Tagged: wealth
Notes on Quotes: Greed, Wealth and what truly counts in Life.
“Well first of all, tell me, is there some society you know of that doesn’t run on greed? You think Russia doesn’t run on greed? You think China doesn’t run on greed? What is greed? –Milton Friedman
Economic systems of the world have greed as their main engine, no matter what ideal or philosophy they represent, for greed is within most humans at this time. Therefore, greed is the kernel, the cause behind every motivation to “succeed” in economic systems. As long as there is greed, there will be division: China, Russia, USA, etc. are merely mental divisions with non existent borders but with all the limitations that man has made. A human being is the same species on Earth, but our minds have used all sorts of divisions to create the “me against you” paradigm. Friedman asks ‘what is greed?’ With all the degrees, intellectual studies and science in existence, the basic engine of the economy hasn’t been studied yet. Greed is the division of rich and poor. Greed is the existence of hunger in the world. Greed is the pollution of the Earth. Greed is the need to compete with another to accumulate wealth, power and status. Through that greed all that really matters is ‘I,’ and then my group; known as ‘we’ against the rest. Greed is that compulsive need to conquer and make everyone subservient of self created interests.
Isn’t human history made mostly of human greed? History of the World may be covered with pretty words and colorful stories but nonetheless, there is human greed behind it. It is in the acknowledgment and personal observation of greed, how we could find that the common good is mostly missing in our stories to become “someone” in life.
“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” –Henry David Thoreau
When that capacity to fully experience Life is missing, then fear and greed arrive. Most humans have created a mental barrier, that is a comfort zone which is unable to accept change. Life being change in itself is denied. Our quest for security arrives and we close the doors to anything our minds recognize as losing the status quo. The full experience of Life is the experience of duality. When we have that capacity to ‘go with the flow’ in the river of Life, then we will be prepared to experience the ups and downs of the journey as interesting and challenging episodes, rather than traumas and mental tantrums made whenever Life goes the opposite way of our desires or hopes. It is in that ability to experience Life in its whole range, how wisdom appears and; there is no greater wealth than that.
“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” –Albert Einstein
In the world created by the mind, we have the tendency to count everything:We count the number of paper money we have as sign of wealth, we count the possessions we have, we count the number of birds in a flying formation, we count how many times we have sex or how many times we can ejaculate or have an orgasm. Those statistics are meaningful in most minds to compare with another and demonstrate how much better or worse off they are. But those things may not count. However, happiness, peace and joy are feelings which count in our experience of a fulfilling Life regardless of everything else that we could mentally count, but yet; we cannot count those feelings.
“Spiritual” cogitations
In the “Office world” we learn to pursue, to achieve, to DO what is conditioned to be “better” for us. In Life, none of that is important.
What is the difference between the “office world” and Life?
The “office world” is part of Life, however; it is man-made, artificial like a computer or a car, not “bad” but artificial. For our minds, that artificial Life is the most important aspect of living.
The “office world” values wealth, power, and information (called sometimes knowledge) above anything else. Those are mental conditionings. Someone could live their Life miserably by DOING something they do not like, for the sake of obtaining wealth, power or information.
Someone may DO something to achieve wealth, power or information although it will be detrimental to his health, relaxation and appreciation of Life. Why do they DO it? Because they have been conditioned in that way. They cannot see anything else.
Observe where “Human progress” has taken us. Every time further away from Nature. Every step into an artificial Life.
Observe how every “problem” that exists in the world (office world) today has the root on our ever-increasing human population. As a consequence, fierce competition to secure scarce resources, will change our perception of the world.
Nature is no longer “our Mother,” but another economic resource to exploit and to gain profits from.
The environment could be polluted for no one “owns it.”
It is comical to believe that poverty could be eradicated through money, when money only represents the power of human division between the “haves and the have-nots.” Lack of money is not the cause of poverty, but human greed is. Funny, no book on Macro Economics will ever talk about it.
When you look at Life from a different consciousness, everything that used to be “important,” no longer will be.
Many individuals in the “Spiritual achievement club” want to be “enlightened” but they better be careful what they wish for. This is not another degree to obtain or another title to achieve. In fact, you will lose everything you used to know and trust.
Everything will be gone. Are you ready for that? Even “you” will be gone.
Some “spiritual books” mention that the reason why spiritual people are away from other people is to better practice “spirituality.” That is not true, but only for the followers. The only reason why any enlightened person who has ever lived went into solitude while walking the path of self-realization, was to decondition themselves. That is not something that they carefully “planned” or organized to “achieve their goal,” like in the “office world,” but it happened to them.
That space away from the conditioning of society is what is needed. There is no “spirituality” to practice here, other than being able to live with yourself.
That is a hard thing to DO when we live a Life of distraction from ourselves.
Society wants answers to every question, as long as those answers are “eco-friendly, organic and animal free tested.” Those are the keywords to sound caring, loving and correct. Yes, society is about “looks.” That is the seal of artificiality.
Life is away from what society has given us. Empty handed, you may be able to experience Life… but this is not for everyone, thus; it is not a “best seller” material. 🙂
Question:Wealth and Spiritual progress
The available history tells us that most of the spiritual masters were never concerned much about wealth. At their times, the competition for resources was less and people were not bothered much about their livelihoods. But nowadays, there is a race for grabbing resources and one has to earn for himself and his family with due consideration of unexpected events. My question is – Will accumulation of wealth or desire for more savings for any purpose become an obstacle in our spiritual progress? How to deal with it?
Thank you for your interesting question.
Our perception of wealth has changed in time. That spiritual master perhaps wasn’t concerned about having kids and paying bills, thus he did not need much to live by himself.
“History” has recorded male “spiritual masters” only. Very little is known about female counterparts, and that is because of the mindset at that time.
Therefore, it is safe to go with was is “now”.
Someone who is busy, who has a busy schedule of things to “do”, is not ripe yet for self-realization. Granted, that person may have a great intellect, he may have convincing ways, a great ability to speak/write spiritual things, etc. but unless you have plenty of time to be alone, by yourself and I mean PLENTY; your time hasn’t arrived yet.
By hearing this many may decide to quit their jobs and live in a cave someplace by themselves. That is very silly. That is the way many religious followers have interpreted to be the “right” path to enlightenment. To DO this is artificial.
Life and not a religion, a belief or a desire will put you there when you ARE ready.
Our minds have been conditioned to be greedy. Competition is out there as a way of Life. That is the air around the “office world.” Thus, greed increases and the desire to accumulate for tomorrow is always there. The same ideal is extrapolated in “spirituality”. Be greedy about Paradise. Your wealth in this world is not eternal. Make sure that you accumulate eternal things. Donate your wealth now to build a temple or a church so you accumulate points with God in the afterlife. People will call that as “helping others”, they may even label you as a saint; but truly is about your greed in obtaining Paradise.
There is nothing wrong if someone has wealth or if your job or any legal activity will bring you wealth. The problem is the mind. The constant desire to accumulate, (greed) that is the issue. The mind is set in the future. You “need” a boat, a mansion, 7 cars for each day of the week, 7 kids, 5 pets and 2 wives.
You’ve got those? Good! Now maintain them. Make sure the wealth flow is there, for someone can take it away from you, and your acquisitions will be gone. You will be “nothing” without them. Thus, ego will fiercely protect those assets.
That person is not ready for self-realization. He is too busy with things to take care of. Although he may read spiritual “bestseller” books and listen to Guru’s classes. He may have quitted his addiction to tobacco thanks to the local priest, thus he has “improved” his spirituality, in his view.
“Spiritual progress” has nothing to do with DOING or HAVING. It is about BEING.
That BEING is openness through inner acceptance of the different scenes that Life will show us. You can DO what you want to DO in Life. You can HAVE everything you can imagine in Life. What you ARE will change through those experiences.
Embrace the ideal of being “good” and you are doomed to be “bad”.
Embrace the ideal of rejecting greed and you will never know generosity.
Accept that you are greed through your own observation and you will have the opportunity to go beyond it. Not by denying that you shouldn’t accumulate things or that you shouldn’t DO certain actions, but by BEING AWARE that your mind is running the show in your Life through an ideal, through conditioning; that is how freedom from the duality of greed/generosity will appear and what you ARE will no longer be driven by moral standards of what to DO, but you will notice that you ARE already what your mind is pushing you to DO artificially through fear and conditioning. You ARE “spiritual” already. Just allow the layers of conditioning to go by being aware of them.
Spiritual “improvement” is not driven by externalities. It is not driven by embracing/rejecting dualistic concepts such as greed/ generosity. It is driven by AWARENESS and CAPACITY to go beyond the “reality” of duality through complete acceptance of it.
This is to be “REAL” in the “now” and not to be caught up with ideals, beliefs, concepts and conditioned morality.
The above is known as Tantra. Thus, it will be misinterpreted. Some may say:” Tantra says that if you are greedy, that is OK… if you are bad, that is fine. Embrace it.” They forget the AWARENESS deal. They have not experienced what is AWARENESS; for if they had; none of the dualities could be an issue, a “problem” for them. They wouldn’t be asking questions such as: How do I conquer greed? How do I become generous? and all of that… but if they do ask those questions, then tell them: Greed is bad. Generosity is good. “Practice” Generosity. Have a distaste for greed. That… they can understand, although those words are completely senseless once we know that we cannot embrace one side of a coin and get rid of the other, without destroying the coin. 🙂
Question: Sakar Murli of 14.8.12 at pg. 2/3 that we should have intoxication of the imperishable jewels of knowledge. Yes I understand that. Then it states: It is difficult to break that other intoxication. The intoxication of the poor can be broken. ???? That other intoxication??? Please explain. Thank you.
Thank you for your question.
I do not have the Murli with me. I go to class and listen to it.
What I heard was: “It is difficult to break that other intoxication.” Which in the context of the Murli (See comments on Sakar Murli 8-1-12) meant wealth of the millionaires or just the “intoxication” (exhilaration is the correct word in English) of the physical world. Therefore, the other sentence that you mention: “It is difficult to break that other intoxication,” will make sense for any worldly thing which give us “exhilaration” is an obstacle to be detached from that.
The traditional Indian favorite method to deal with such “tasty obstacles” is “renunciation.” As long as there is no “inner understanding” based on inner knowledge, to renounce something seems the “right thing to do.” However, understanding is “painless,” and “natural,” which should make our life easier rather than harsh.
I am not sure about your sentence: “The intoxication of the poor can be broken.” For the “poor” has nothing to be “exhilarated” about except Baba’s gyan, in the context of that Murli. If your sentence is accurate, then we could understand that is referring to “leaving gyan.” or perhaps, the right sentence is” “the intoxication of the poor cannot be broken.”
If you have access to the Murli, please share the literal full paragraph, to be able to have a categorical answer.
Good wishes!
Exploring the Depth of Living 