Water: More precious than Gold
|
Water: More precious than Gold
|
|
|
MONEY and COMPETITION Why is Money so important to Humans? Surely we know that with money we can buy things, but is this in itself enough to motivate the greed and avarice that Money excites? Let’s look at this for a moment… Let’s imagine we are in the state of perfection Rusty Harris dreams of… We are in a garden, we have our children about us, a partner who loves us. We have enough… We have a home, a community, food, water, worthwhile work… What more do we need? Generally what people need (and this is something that we see in the youngest child as much as the oldest adult) is attention. Attention and recognition of ourselves by others is really a very pivotal desire, but it is also a very self centred impulse. This is the key of the first stage of Human Nature, understanding and practising the need for Self Recognition. This comes through the stages of Self Motivation, Self Fulfilment and Self Perseverance. We travel from being essentially self-ish to a state of self-hood. We learn as we grow to give more consideration to others, but the initial stage is one of competition. We look to identify who we are in COMPARISON to others., Competition offers us a yardstick, a measure to tell us if we are good or bad, etc. It is necessary to go through this stage as part of the maturation process. This stage is the area where we learn to define ourselves against our peers. Children struggle to have a sense of identity as they grow, and one of the ways we define ourselves is with competition. As an adult, this sense of competition crystallises and forms into a more rigid state. It often becomes represented by the "things" we "own". If I have a bigger house, a better car, a louder stereo… This all means that in some way I am competing favourably against my peers... That I am in some way "better" than my brother or sister. I suspect that entire impulse for acquisition is not really based in the concept of defining primitive boundaries, as the anthropologists would have us believe, but in defining the DIFFERENCE between myself and my peers… A way of pegging my VALUE in society via the things I can possess. It is not dissimilar to the hunter who brings in the biggest catch, and gaining the accolade of the village because of the prowess displayed. In our Industrial Jungle, the man who "Brings home the bacon" is the man who earns the money. The man who has successfully competed with his peers and done better is the new champion. He is the one who gets the attention and respect of those about them. He is the one who feels his "Self" is increased by his actions. DIGNITAS: The Key to Each Man’s Inner Nobility The Romans had a word for it… Dignitas. It was more than Dignity, it was a recognition by all of value about you that you had inherent worth. It was more than Money… It was a living breathing belief of value in YOU as an individual that your society placed on your head like a Laurel wreath. Gold is accepted as the universal symbol of wealth, and the Possession of Gold is the universal symbol that you have succeeded. Success means a better wife, a better house, and a better everything in the eyes of many. Gold itself has a certain indoctrinating flair about it… You hold it and you feel good… More to the point… You want to keep holding it, not just because of what it is, but what it represents. Now to tell a man steeped in the Money and Competition consciousness that WATER is more precious than Gold… Well, to this person this is much the same as saying that you are stark raving mad. You would appear to someone in the "Gold and Diamonds" Mindset as an idiot and fool who is blind to the obvious. Because the symbols of Competition and Money are the prime motivators behind the actions of a person locked into the Competition and Money mindset, anything other than these symbols either have little value to them. Because of this a distorted image of the world is accepted as "reality". The presence of Gold creates powerful engrams in the mind of the person who seeks to possess and compete in order to prove their worth. Yet an older wisdom tells a different story. An old saying goes, "A woman worth possessing can never quite be possessed" GREED V’s DIGNITY People who get the Gold so often find their life lacking in something… So often the fast cars and the big house do not fill up the emptiness, because no matter how much someone says you are great… Unless you FEEL great inside yourself, the accolades are worthless. Paradoxically, when you DO feel wonderful inside yourself, you don't need or want the accolades. In fact, you don’t need much at all. An old story about Aristotle is worth repeating here. Aristotle was well read in the Ancient World, largely because he had such good PR with his student being Alexander the Great. The King of Crete decided to visit Aristotle in his later years, and this king sought to reward the philosopher for all the wisdom he had given to the world. The King of Crete visiting was a little like the President of the US and the Queen of England coming to visit on the same day. He was both rich and powerful, and he offered to Aristotle anything he wanted… If it were humanly possible, it was his. You can imagine the scene… A huge retinue of attendants, the King in all his finery. Coming up to the back yard of a humble philosopher and saying "Name it… it is yours!" Aristotle said to the King that there was one thing he would ask, if the King didn’t mind… The King asked "What? Anything, and it is yours!" Anything?" Aristotle queried… "Anything!" the King confirmed… "Then could you stand a few steps over to my right, because you are blocking my sun…" There was nothing the King of Crete could offer the philosopher, for Aristotle already had all he needed. The King left, hating the one he came to venerate. Why? Because he had been in his mind, slighted. Those caught up in money and power simply cannot see that the simple ways are the best. They cannot and must not, because if they realise that all they want to do is to enjoy the sunshine and contemplate on life, their business will collapse and they will be poor. If you can't understand what Aristotle was saying to the King of Crete… Stop reading right now. The rest of this book is wasted on you… Money and Competition are what is destroying the environment… Both the physical environment of the planet, and the human environment in our homes. You can't get one up on what we are… Soul. We can't do better than the divinity within us. Why not mine for Gold in your heart? Why not discover the wealth that comes from assisting others? What would life be like if people valued the quality of the herbs they grew, and the taste of the food they cooked? What if Gold was a secondary thing, and the laughter and appreciation of our fellows was more important than appearing more important than they might be? It is a much easier world to live in, isn’t it? I thank Aristotle (Though some tell me it was Diogenes) for the clue on how best to behave in the face of overwhelming money.
Neil Young
|
|
|
|
