee that I’m going to deepen my connection with Earth.
When I woke up this morning, I have no possessions. What do I have to do? I was looking up at the sky, I was looking at the stars like I hadn’t for months. I was just listening to all the sounds. First, it was the owls, then it was the mourning doves, I heard some ravens. It was just a … you know, here I am in Griffith Park, and you can come here and you can just be on your cell phone and barely pay attention, but by having nothing, it really just is an opportunity for me to deepen my connection with the Earth — just observe the squirrels, the deer, be here on this grass, and just enjoy the magnificence of, the simpleness of this pine cone.
And then the other aspect of connection is with others. You know, I’ve shared a really deep connection with, well, the three of you here in the last couple of days, and I’ve felt a nice connection with you over the last couple of hours. And if I had my computer, I am certain I would be feeling less of a connection with you. I would have just more distraction. And so, by owning nothing, this is an opportunity for me to practice deepening my connection with others. And then the other aspect is connection with self. The more stuff we have, the more there is to focus outward, and as I have just this basic stuff, it’s a form of, somewhat, of losing an identity — the external identity — which allows me to connect more with the core of who I am.
So non-ownership is a practice of deepening my connection with the Earth, with people, and with myself. And so, one of the reasons that I can enter into this realm of non-ownership is, although I really actually haven’t ever met anyone who owns absolutely nothing, it almost feels a little surreal to even talk about this. These are concepts that have been practiced for thousands of years by humanity. And a lot of the people that I learned from, a lot of my teachers, this is exactly what they teach. And what I’m sharing is nothing that I’ve come up with; it’s things that I’ve learned from my teachers.
One of the teachers I’ve learned a lot from this year has been Ram Dass. And so, when I’m talking about being of service, one of the things that Ram Dass says is we work on ourselves so that we can be of service to others. And I believe that wholeheartedly — that if we don’t deepen our connection with ourselves, if we don’t find a wholeness and completeness within, how can we ever expect to really be there for others? And then Thich Nhat Hanh, he’s a great teacher of mine, and he teaches about interbeing and interconnectedness. So a lot of this non-ownership, it’s about dissolving the illusion of separateness. Our society is designed very much in this separateness, otherness, and, creating that sense of interconnectedness.
So what I’m doing with this practice is … some of my great teachers, you know, teachers that have been teachers to millions of people, I’m just listening to what they say, and I say, “How can I practice what they’re talking about?” with a deep experiment, with a radical experiment. In 2025, not in, you know, for Mahatma Gandhi, he lived in the late 1800s into the mid-1900s, and it was a different time. There wasn’t social media then, there, you know, there was newspapers, there wasn’t a worldwide web; it was a very different time. So I’m learning from them and saying, “How can I embody these practices, but do it in a way that is in our time?”
And so that’s the other aspect of this, is that I’m doing this because I want to — this experiment of non-ownership. That’s the primary reason I’m doing this — because I am enthralled by this, because this is what’s making my heart sing. This is what I’m so excited for, but also because this is my experiment in humanity. For me to do this experiment of non-ownership, I’m choosing to be here in Los Angeles and be here in Griffith Park because my life is my message. This deep practice and this deep embodiment of these concepts, my objective is to do that right here with whoever comes to be — like today, there’s just a few of us. Some days, there’ll be nobody, you know. Some days, I’ll be sitting here myself, and whatever I put on the schedule, I’ll do by myself. Other days, there’ll be, you know, 40, 50, or however many people.
So it’s just an experiment for whoever wants to be here with me, for me to practice just my life being my message. And then, so the other two things that I’ll add to that is it’s liberation of the mind through simple living. Simple living has been at the absolute core of my practice since the very beginning of my awakening. Part of that has come through Mahatma Gandhi. One of the things that he says is, “Live simply so that others can simply live.” Today, a lot of people don’t even get what that means. What that means is that today our lives are so complex that every one of our actions is causing such a level of destruction: the food that we eat, the cars that we drive, the gas we pump into the cars, the cheap stuff we buy, the trash we create — almost everything that we do by living not simply but by living in this complex, complex way is causing an incredible amount of destruction.
And so, now more than ever, the message of living simply so that others may simply live — for example, you know, so many of us have iPhones. I’ve owned an iPhone. Well, you know, in China, they have nets around some of these buildings, these high buildings, because the people who are making these iPhones, some of them are so depressed that during their work shift, they’re jumping out of the buildings to commit suicide. And so they’re actually installing nets there so people can’t commit suicide. The iPhone is the opposite of simplicity, although in some ways it has simplicity to it, but the reality is that it’s one of the most complex creations of humankind.
And in using it, others are not able to exist even because we are pillaging, destroying, exploiting so much. And the iPhone I’m using as an example, but it’s just one of tens of thousands of examples in our daily lives, including the washing machine, the dryer, the fridge, you know, on and on and on. So it’s also a practice in living simply so that others can simply live. And then the aspect of liberation of the mind — so Thich Nhat Hanh shared a story about … there were 30 refugees on a life raft, and it started to become very chaotic. There were large waves, and 29 of the people were in this state of chaos, and they were about to sink the life raft. And just one person, who is existing in a state of peace inside, was able to speak from that place of peace in a way that everybody around calmed down, and they didn’t sink the life raft and they made it to shore, and they lived because that one person was an island of peace.
And that’s the practice — is that if we can become islands of peace, if we can be living in states of integrity, then we can just bring that to those around us. If we’re living in a state of chaos, more chaos will exist around us. If we’re living in a state of peace, more peace will be around us. That’s my belief. It’s not a fact, but it’s a belief that I choose to live my life by. So I made a few notes of some of my practices. You know, integrity, truth, transparency, impermanence, non-attachment — these are all the continuation in this practice of non-ownership, interconnectedness, community, universal love. I believe that by having less and just existing here, I’ll just love everything a lot more, and that there’s a lot of power in that.
And then also, some of my core practices are gratitude. You know, when we — when we’re grateful, we have everything we need, you know? And that can come across as very privileged to say, but there’s a lot of people who teach all over the world amongst the field of people who are privileged and unprivileged where that is a universal truth, a universal belief that comes from people from all walks of life. But when I’m grateful, I have everything that I need. I can say that from my personal experience. And then, to be present — that’s a deep practice. Presence and mindfulness, just to come from the mindful present moment.
And then the other two are, celebration of life — just to exist, exist in a celebration. When I see the Los Angeles city bus go by right now, I just celebrate that bus. I just love seeing it. It’s — I just enjoy it. The helicopters, the planes — I’m just existing in a celebration of life, not a judgment of, but just celebrating. And, then, compassionate communication and empathy — the woman who came up earlier, the woman who came up earlier and was really basically like, “Get out of this park! You know, we don’t want you here.” It’s basically her message. You don’t belong here! We don’t want you here! Get out of here!
My practice — because I’m practicing this moment of non-ownership, I’m in the present moment, and the only thing that mattered in that moment was to respond with empathy, to try to understand her feelings and needs, which in the practice of compassionate communication — that’s the definition of empathy — to listen for others’ feelings and needs. And that was my sole objective in that moment — to listen to her feelings and needs, in this highest state of compassion that I can, with some hopes — the hopes being that she would see me as a human being, see that I have feelings, and that we could connect over being human beings. And that’s the practice.
So those are some of the core practices. What I would like to talk about now is to touch base on what I mentioned — the physical, the mental, and the digital realms of non-ownership — and then I’m going to share the details. So I’ll share for about maybe 15 or so more minutes. How does that sound? Oh, actually, before we move on to the next chapter, how about we take a few deep breaths? Does that sound good? Shall we do three deep breaths together? And do a relaxing, like, or a release? So, okay, sounds good.
So whatever feels good.
Nice! And also, hello to the people online who are watching through the camera. We see you. So yes, so the three realms that I want to talk about are the physical realm of ownership, the mental realm of ownership, and the digital realm of ownership. The physical is quite simple. It’s the physical objects. At this point, I own absolutely no physical objects. That’s easy. I have no bowl, no cup, no bed, no house, no dishes, no, no knife, no car, no keys, no money, no bed, no pillow, no pot, no anything. You know, simple as that. I have no physical items stored anywhere that I own. I’m borrowing the four items that I mentioned — the shirt, the pants, the blanket, and the sleeping bag, which is tucked away up there — and this momentary piece of paper, which will either be composted back to the Earth or shared with somebody.
One to mention that I mentioned is that includes I have no form of identification, no government ID, no passport, no birth certificate, no driver’s license, no social security card. I have no anything stored anywhere, and I would actually say it is a physical ownership, but we’re removed from the physicality of it. But before I move into that, because that one’s more complex, I’m going to talk about the mental realm because that one is an area where I have — where it’s quite simple what I can share.
So the mental realm of non-ownership is, as I was walking from Canada to Los Angeles, I made the commitment that I would share every secret that I had — anything that I was guarding or hiding, anything I was embarrassed or ashamed of — although I haven’t — I don’t really practice shame, but embarrassed of, and definitely, timid to share. And I had things I wanted people to know, but I didn’t have it in me to share because of the concern of being canceled by society and not being understood and not being acknowledged for the full human that I am. We live in a society where being truthful is not that easy. You know, we’re not born, we’re not in this society, we’re not really taught to even share our emotions, to be honest about how we are and who we are. And so I made the commitment, as I was walking from Canada to Los Angeles — well, before I made the commitment, but that during this walk I would share everything that I was guarding or hiding. And so I did just that. I’ve been doing that through practices with others, but I released the last of it through doing a series of videos on YouTube, which it’s interesting. I’m not saying — I’m not calling them YouTube videos, and it’s really not even a series of videos. It’s a human being talking, and video was the platform of being able to share them with people.
So, when I arrived in Los Angeles two days ago, I had released every secret that I have, which means I’m now existing in a state of 100% transparency. There’s not a single thing in my mind which I will not share. There’s not a single thing that you could ask me which I will not share. So this is a way of existing for me. It’s very clear. I exist in full transparency. There’s nothing behind the scenes of what I’m doing which I have not now fully opened up to. And if there’s an area where it’s like, “Ah, there’s that,” then I have full commitment to open up to it. So I’m existing in a place of full transparency.
Along with that is truth. Now, because I have no secrets, I’m not hiding. There’s no gray areas. Like, I’m fully sharing that when that woman came over and she said, “Are you sleeping in the park?” The safest thing would have been to say ‘no,’ because she went and told the park rangers and they might kick me out, but I said ‘yes’ because I have made a four-year commitment to maintaining this 100% transparency and truth. So for the next four years, I will not tell a lie, and I will only tell the truth. So that in a way, I’m saying I’m living in full truth, but of course, I’m not living in full truth. There’s so many elements of truth to get to.
Like, for example, I’m borrowing these clothes. These clothes could have potentially been made by slave labor or child labor. That’s not full truth. You know, the food that I’m eating, I don’t know the truth behind that. The gifts that I’m being given of food, like, sure, the food I’m foraging I know the truth behind, but I don’t know the truth behind everything that I’m involved in. You know, the lights that will turn on here, I don’t know the full truth behind that. But as far as the truth within, I am existing to the best of my ability and know I’m in a state of full truth.
So right now, my mind that practices — how many of you have heard of the term Creative Commons? Okay. So that’s a new one for you? New for you? So Creative Commons is the — it’s instead of copyright, which is copyright saying, “I own this,” I have rights, you’re not allowed to use this. Creative Commons is a way of licensing your content — so videos, photos, writing, etc. — and you can say there’s different levels of what others are allowed to do. So there’s the Creative Commons license in which I have licensed everything is under the universal license, which is that everything that I put out, I have no ownership or control over. I release all control. My book that I recently wrote … someone could print that and sell it. I have no rights to it whatsoever.
And so, basically what that means is that all of my writing, videos, photos; everything is public domain, which means I don’t own it. Like my website. Well actually, now we’re moving into the digital realm? We all own it? Yes, it’s Creative Commons. It’s publicly owned, which moves us into the digital realm. So that covered the mental realm, and so as far as the digital realm goes, so I just got rid of my computer two days ago, which is my first time in my life, at the age of 38, since getting a computer, which was the family computer in 1995 — which would have been 30 years ago? I was born 95 … 95? Yeah, so 30 years ago, and then getting my first laptop when I was 19 or 18, so about 20 years ago. This is my first time not owning a digital device. I got rid of my cell phone already close to 10 years ago, but I’ve had a computer this whole time.
But actually, I got rid of my computer a handful of years ago, and I made it three months, and then I got one. I was like, “I can’t do it!” I couldn’t do it without the computer, and so I don’t … as far as the digital realm goes, I don’t own any electronic devices now. During this three months of practicing non-ownership, I am not going to touch even one of these devices. So I’m not going to go onto a computer. I could easily go to the library and use the computer, and that would be non-ownership, but this is also me taking a huge break from the trap that I’ve been in of the digital realm.
So I won’t be logging into a computer or a phone. I won’t be on one whatsoever, but I am still here. I am still online. I’m still being present. So what I’m working on here is how can I free myself from the trappings of the digital realm while still using it as a tool of service. And in this moment, I feel very in alignment. Like some people would see it as a total hypocrite — some people out there might be watching this and think, “Wow! What a hypocrite! He’s saying he’s not using electronic devices, but Daniel’s here and he’s got thousands of dollars worth of gear here,” which — and I could see where people would call that a hypocrisy, but my job, to the best of my ability, is to live in alignment and still share my message.
And this feels, for me, this feels very in alignment. So I’m happy to be able to share with all of you out in the world while not owning the devices. So the other aspect of digital is finances. So I have no bank account, no credit card, no life savings, no retirement fund, no 401K, no insurances. There’s no PayPal or Venmo. I have no digital accounts with finances, no Bitcoins or cryptocurrencies. That would all be a form of ownership that I’m not practicing right now.
Creative Commons, I mentioned that already. Before arriving in Los Angeles, I deleted everything that I had on my computer: every document, PDF, spreadsheet, photo, or video. I got rid of 99%. I would say probably 99% of my content over the last decade. And everything that I own that was personal that wasn’t published, I deleted it or published it, which means I have not a single word written. Verbal — those are the only way you can have words, right? Written or verbal? Audio? Yeah, audio, video being two forms of verbal, and then written. I don’t have a single word anywhere that’s not public except for these words right here, which let’s take care of that. Daniel? Will they be able to see this?
They’re verbal. Audio? Yeah, audio, video being two forms of verbal, and then written. I don’t have a single word anywhere that’s not public, except for these words right here, which … let’s take care of that Daniel. Will they be able to see this? Technically, interpretive dances … did you … there’s none recorded anywhere. So I have nothing in the digital realm that’s not public. So I’ve gone that far with entering into non-ownership in the digital realm.
Now, what I did do is … so I work with a nonprofit, which I’ll get to. And the nonprofit has a Google account, and actually I deleted every message that I had ever sent on Gmail and every social media platform. So also, there is not a message anywhere in the digital realm. Of course, other people still have them. I can’t get rid of that. So you go to the website, and you can click on our Google Docs map, and you can see everything the nonprofit is doing.
So that’s the practice of transparency and non-ownership. I’m practicing this non-ownership to the most extreme extent that I can, and just being fully transparent with the gray areas. I’m not striving for perfection, you know? A lot of people in the online world need to hear that. I’m not trying to be perfect. I’m trying,I am doing, I am immersing myself to the deepest level that I can in a realm that so many of us have barely even questioned. You know, the concept of ownership is for a lot of us unquestionable.
I’m not ever going to be perfect. I’m not striving for perfection. I’m striving for full transparency and deep, analyzation and observation. As far as social media goes, that’s an interesting area. I have Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and also TikTok. So what I’m doing for this three months is I have logged out of all accounts, and I no longer have the passwords to any of my accounts. And so, at least for this three months, I have no access to them, and that’s my way of practicing non-ownership in those areas. I’m not reading comments. Some people have already been bringing up, like you brought up some comments, and it’s like, “Alright, I’m not asking how many views, how many likes, how many comments.” My objective is to do my work with no attachment to outcome. One person might watch this, one million people might watch this, and to the best of my ability, I’m not going to know. I’m not attached to the outcome.
Hey, how are you? Thanks for being here. Into just a couple more things. Into just a few basics of how I’m meeting my basic needs. So I’ve been sitting nice in a car for an hour. Glad you made it! So yeah, and then the last thing I’ll share is the nonprofit Regeneration, Equity, and Justice. I’m one of the directors of the nonprofit. I don’t own the nonprofit, of course, and I actually am not on the bank account or the Venmo or PayPal that we have, and I don’t have the password or access to the funds. Now, I’ve always been the one who’s able to direct the funds, so it’s definitely a form in the realm of ownership, I would say, but I have basically put the nonprofit to sleep.
When I put it to sleep, or hibernation, there was about $4,000 in the account, so it’s a very grassroots nonprofit. And the nonprofit pays a couple of bills that are tied to my life, so there’s the website domain, the hosting and the domains, there’s the nonprofit fees, and then there’s the newsletter. So total, the nonprofit has about $1,500 a year in bills, which, you know, it’s like the website is very much a part of me, and if there’s another thing that I very much own, it’s my website. And it’s a big form of ownership. So that’s just me very transparently sharing about, the concept of ownership in this digital realm, and part of the whole idea of me diving so deep, some might be hearing this here — imagine there’s very little judgment.
How many of you have experienced some judgment toward me in the last 30 minutes or so? Okay, okay, alright. I appreciate the honesty. How many of you out there have experienced some judgment? Probably a lot. Do either of you want to share a judgment? We’ll … not the past hour, maybe going back to that woman who approached us. So that was maybe an hour ago, the judgment from that woman who came up. But no, not the past half hour since you started the chat. Okay. No, this is a very free space to communicate. Nice! And do you want to share — not the last half hour, but yesterday people were like, “You’re doing what? That’s crazy! That’s ridiculous! You’re just mooching off everybody!” And I’m like, “Yeah, you’re kind of missing the whole point.”
So you heard others’ judgments. You didn’t so much have a judgment? No? Okay, that is great. Thank you for loving me. Happy, and you’re not hurting anybody, so great. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, I’ve been receiving more judgments from this than any project I’ve sure done in a long time. This hits a hot spot. I think I’m definitely hitting a … I mean, we’re talking about questioning ownership. That’s a pretty — I think they take it as a judgment more than anything. Yeah, a lot of people definitely do. Okay, so that’s the little bit. So, but the point of all that was to say that the purpose of this is to, by me observing my mind to this depth, the whole idea is to stimulate for others, that self-observation, that analyzation.
So that’s why I call this a public experiment. My objective is by going so deep that others go so deep into their own minds. So that’s a practice of, for example, vipassana, which is one of my practices, which is observation of the mind. In a lot of these meditative practices of pursuing enlightenment, you go deep inside of your own mind. You penetrate your own mind, and so my objective is to penetrate my own mind in depth in a public experiment in a way that it stimulates that same desire in others. And for some, it’s just a little bit like they might ask, “Okay, what’s in my food? Or where’s my food actually coming from?” And then others might say, “Oh man, the entire monetary system is not what I thought it was. My whole foundation is not where I thought it was.”
So, people are at different levels. So the last thing I’m going to share, I’m just going to move down a list that I made of my basic needs of how I’m meeting these basic needs because these are the most common questions. Everything good, Daniel? Sweet, just like to … it’s good to check in. So duration. I’m doing this experiment of non-ownership for three months. So April … about April 20th is the day that I have set where I’m going to practice complete non-ownership until. It could end up being longer, but that’s the starting point. Three months of practicing non-ownership. What is that? Earth, technically, April 22nd is Earth Day, but some people celebrate Earth Day on April 20th as well, if it’s the weekend.
Money. So I’m not going to have any money for this three months. So if anybody were to hand me money, I would say please share the money with somebody else. You know, so I’m not going to have money now. I will be involved in money. People will buy food to share with me, and I will be accepting that, but I will not be spending money, and I will not have money as part of this experiment of non-ownership. For clothing, I’m just going to have the absolute basics of clothing that I’m borrowing. So the clothes that I’m wearing here are borrowed from Ant. And so just the absolute basics of clothing for this three months is what I’m going to be borrowing. What I’m doing is I’m not going to borrow anything for more than 10 days.
Part of the idea of that practice is that part of what I’m doing is shedding an identity by having nothing external. A lot of the identity is shed. I mean, imagine you have identity in your house, your car, your clothes, so many things. And so a lot of that sheds away by not borrowing anything for more than 10 days. It’s a practice in helping myself to dissolve more of that concept of self and identity, and just … it’s an experiment, it’s a practice, but I believe that, you know, will do something for my mind. For water, I’m not carrying a drinking vessel, no jar, no water bottle. I’m just drinking from the fountains.
And I have to say, so far, I have been so impressed with the number of public drinking fountains around Los Angeles. I walked six miles round trip to the river and got to drink from numerous water fountains on my walk, so that was beautiful. For food, I am eating food when it is shared with me. I am not carrying food with me. I’m — I have no pot, I’m not cooking. So I’m eating food when it’s shared as a gift, as well as dumpster diving, which I’ve eaten from the dumpster that’s about a mile from here yesterday and today, and then, as well as doing some foraging. So gifts from people, gifts from the earth, and, of course, gifts from the dumpster.
And now, with full transparency, I will carry the food for a very short distance and then eat it, but I’m not accruing food or today. I carried four bags of groceries from the dumpster to give to people who joined tonight. It wasn’t for me, it was for others. So I didn’t own it. It was a gift, but you know, I feel very clear that that’s not ownership. It was just a temporary holding on to something that I’m giving to others. Hello, dear. So for sleeping, I am sleeping outside. I have a blanket and a sleeping bag, and I’m sleeping about a … I’d say a seven-minute walk from here in the hills, and I’m just sleeping out under the stars with my sleeping bag.
And I’m going to try to do this whole thing with no tent. If rain comes, then I’ll figure that out. It might be on the days when it rains, I stay inside with somebody, or it might be for those days I borrow a tent or a tarp, but for now, I’m experimenting with just the bare essentials. Were you warm enough last night? Last night, I was a little bit chilly; however, I slept very well, and I feel extremely well-rested. So although I was chilly, I obviously slept well enough. And yeah, for those of you not in Los Angeles, it’s about 10, 11° above freezing; the low 40s, which, … so it’s chilly. Right now, I’m cold. It’s probably sub-50 now.
Yeah, but I’m just being fully transparent. This is the formula that I am navigating to try to use resources effectively while having them not corrupt me and me live in my highest integrity. And, of course, Daniel is here, and that’s the same arrangement. Dear friend David is paying to be able to spread this message through this time, and 100% of that is transparent online through the website as well. Every dollar we spend that goes into this project is transparent. So last couple things to address, my dependence on others. Some people would say, “Yeah, you’re just a mooch!” You know, “He’s just a mooch! Of course he doesn’t need to own anything because he’s the king of all mooches!”
And I get it. We live in a society where the belief is you’re supposed to work hard, 40, 60, 80 — 80 hours a week. You’re supposed to earn everything, you’re supposed to have one of everything. You’re supposed to have an electric screwdriver, even if you only use it every two years when you could just borrow it from your neighbors. You’re supposed to have everything, and you’re supposed to have worked for it, and if you didn’t, you’re a mooch. I get it. I’m taking a different stance. My stance is radical individualism, like, that is what’s destroying life on Earth — the belief that we are individual entities and that we’re not interconnected and part of community.
This is what is really part of such a level of deep exploitation, oppression, injustice. This is what’s creating this incredible wealth gap. So this is my way of saying I’m not going to do that. I’m going to actually say, you know what? I need you! I actually need you, like, look for my warmth, I need you for my food, I need you. I am not an individual, I am a part of community. I indeed, I am dependent on you. I am interdependent. So my life is a balance of dependent independence and interdependence.
Anybody who sees my work and assumes I’m a mooch doesn’t see the incredible skill set of independence that I have. I’ve grown and foraged 100% of my food for a year. I’ve foraged 100% of my food for a month. I know how, through relationships with the earth, with plants and animals, and with people, to live in a way where I do meet my needs largely on my own, but I’m not choosing to live that way, because I want to be a part of dissolving the illusion of separateness and instead say we need each other. At the heart of that is my simple belief, and that is that we will never be able — we will never bring ourselves together as humanity to solve the great crises we’re in if we don’t need each other.
The only sustainable community is a community that is not based upon disposable relationships. We need to actually need each other. That’s when we will actually get along. That’s when we will actually make things work. This is about community. This is about connection. This is about breaking down this illusion of separateness. So yes, I’m dependent upon others, and I’m so happy to be.
Suffering: a lot of people say, “Oh wow! You must love suffering! Look at you! You just want to suffer.” Do I look like I’m suffering? Like, no. Am — I, yeah, of course, every human being suffers. In the Buddhist philosophy, one of the key four things is that we all suffer. We all suffer. The question is, what do we suffer over? Am I going to suffer over getting the $10,000 watch, or am I going to suffer over trying to connect with my fellow humanity? Am I going to suffer over making a lot of money, or am I going to suffer over doing the work to dissolve this illusion of separateness and to enter into this deep state of connectedness? That’s what I’m going to choose.
I’m going to suffer in a way that is going to contribute to the well-being of life, not take away. And so do I suffer? Absolutely! But the reality is, is that honestly, I’m probably suffering a lot less than a lot, a lot of people who are sitting in multi-million dollar homes who are suffering from a lot of attachments to cravings and aversions. I’ve done a lot of work to just embrace the suffering and to use it as a tool. So yes, I suffer like we all do. I want to acknowledge my privilege, certainly, and just a little side note of that is that I never acknowledge my privilege from a place of duty or obligation, from a place of shame or guilt.
I acknowledge it from a place of truth. For me to acknowledge my privilege … for me to not acknowledge my privilege would be delusion to me. For me to not say that the reason I’m able to do what I do, in large part, is because this society that I live in was built for the benefit of white men beyond any other group of people. It was built upon the genocide of millions of indigenous people and upon the genocide and destruction of hundreds of diverse cultures of indigenous people upon the enslavement of over, I believe, seven million Africans. And all of you know this was done by white men, which I have benefited from. My life is so much easier being a white man.
And the reality is that a lot of the people who have made the greatest growth for society are not white men. It is people of less privilege. So I never want to say that people without privilege can’t be doing what I’m doing and making incredible contributions to society because they’re the ones that do. So I’m not going to buy into this polarization of saying I can only do this because I’m privileged, because that would downplay the reality of the strength and the conviction in the people with less privilege. But I can say that it’s much easier for me and that I have so many advantages in making this more possible.
And then I also want to acknowledge that we’re talking about the concept of ownership. This land right here is supposedly owned by the city of Los Angeles, but the reality is that this land is stolen land. This was land that for a very long time, for thousands of years, indigenous people here, the Tongva, you know, people have had relationships with this land for thousands of years. And then, so this concept that this land is now owned by whom? The people who took it? What gives them the right to be the owners of this? So for me, that’s at the heart of all of this, is to say this whole concept of ownership is a delusion.
That’s what I’m — that’s a big part of what I’m here to talk about. That this whole concept of ownership is a delusion, and the wisdom that I know that is most in alignment of a way forward, when I come back to it time and time again, it’s indigenous wisdom. These are wisdoms that show us a way where we can actually live in more harmony with the Earth. Not to say that all indigenous people of all time have lived in full harmony with the Earth or do today, but when you look at their ways of being with the Earth, it is in such a deeper level of harmony. And so, for me, that’s at the heart of it — returning land to people who are the stewards of the land, to indigenous people, and creating right relationships.
And so again, as far as acknowledging that this land has been part of deep relationship with people for thousands of years, that’s not virtue signaling, again, that’s just truth. That’s just acknowledging the reality of the situation. And so I think that’s one of the most, if we’re looking at healing humanity, I think that over the last decade of just seeing so many different ways of healing and growth, I really think that learning from the indigenous people of how we can have right relationships with the Earth and learn from them is one of the most powerful things we can do in healing our relationship with the Earth, healing our relationship with each other and with the plants and animals that we share this home with.
So yeah, so that was a lot more than I was planning. That was maybe a good hour or so. Can I point out that you’re 5:29? 5:29. And we were ending at 5:30, so I’m really grateful to all of you for listening to all that, being a part of it. I want you all to know that this was here for all of us, but it was also here so that we could share it with everyone. And I’m so glad that we were able to create this container together where I could share this authentically and genuinely with all of you, but in a way that allows us to share this with many others and that this will be a video that people can watch for years ahead. So before we go, I know we’re all kind of cold. I would love to create the opportunity if there’s a few questions that people have.
I know Andrew has maybe — what we can do, here’s what I’d like to do: I’d like to go ahead and end this for the people in the online world. I’m going to go ahead and say goodbye. I would have loved for you to stick around for questions, but this video has already been longer than I was planning. There’ll be more to come. You’re welcome to come out to Los Angeles, or if you’re in Los Angeles, come join us. We’ll be here for many, many evenings over the next couple of months, and there’ll be opportunities to ask questions.
And, we’re going to go ahead and end this relationship that we have here with the cameras, and then that way we can just be here in the present moment. And I’ll hang out here and share hugs and questions. I have nothing else that I need to do.
Do you all want to say goodbye to the friends in the digital world? Bye, friends and real people out there. Let’s give him a hug. Can we give him a hug? This means we’re hugging. Daniel, we love you, friends.
Articles referred to:
The Experiment in Non-Ownership – Robin Greenfield in Los Angeles
The Experiment in Non-Ownership – My “Why” and In-Depth Explanation
Non-Ownership in the Physical, Digital and Mental Realms
The Timeline of My Journey to Complete Non-Ownership
The above is a transcription of Truth Talk: The Experiment of Non-Ownership in Depth, which is part of Robin’s “Truth Talks” series during his experiment in non-ownership.
For the full series and depth to this practice visit: The Experiment in Non-Ownership – Robin Greenfield in Los Angeles.