There was a belief that a witch or spirit can affect a person, an external possession.
He says many Americans, whether regular workers or corporate executives, look for happiness in fleeting, external things like possessions and fame.
Through asana (postures), pranayama (breathing and energy control) and meditation we learn to focus our awareness on the Self within and release attachments to external desires and possessions.
It is one of the small ironies of history that a dominated people so often yearn to be like their dominators; to judge by the photographs, the black community, withdrawn as it was from the white community and essentially invisible to it, still imitated it in many ways, at least in the externals of dress, possessions, rituals, even class structures.
They have the security that others are not permitted to use their person (e.g., assault them) without their consent, but they have only limited security in their possessions of external things (except with the consent of others).
It is a journey inward to find meaning beyond material possessions and external rewards.
In time you will realize that no amount of social status, material possessions, or external pressure justifies your unhappiness.
Whatever you resolve to do or be this new year, do your best to break free of dependence on material possessions or external circumstances or people to make you happy.
Consumerism has been equated with a shift from intrinsic to external goals related to possessions, status and 'external trappings', 7 and a number of studies conducted since the mid-1980s have shown it to be associated with reduced well-being among both adults 8 10 and children or adolescents, 11 13 including the sample of early adolescents on which the analyses presented here are based.
Hopefully, however, he will do some soul searching and realize external validation never trumps genuine self-possession.
