Not Yours

      At Sāvatthī. “Bhikkhus, whatever is not your, abandon it. When you have abandoned it, that will lead to your welfare and happiness. And what is it, bhikkhus, that is not yours? Form is not yours: abandon it. When you have abandoned it, that lead to your welfare and happiness. Feeling is not yours… Perception is not yours… Volitional formations are not yours… Consciousness is not yours: abandon it. When you have abandoned it, that will lead to your welfare and happiness.

“Suppose, bhikkhus, people were to carry off grass, sticks, branches, and foliage in this Jeta’s Grove, or to burn them, or to do with them as they wish. Would you think: ‘People are carrying us off, or burning us, or doing with us as they wish’?”

“No, venerable sir. For what reason? Because, venerable sir, that is neither our self nor what belongs to our self.”

“So too, bhikkhus, form is not yours… consciousness is not yours: abandon it. When you have abandoned it, that will lead to your welfare and happiness.”

~ Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation, The connected discourses of the Buddha (Saṃyutta Nikāya III), The Book of the Aggregates (Khandhavagga), (USA: Wisdom Publiccations, 2003), p. 877.