Seneca, the eminent stoic, wrote these words about the source of over-flowing confidence and assuredness in an individual:
"The wise man … does not need to walk about timidly or cautiously: for he possesses such self-confidence that he does not hesitate to go to meet fortune nor will he ever yield his position to her: nor has he any reason to fear her, because he considers not only slaves, property, and positions of honor, but also his body, his eyes, his hands, — everything which can make life dearer, even his very self, as among uncertain things, and lives as if he had borrowed them for his own use and was prepared to return them without sadness whenever claimed."
How can one fear loss if one does not consider anything as being his own?
And in the absence of this fear how can there exist any doubts about one's self-worth or value?
Where would insecurity emerge from if one moved through the world as if she owned nothing?
In Astrology, for example, the same psychological arena is responsible for both money and material possessions as well as personal worth and value.
One teacher I knew was fond of stating that money was merely concretized value! (And it is a fear of loss that gives rise to other base emotions such as both greed and anger.)
So, the logic goes, if you choose to remain non-attached to the things that you own then you cannot fear anything being taken away and nothing can remove your perception of the stature of your Self. And this, this is a very powerful place in which to be.
I have known these things from my past ponderings and readings; such sentiments crop up repeatedly in Mystical writings and especially in the Buddhist Tradition.
But it has been living in the environment in which I have now found myself in that has truly awoken this realization within me. After all, that which you perceive through your senses on a regular basis IS you!
We are the content of our consciousness and nothing else besides. Should one enquire as to what you are it is merely necessary that you recount your daily experience - that which you think and do and engage with through your senses. THAT IS YOUR REALITY! The sum total of that which you experience.
And my experience of the past two years has been of wondrous natural beauty: the stillness and dynamic throb of forest dwellings, the tumultuousness of an ever-changing sea, the ebb and flow of bodies drawn to this space, the amazement on the faces of those who have seen this beauty for the first time, the exuberant play and twinkling laughter of the children who are as unbridled in their enthusiasm as are the churning waters and singing waves.
It is living here, my immersion in this experience as my daily reality, that has moulded my consciousness such that Seneca's opening words I can finally claim to know and understand!