The Experiment of Non-Ownership – Week 1 Update
The Experiment of Non-Ownership – Week 1 Update
Transcript
The following is a transcription of The Experiment of Non-Ownership – Week 1 Update, 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.
Well, hello dear friends who are here. And hello to friends on the internet. I’m grateful that you are all here. Today I’m going to share about the experiment of non-ownership. Today is, well, one week ago today is when it began. One week ago today. At almost this moment is when I entered into the experiment. So I’m going to share my experience so far and some insights. First, I’d like to start by sharing how I’m existing in non-ownership.
So I have, you know, definitely some people would look at the clothes on my back and they would say, “How could you not be owning anything? You’re obviously wearing clothes.” So I am borrowing … up until just moments ago, it was five items. So there’s the shirt, the pants, a blanket, a hat, a sleeping bag. And then as of this morning, these songs that are from a Thich Nhat Hanh sangha retreat that I went to. So these are songs of mindfulness and connection with Earth, connection with self, connection with others. So I’m now borrowing a total of six items. The top and bottom are from a guy named Anthony. The blanket is from Andrew. The hat is from a guy named Greens. The sleeping bag is from Keith, which is tucked up where I’m sleeping, about a five-minute walk from here in Griffith Park. And then this songbook came from the Compassionate Heart sangha that I was at this morning. So yesterday night, we were gathering here and I had a little moment of celebrating. I was six days in, now I’m seven days into literally owning nothing. And not even just owning nothing, but even only borrowing the absolute bare essentials of items. Just those five items, plus this now.
It’s a celebration for me. I’m really excited to be a week into the experiment and to have made it this far without shoes, without socks, without a drinking vessel, you know, without a secondary shirt, without a jacket. There are so many things, and it has been chilly. The nighttime temperatures have been about 43 degrees, so that’s only about 10 degrees above freezing. So that’s fairly chilly for me, and on the feet, you know, walking, it’s been chilly. So it’s taken a real level of diligence and dedication to not accumulate more possessions, ’cause people are constantly bringing me more things. It’s been a constant ability to compassionately try to have as little as possible while others want to contribute with material objects. So, yes, I’m celebrating that I’m one week in.
As far as some of the basics of how I’ve been meeting my needs, I’m sleeping. And as I say, I’m sleeping, I see a park ranger driving right past. There was a park ranger here earlier, and I thought, “Oh, they’re coming to get me. They’re coming to kick me out.” Day two, a woman came who was very not happy for me to be here. She was basically trying to get me out of the park. So, I’ve been a little bit on edge. One of the main reasons that I’m on edge is because if the rangers come over and say, “Are you sleeping in the park?” My answer is yes. Because I am doing, I’m experimenting with existing in a place of complete transparency and truth. So I can’t say to the rangers, or I won’t say to the rangers, “Oh no, I’m not sleeping here.” I’m going to say, “Yes, I’m sleeping here.” And if they say, “Where are you sleeping?” I’ll tell them exactly where I’m sleeping. So it’s a vulnerable place to be.
But considering all of that, I’ve been in a state of overall feeling very much at home here on Earth. Very much at home inside of myself. My sleeping spot is basically, I just collected a bunch of pine needles and made a bed of pine needles on a flat surface, up a little canyon. It’s very peaceful, very tranquil back there. I’m totally out of the way of anybody; nobody would end up really going back there except a rare explorer. So I’m so glad to be in a spot where I’m not a burden on anybody. Even though I’m not following the city codes, I’m not allowed to be in the park, and this is an experiment and an experience for me. I wake up in the morning, and there’s just so many birds, there’s squirrels, rabbits, coyotes, deer, crows, ravens, and the songbirds. I’ve been feeling a very sweet connection with the Earth.
As far as how I’m feeling, my big surprise is that going from, you know, when I gave away everything I owned last week, a week ago today, I really didn’t feel hardly any different afterwards, which you wouldn’t … it was a little bit of a surprise that giving away everything I owned and having no money, I didn’t feel more anxiety or insecurity or instability. Instead, I felt just a very baseline existence. And that for me … I was really grateful to experience that. What I saw is that I had really put in the work over the last decade to get to this point. This experiment of non-ownership is not just something new; it’s an extension of the last decade of practicing simple and sustainable living and being more connected and having demonetized my life and such.
How I’ve been feeling over the last week is generally pretty content, pretty equanimous. Which is like, you know, equanimous just is another way of saying, “So it is.” Whatever arises, just not putting too much of a judgment upon it, but just saying, “And so it is.” So very peaceful, very light, very present. I would say that I’ve probably felt more present in the last week than I have ever felt for a week period in my entire adult life. I’ve experienced the least anxiety I’ve ever experienced in my entire adult life. Very light. So the experiment has been yielding a lot of what I was hoping for as far as the inner state that I would be nurturing in this experiment. As far as food goes, I wasn’t expecting to eat nearly as much from the dumpster as I have been. I’ve been eating from the dumpster with great joy though.
There’s a dumpster at a grocery store that’s about one-and-a-half miles from here –a little more than a mile. So it’s about a half hour, 20-minute walk to the dumpster. I’ve eaten, I would say, over half of my sustenance has come from that dumpster. It’s a health food store, so it’s high-quality foods. I’ve been eating really nourishing food. Then I’ve also been eating food from what people share. Alex brought me a meal that I’m going to enjoy after this. So between eating from the dumpster, eating the foods that people share, and then some foraging as well, that’s how I’ve met my food needs.
Now, as you can see, I’m not carrying a bowl, or a pot, or utensils. So sometimes that means eating with my hands, and other times it means someone brings a utensil and I use that. And as far as have I had enough food? Well, I have been hungry sometimes. However, I’m happiest when I am hungry. When I’m never hungry, I’m heavy and I’m weighed down, and I don’t have the mental clarity. So I’ve been sticking to my intermittent fasting very well. Generally, I’ve stopped eating at 6 o’clock or 7 o’clock, and then not eating again until between 12 and 2 the next day. So, eating has been going really well, and I’m feeling that I can make it through the whole period. Even if I didn’t have the gifts of food from those of you who come out, the dumpster would support me alone. I mean, it’s so abundant.
On that note, the last five days in a row, on my walk back from the library or from dumpster diving myself, I’ve brought multiple bags with the food back. I figure I’ve probably rescued over $700 worth of food from the grocery store dumpster. I’ve shared it with the people here. I would say probably like 15, 20, 30 people have eaten from the dumpster with me over the last week or so. So it’s been an experience of abundance. The fact that here I am, I’m the guy who owns nothing and has no money, and I’m the one who’s actually feeding people. So that’s been a joyous experience in abundance for me to be able to do that. And very nourishing food.
As far as water goes, I’ve been drinking from the sinks and the water fountains. I have no drinking vessel, so that’s been one challenge. I’ve been more dehydrated over the last week than really any week period that I can recall. It’s been hard to get enough water when I’m walking a quarter mile, or even just walking like two minutes from probably, you know, round trip, it’s going to take me three minutes, four minutes to go get some water. So I’ve been dehydrated, but not majorly dehydrated. When I go up to my little camp spot, if I go up there at sunset at 5:30 and I don’t come out until 7, I’m up there for 14 hours with no water. So, I have a lot of long stretches with no water because of that. So if I was to get one more item, it would probably be a vessel for water. Especially maybe a gallon jug that I would put up at my camp. If I was to get another, I’m going to continue with just what I have. I wasn’t planning on getting another possession. But this one, I just … I couldn’t resist. So that’s water.
As far as transportation, my ways of getting around is primarily walking. The walk from Canada to Los Angeles is overdoing that. I was, on average, walking 15 miles in a day. Right now, I’m walking about, I would say, five to ten miles a day. The Los Angeles River is six miles round trip; I’ve only been down there once so far actually. The library is about five miles round trip — four- and-a-half, maybe. Going to the library and back is about an hour and a half, four-and-a-half miles. Sometimes I’ll go down twice in a day, and then just walking around the park, picking up garbage and things adds up. So the average day I’m doing between probably six to eight miles. In the average day.
So that takes a fair bit of my time. You know, two to three hours of my day is walking. While I’m walking, it’s an opportunity to connect with the Earth, to be thinking, to be breathing, sometimes walking with others, to be singing.
Yeah, so let’s see what other basic …. So I talked about food, water, transportation. Some of the other key aspects of existence — yep, “Hello, gopher.” Some of the other key aspects of existence include electricity. This experiment: I have no phone, I have no computer. It’s so nice to not think about plugging anything in. You know, usually especially on my walk, I was constantly looking for electrical outlets. No electrical outlets whatsoever. I have no light, which has meant going to bed much more with the days.
But you know, as far as filming goes, Daniel is here filming and Melissa’s been filming as well. So electronics are involved in my life, but this has been an — I mean, part of the objective is to break free from the technology, to break free from social media. Although I’m here present sharing messages, I’m not touching any electronic devices. I did touch a screen like once or twice, and then like realize …. So there’s been minor, but I’m trying to not even really look at screens. That’s been a very deeply meaningful practice. I’ve done a lot of practices of not being with technology and screens, but never while immersed in society so much. This is a big part of the experiment. Can I live still using technology to be a tool of service but without it ruling my life like it has for so long?
Then as far as waste, you know, of course, most people have a garbage can, that would be a possession. I’m creating very little garbage because I’m doing very little. My life is as simple as it’s ever been. Most of what I’m eating is coming from the garbage. So, the packaging already came from the garbage, and I just put it back in there. Then the garbage that I, the little bit of garbage I make is when people bring me food that’s in packaging. A lot of people have brought food that they’ve cooked at home. I asked people to bring cooked items, and, uh, kitchari has showed up. It’s been sweet; probably four different people have brought kitchari, which has been a fun little experience.
Another note of waste, another thing I’ve done with my time is picking up garbage, a lot. I’ve picked up at least one full garbage can. You know, your standard, like, there’s one over here, actually, you can’t see it; it’s behind that tree. But just your standard 55-gallon garbage can. I filled at least one of those with garbage from these hills surrounding the park as well as from where I’m sleeping. Where I’m sleeping as of today is spic and span. There is not a piece of trash in sight. I’ve picked up probably over a thousand pieces of trash. You know, maybe 50 to 100 pounds of trash or something like that. That’s my way of sort of paying my dues while I’m here doing this. I’m here staying in the park, and I want to contribute. One of the ways that I’m contributing to everybody who uses this park is by beautifying it. By removing the trash. I don’t have money to contribute, but I have that service.
Of course, my goal through all of this is to be of service. That’s probably one of the areas where I’ve struggled the most. I’ve picked up a lot of trash; that’s been a service. Then I have been doing these offerings in the park. That’s certainly been a service to a lot of people who have come out. You know, found connection and found community, exploration, learning. Meeting some of the needs for learning how to connect more with the Earth. Connect more with self and just break free from a lot of the societal norms and structures. So that’s certainly a service. I mean, the reality is that I’m here from 2 to 5:30, six days a week. So that’s about 20 hours of just being here present with whoever comes. Doing the best that I can to be of service.
But the area where I’ve struggled is I really wanted to be volunteering more in the community. Whether it’s volunteering at the library, I visited the library on day one, and they don’t need any volunteers, which is great; they have what they need. But I was really hoping to do a lot of volunteering at the library. Then as far as volunteering — whether it’s working at a food bank or a soup kitchen, or working with elders or children in the community — that’s something I have not done yet. And I just haven’t stumbled across any opportunities. Because most opportunities are a couple miles away, it’s just been … I’ve been somewhat limited in my time, having to be back here at 2:00 every day. Then also I spend most mornings in either meeting with a teammate or creating videos, which is another form of service. So that’s an area where I’ve been lacking. I haven’t been able to be of service to people who need it the most. I’m okay with that, and it’s something that I want to work on in the months ahead.
Any questions come to mind as far as the meeting of basic needs?
“I think you’ve answered a lot. But, another — I am surprised that you’re saying you had to do a lot of dumpster diving. I thought more of us would bring you food, so you wouldn’t have to dumpster dive.”
Well, not HAVE to dumpster dive. I’m choosing to dumpster dive. I would have enough food without dumpster diving. I love dumpster diving. It’s been one of my great passions since over a decade. When I’m dumpster diving, I’m keeping food out of the landfill. I’m reducing, in a sense, taxpayer dollars, because taxpayer dollars are paying for this service. So it’s actually a means of contribution. It’s also a way to alleviate the emission of methane and emissions. So reducing food waste is a substantial contributor to reducing climate change, for example.
So I actually love dumpster diving. Without dumpster diving, I absolutely would have had enough food. Now the other thing that I was going to say is, I have on multiple days eaten too much. Too much has been the problem, not too little. Between people sharing delicious food and the dumpster, a couple of nights I’ve gone to bed too full.
Now as far as money goes, you know, the fact that money didn’t even come up shows where I’m thinking like, money … you know, I’m seven days into living without money, and it’s a complete non-issue. I don’t think about money. It’s never like, “Oh, I can’t do that ‘cause I don’t have money.” That kind of leads me into the purpose of all this. I’d like to share just a few reasons why I’m doing the non-ownership.
One reason is that by living this non-ownership, it’s an opportunity to practice simple living to the extreme. I have very little access to so many things. I can’t be like, “Oh, I want something; I’m going to buy it.” Or, “I want some form of entertainment; I’m going to pay for it.” Instead, I tap into what is freely and abundantly available to us all. Which for me, in this park here, it’s the fresh air. You know, enjoying the breath. It’s the Earth. I’ve spent a lot of time just sitting on the earth. It’s the sky. You know, this summer I said, “What if the sky was my best friend?” You could never be alone if the sky is your best friend. I’ve spent more hours just looking at the sky, appreciating the sky. And the animals. You know, like right now we’re all a little bit distracted because there’s a gopher back here that keeps popping out. I’ve just spent so much time with the coyotes, deer, gophers, birds. There are two hawks flying up here right now over the ridge that I’m feeling a beautiful connection with. And of course, just the plants, the trees.
Yesterday I led the first foraging walk, and there were about maybe 15 or so people. A lot of people that had never done foraging before got to learn more about plants and sharing that connection. So it’s an experiment in living really simply. I mean, on the Earth, under the open sky, a level of simplicity. And then connection. You know, the idea was by having less, I feel more connected. The answer so far has absolutely been yes. I am dependent upon others by doing this. That’s the idea. I want to be dependent upon others. Why? Because I want to shed the illusion of separateness. I would say I’ve been feeling that substantially. There’s less of a “me” and more of — I mean, you may have heard the concept, “I-me-mine,” or “no I, no me, no mine”?
So, I mean “mine” is this very individualistic thing. There’s “I” or “me,” and then there’s “mine.” Ownership is “mine,” and I have no “mine.” You know, there is no “mine.” This is Andrew’s, this is Anthony’s. This is the sangha’s. This park certainly isn’t mine; they could kick me out of here at any moment. There’s no “mine.” The idea says that with the mind non-existing, does the “I” and the “me” sort of start to dissolve? The answer so far has been yes. There’s still ego, of course. But over the last week, there’s much less of an “I” and a “me” than there was before. And much more of just this interconnectedness. Just a bit of the dissolving of the self has definitely played a role. Whether it’s with humanity or also with the greater surroundings.
Then a big objective is to be of service. And I will say that by owning nothing and living in the present moment, I’ve been able to share more videos than I ever have in my entire life. That’s been one of the ways that I’ve managed to be of service — by sharing what’s in here that’s valuable to others. Whether it’s here in person or through the videos. So, my objective is for this experiment to help me move more into a direction of service. But that’s an area where I still have a lot of work to do.
And is that a pigeon? No. What? I cannot tell what bird that is. Do you see them? Oh, they’re parrots!
“Oh, the ones that get very loud.”
They’re not squawking. No!
“They look like pigeons, but it’s funny ’cause they’re usually known to be more in Pasadena. I didn’t know they were over here.”
The parrots? The parrots are here! I hear them most days. Yeah, so, and then another way that I’ve been spending my time is at the library. I’ve read one book so far — “The Salt March.” A book about Mahatma Gandhi’s Salt March. And the, you know, tens or hundreds of thousands or millions of Indians that marched in civil disobedience through the Salt March. And so that’s where I’ve been spending my time in reading.
And the library did kick me out for not having shoes one day. Or, I’m not going to say kicked me out; they gently said, “You have to have shoes.” One day I made shoes out of cardboard to go in, and another day someone came with me, and I put their flip flops on to be able to go in. But for the most part, only one library attendant has had any issue with it. So that’s the other area I’ve spent a lot of my time is in the library.
And then what I will add, you know, it’s now one week in. Originally, I was going to do three weeks in Griffith Park before going to my vipassana, but that was cut short because I arrived here 10 days later because of the fires. So I just have two more days until my vipassana. I’ll leave here and I’ll do five weeks at the vipassana center. It’s a silent meditation practice, and I’m going to arrive there with just the clothes on my back. Or maybe just a sheet, potentially. The idea is ideally I’ll go to the “Lost and Found” and take out a pair of pants and a top. Then whoever gives me a ride there, which I think it’s going to be a woman named Mary who came out yesterday, I’ll give her these back that I’ve borrowed to give to Ant. Then I’ll exist for five weeks in the vipassana center having brought nothing from the outside world. Just in this deep practice of silent meditation, vipassana, as well as service.
So the first ten days are the practice of silent meditation, and then I’m doing another ten-day, which is service. So that’ll be a real deep opportunity for selfless service. I’ll be in the kitchen cleaning, whatever they need me to do to serve the meditators. Then I’ll get back here after five weeks, and then I have five more weeks here in Griffith Park continuing the experiment. Then the other, you know, the other big aspect of this is that this is certainly an inner practice. This is a time for me to really be deeply practicing internal peace. Deepening my integrity, existing in a state of truth and transparency. Practicing interconnectedness and non-attachment, and impermanence, joy. Existing in a state of gratitude, mindfulness. You know, many of these practices that I have been working on, I have time to be doing all of this.
But the other big aspect of this is that this is a public experiment. I’m inviting people wherever you are to come here and do this together. To be doing this in public. Seeing, what’s this like for other people to be involved? Does this benefit others? For others to question the concept of ownership. To be able to see like, “Okay, this guy literally owns nothing. He has no money, but yet he’s smiling. He’s happy. He’s joyful. He has meaning. He has purpose.” So my intention is to be a human being that results in critical thought, self-reflection, and questioning everything. You know, questioning the deepest things, the things that we didn’t even think were questionable. So that’s a little bit of a, you know, an introduction to my first week of non-ownership. A few of the insights and the experiment so far. Again, it’s been real simple, and it’s been, it’s been real basic, and it’s been overall quite smooth, you know? Quite smooth. I feel at home. At home here on Earth, at home here with community, at home inside of myself.
And on that note, I realized, I guess I live in Los Angeles now. Which is not something I expected to say. But, you know, this is home. Griffith Park is my home. And I invite you all to come join me here. I’m not saying move in, but you know, come spend time here together. So on that note, before we say goodbye to our friends here, do any questions come to mind? Any thoughts pop up of things that you’re curious about?
“Yeah, just, so once you go into your retreat, there will be no videos, no none of that?”
So yeah, once I go …. The question is …. Do you want to join us, friends?
“Yeah, they do!”
Come on over if you want. So when I’m in vipassana, I am going to be for five weeks completely disconnected from the outside world. No one will be reaching me, and I will be reaching no one. So there’s no cameras there, there’s no phones. This is an opportunity for me to, to the largest degree possible, forget that I even exist. My name is irrelevant; my being is irrelevant. I am just there to do the deep practice of vipassana.
When I come out of vipassana on March 16th, the first talk that I give will be my experience of vipassana. So I’ll share that experience. Now, my plan was spoiled a little bit. I said I’m going to have no connection with the outside world. Well, I have a friend named Brent. And Brent is probably, well, he’s one of the dearest people in my life. He actually — we ended up walking together from Canada to California. We did the first 700 miles together. Brent has popped up. I know Brent’s not going to watch this because he doesn’t really watch videos. But Brent has popped up just year after year, time and time again. We have spent time together in like five or six states now. And since knowing each other for three years, guess who’s going to vipassana at the same vipassana center at the same time as me? Brent!
So the first two vipassanas, the first 20-something days, I’ll be there solo, but then Brent is arriving for the third vipassana. He’ll be serving. So I can’t say that I will be fully disconnected from the outside world, ’cause Brent is arriving. This will be interesting. He’s one of my absolute dearest friends. And so it’ll be an interesting experience to be with him. But we always grow together. We deeply grow together. So if you see this, I love you, Brent. Thanks for being you.
“I did read that book that you wrote, “Dude Making a Difference,” and you did say in the book….”
If anybody’s curious, that is a different Brent. In my first book, “Dude Making a Difference,” that’s Brent Martin; he biked across the country with me in 2013 to film and to share the message. This is Brent Saley, who I met three years ago. So funny that you know of that Brent. Most people don’t know of Brent Martin.
“I thought it was the same person.”
Yeah, different Brent.
Yeah, as far as my personal hygiene goes, this has been an experiment of not having a toothbrush or toothpaste. Which I’ve been brushing my teeth my whole life. But after a week, I can say that my dental hygiene feels about as clean as I ever could have hoped for. I’ve been using the California bay tree as a toothbrush; the twigs from it, the leaves as a mouthwash. I’ve been using a few different plants — rosemary, lavender, and sage as mouth rinse; an antimicrobial mouth rinse. And then actually right here, I have the long leaf pine needle, and this works as my dental floss. So my dental hygiene has been really as good as I could possibly hope for. Now I was planning on swimming in the L.A. river pretty consistently, which is a six-mile walk round trip. I found that I haven’t really made the time to walk down there. But there’s a bigger reason why, and that’s because the fires in Los Angeles burned a lot of batteries, chemicals, technology, and so there’s a lot of pollution here right now.
I would definitely be concerned that a lot of that pollution is flushing into the L.A. river. So, because of that, I actually haven’t bathed for the entire week. I’ve asked a couple of people if I smell, and some have said no, not at all. One person said that I smell a little bit. I smell more than I usually have. And you know, it’s an opportunity for humility to be smelly in this society. It is a great opportunity to humble myself. I’m not sure what I’m going to do in the long term, but basically that’s a, you know, a little note on my hygiene. I’ve simplified my hygiene down to the absolute basics; no products, just a few plants that I’m working with.
One other note that I’d like to make is I mentioned that these six items are the only items that I have borrowed. But there are actually a few items I’ve borrowed momentarily. I’ve used pens to write, and I’ve borrowed a cup or a water bottle for a moment. You know, a short period of time while I’m sitting with people. So there are a few items that I’ve used in momentary time. And I’m happy to be doing that. That’s the whole idea. Is that we don’t all need to own one of everything. And that’s the whole idea, is that through needing other people, it gives opportunities for me to have meaningful connections. Where other people get an opportunity to contribute, I get an opportunity to receive. And we have these … these relationships through actually needing one another.
And then the other aspect is trash. I have been using some items from the trash. Like for example, I will sometimes get pieces of paper from the trash, and then — or I actually … I don’t have it on me, but there’s a pen that I found that was litter and it didn’t actually have any ink left. But I would use it to scratch notes into pieces of paper that I got from the garbage so that I could remember things later when I was meeting up with my team. I’ve used a bucket that I also found as litter to use as a vessel for picking up trash. So there are some items that I’ve been using that are litter or from the garbage, and that’s an experience of like in those scenarios, I don’t feel like I own it. You know, this paper — after I’ve written on it, I took it from the garbage. I’ll either return it to the garbage or rip it up into small pieces, bury it in the soil, and return it to the soil. So it’s been a real opportunity to use the absolute bare essentials and bare minimums from borrowing items for the long term, like my six core items, to these items I’m using for just a moment here and there. Other questions?
“Yeah, when you first disconnected from your family and friends, whenever the first time you did that was, what advice do you have to, well, even now really stick with your commitment and experiment, but also lovingly disconnect?”
Yeah, so when I first — you’d say, disconnected from family and friends. Yeah. How did I navigate that? You know, it’s definitely a big topic, but I can summarize a few things. First of all, I want to give gratitude to my mom in that she never believed that she owned me. A lot of parents think that they own their children — that their children are theirs. My mom saw that I was a human being and that I am the master of my own life and the master of my own mind.
Especially in my, you know, a lot of people — a lot of parents — it’s like they want you to be a certain profession, have a certain level of success, and you know, they want you to be happy, but only if you’re doing what they want you to be doing. Fortunately, my mom and Mark — who’s my dad, I’ve always called him Mark — they’ve never had that ownership belief. But, well, no but, there’s still been struggles. To put it simply, I decided that I wanted to live my life and that I wasn’t going to waste it. No matter what family or friends wanted me to do, I was going to pursue what I wanted. If that meant losing friends, fine.
So I’ve been from the beginning just okay with shedding relationships that no longer serve me or no longer serve them. To give one of the more extreme examples, Mark, you know, he was not playing a positive role in my life. And I wasn’t even playing a positive role in his life because he had a specific way he wanted — he was afraid, lots of fear, watched a lot of the mainstream news, and was constantly afraid of me traveling, whether it was going to Mexico, or when I went to Israel, or traveling with no money, etc. And after a while of consistently trying, I actually cut him completely out of my life for two years. This is, you know, my father, my dad. And so I’m willing to go to some fairly great extents to say I’m going to live my life by my values, and that’s more important than any loyalty to a particular person or to a particular community or anything of that sort.
I have a loyalty to the family on Earth. I have a loyalty to the Earth. I don’t have more of a loyalty, even to US Americans, than to people in other countries. I have loyalty overall to humanity and to the Earth. And so, you know, my mom, for example. I love my mom dearly and we’ve deepened our connection a lot over the last few years through the practice of non-violent communication. My mom is a mom; there’s billions of other moms on this Earth. My mom’s not more important than any other mom. So I’m not going to pour all of my time and energy into that one mom. I’m here to serve all moms — not just that one mom. So this is a matter of, you know, impermanence, non-attachment, all of that. I take that even into the depth of families and, you know, family relationships and friendships. And, you know, another aspect of that is that I have many friends, and so I’ve lost some friends because they don’t share the same values. And when for me, okay, there’s thousands of people out there who don’t like me or dislike me. I would say there’s, I would say with some level of confidence that maybe a million people at least have had a negative judgment towards me because I’m out there; I reach a lot of people. My response is: there are eight billion people on this planet. It doesn’t matter if one million, one billion people don’t like me; that still leaves seven billion potential friends out there. So I don’t have attachments to each individual relationship as long as I’m living of service to the overall group of humanity and Earth then I can release the attachment to particular relationships.
And so, yeah, those are some thoughts on that. Did I ever have to do work to get to the place where I could detach from family and friends? Absolutely! You know, from my youngest years, my basic human needs were the needs to belong, to be seen and heard, to be loved, to be acknowledged. The basic — these are basic human needs that everybody has, that most of us are trying to meet every day. I would actually go as far as to say we are every day trying to meet those needs. Every human being. For a lot of us, it’s like that’s our central focus — to be loved, to be — to feel connection, belonging. And so, yes, that plays a large role. And I think a big part for me is that, yes, no doubt I struggled with that in the past. But I just, you know, I look at the state of the world. We live in a time of such great inequality, such inequity, such destruction, such exploitation. And that’s my focus. It’s living in a way where I’m not contributing to that, and instead I’m part of the solution for that. Friendships and family do not come even close to where that priority is. And like, for example, right now I’m doing six years of practicing being non-sexual and I’m two years in and it’s been a non-issue. Like sure, I still have sexual thoughts. And I, you know, I see people and I think about it. But it’s just nowhere near as important as dedicating time and energy to being of service and to living a life of integrity.
And I really have learned, one of my biggest lessons over the last few years is that time is limited for me. I live in this human form, in this human body and in this construct that, you know, this is poss— … that’s possible, you know, time is a concept, of course. What I’m trying to say is time is a concept; it’s not necessarily a real thing. But I’m living within it, being a construct that we all have a limited amount of time, you know, some number of years. And what I’ve realized is that I’m nowhere near able to accomplish what I’d like to. And I never have enough time. And so I simply have to say what do I have to let go? And this year, a big letting go; you know, a big part about all this is like I deleted my personal Facebook profile, and I cried. You know, that was a surprise. But like there was this grieving because what I was — I was letting go of hundreds of relationships right there.
I used to have 5,000 friends on Facebook. Some years ago I moved it down to 800 and then I went from 800 to zero. I knew every one of those 800 people. When I deleted that profile, which in full transparency, the profile still exists; I just deleted everything from it so that the profile could still be used just to manage my page. So it’s, it’s, for all intents and purposes, it’s non-existent. But that was — I felt some deep … something deep inside of myself. Just, I started — I cried, and I did for multiple days letting go. I’ve let go of a lot to get to this place of practicing non-ownership, I have let go of a lot and relationships have been a big part of it. Because how can I be present with you in this moment if I have more relationships than I can even manage? And I want to be present in the moment. So that’s meant letting go of meaningful friendships, meaningful connections. And consistently shedding, consistently shedding. So it’s been a tender year for me as far as just continuously letting go and letting go and letting go, and I have — I’ve deleted 99% of my existence.
Nice! Then we’ll save more questions for later. So for all of you dear friends out in the — I’m not going to say the internet world. You are human beings who are sitting and watching this through the internet, but we are all human beings here. I’m grateful to be having all of you on this journey, wherever you are in the world. And you’re welcome to come join me here in Griffith Park, and we love you very much. And we’re just, yeah, so happy you’re here, dear 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 The Experiment of Non-Ownership – Week 1 Update, 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.