This Body of Illusion, Borrowed for a While
When the illusory body fades, the illusory mind fades too; and when that mind fades, even the illusory objects fade.
Have I lived forgetting that all I gripped so tightly was only borrowed for a while?
📝Reflection
This verse runs like dominoes. Know the body to be illusion, and the mind bound to it loosens; loosen the mind, and even the objects it made — the objects of hatred, desire, fear — loosen too. It can sound cold. If all is illusion, is everything then pointless? But I hear it otherwise. Knowing that body and mind are borrowed for a while gives not emptiness but lightness. Consider two people with a borrowed car: one polishes it endlessly as if it were his own forever, losing sleep over a single scratch; the other thinks, it is borrowed, so let me drive it gratefully and return it well. Which is freer? Knowing a thing is borrowed for a while, you can treat it more preciously — yet more lightly. Where clinging departs, true affection finally enters.
🌱Apply It Today
When your heart tightens with fear of losing something today, recall: "This is borrowed for a while." Set down the illusion of owning it forever, and both hand and heart unclench.
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
