No Inner Baggage

Many people don't realize until they are on
their deathbed and everything external falls
away that no thing ever had anything to do
with who they are. In the proximity of death,
the whole concept of ownership stands
revealed as ultimately meaningless.

In the last moments of their life, they then
also realize that while they were looking
throughout their lives for a more complete
sense of self, what they were really looking for,
their Being, had actually always already
been there, but had been largely obscured by
their identification with things, which
ultimately means identification with their mind.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit," Jesus said, "for
theirs will be the kingdom of heaven.
''What does "poor in spirit" mean? No inner
baggage, no identifications. Not with
things, nor with any mental concepts that
have a sense of self in them.

And what is the "kingdom of heaven"? The simple
but profound joy of Being that
is there when you let go of identifications and so become "poor in spirit."

Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth