Chapter 58: The reception of candidates for the community (paragraphs 4-5)
Before making their profession novices should give any possessions they may have either to the poor or to the monastery in a formal document keeping back for themselves nothing at all in the full knowledge that from that day they retain no power over anything -- not even over their own bodies. (From para. 5 of Ch. 58 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
Retaining no power over anything, controlling nothing even with my thoughts and fantasies -- this is the poverty of spirit that the mantra demands.
"Keeping back.. nothing at all...retain no power over anything" to me is synonymous to letting go and letting be. This morning, I was late in my speaking engagement. I took the public transport (longer and slower route) because my boss did not allow me to have that "long early drive." If this incident happened before, I may have acted impatiently. But letting go of control of this situation allowed me the "gift of discerning" why this incident has to happen. In fact, in my talk, I was able to use what happened as a beautiful example to emphasize the main point of my topic :-)
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