I just spent the past few days in the canyon. It was windy & a bit rainy, but cozy in the cave.
I just got an email commenting on how I use computers & other products of the money system, and also how I let my friends buy me a dinner the other evening. So I'll say the following in answer:
What money is & my relationship to it
I don't think money is evil. It is illusion, a belief system that everybody agrees to believe in. A jay picks up a coin & puts it in her nest, but she does not recognize money--only a pretty piece of metal. The jay, like the infant, only sees what is. That is the mind I'm wanting to cultivate. I'm not totally there yet. Money is thought of credit and debt, a value belief, it is not a piece of paper or a plastic card or a even a binary computer code vibration at First National Bank! Money does not exist, except as belief.
Barter is also thought of credit and debt. That's why I don't like to barter, either, because barter is nothing but money, using bulkier currency.
Money is ulterior motivation. You give because you want something back. You don't do or give simply out of the present pleasure of your heart. You don't give out of love, but out of prostitution. Your mind is in the future reward, not the present reward. Or your mind is in the past debt. This is why I say that prostitution, the oldest profession, the mother of all profession, is the most honest profession. You see it for what it is. Everyone knows the prostitute is pretending to love. Not so with other professions. I'm not even saying prostitution is evil or good, or any profession is evil or good. I'm just simply stating what is.
Money represents the future and the past, but never the present. Think about it. If a dollar bill represented itself, the present, it would no longer be money, would it? It would be simply colored paper, as it really is. The mind in the present is the only awake mind.
Money is Thought of Credit & Debt, the Knowledge of Good & Evil--that which makes us unique from all wild creatures. In a future blog I want to talk about the Garden of Eden story & the other world-wide myths of stealing fire from Heaven. Every culture has this similar myth explaining what separated us from nature's grace. I'd also like to talk about the deep teachings of various relgions about these things, the teachings of Grace beyond Thought of Credit & Debt. Grace is Eden.
Using products of money. I hitch-hike in cars, sleep in offered houses, use computers, etc. Swallows sleep in attics, storks nest on roofs, barnacles ride on ships, pigeons & rats & roaches hang out in cities. They use what is at hand, here & now. Do you think any of these would care an iota if attics, roofs, ships, or cities never existed? Okay, I'm a human moving away from thought of credit & debt. I try not to cause anybody to spend money. But I am no dogmatist. If I lose flexibility & love, what am I doing this for?
About friends treating me to dinner. I sometimes give in & let somebody buy me something that's not at hand, because people's friendship & generosity (what life is all about) over-rule my "rules". Take people as they are, where they are. I will sometimes share a beer with an alcoholic hobo, because not doing so won't make him any less an alcoholic. But doing so breaks down judgmental barriers. It is lack of love that drives people into addiction, not the presence of alocohol or meth or money. However, it is eventually very good to get away from all addictions, like alcohol, meth & money. Why surround yourself with addictions when you can get away from them? But, until then, why fight what can't be fought?
Another example: if you happen to find an escape route from a prison and the only way your friends can also escape is for you to go back in and show them the way, wouldn't you go back in if you have any kind of compassion?
If somebody gives me money, like when I'm on the road, I get rid of it by sunrise & not use it for myself. But when I first started this moneyless thing in the first couple of years, I would sometimes use it if I could do it by sundown. I allowed it in my "daily bread" game.
But I normally take only what is in the present, as all wild animals & plants do, and I often refuse people buying anything for me. It's a case-by-case sitch. Love has to be the guide over-ruling all rules. I like to call my life a potluck. I looked up potluck in the dictionary and it means sharing the food at hand, whatever happens by luck to be in the pot. I looked up potluck because I had thought it came from potlach. A potlach was a traditional party thrown by many American Indians. They believed it wasn't right to hoard, so if somebody accumulated lots of stuff, they'd call all their friends around to party and give it all away. I don't think it's mere "luck" that potluck & potlach are so alike.
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Coming up: I'm hoping to talk about world banking, Darwinism & nature, world religions, the mysteries in the Bible, mixed in with daily journaling.
I just got an email commenting on how I use computers & other products of the money system, and also how I let my friends buy me a dinner the other evening. So I'll say the following in answer:
What money is & my relationship to it
I don't think money is evil. It is illusion, a belief system that everybody agrees to believe in. A jay picks up a coin & puts it in her nest, but she does not recognize money--only a pretty piece of metal. The jay, like the infant, only sees what is. That is the mind I'm wanting to cultivate. I'm not totally there yet. Money is thought of credit and debt, a value belief, it is not a piece of paper or a plastic card or a even a binary computer code vibration at First National Bank! Money does not exist, except as belief.
Barter is also thought of credit and debt. That's why I don't like to barter, either, because barter is nothing but money, using bulkier currency.
Money is ulterior motivation. You give because you want something back. You don't do or give simply out of the present pleasure of your heart. You don't give out of love, but out of prostitution. Your mind is in the future reward, not the present reward. Or your mind is in the past debt. This is why I say that prostitution, the oldest profession, the mother of all profession, is the most honest profession. You see it for what it is. Everyone knows the prostitute is pretending to love. Not so with other professions. I'm not even saying prostitution is evil or good, or any profession is evil or good. I'm just simply stating what is.
Money represents the future and the past, but never the present. Think about it. If a dollar bill represented itself, the present, it would no longer be money, would it? It would be simply colored paper, as it really is. The mind in the present is the only awake mind.
Money is Thought of Credit & Debt, the Knowledge of Good & Evil--that which makes us unique from all wild creatures. In a future blog I want to talk about the Garden of Eden story & the other world-wide myths of stealing fire from Heaven. Every culture has this similar myth explaining what separated us from nature's grace. I'd also like to talk about the deep teachings of various relgions about these things, the teachings of Grace beyond Thought of Credit & Debt. Grace is Eden.
Using products of money. I hitch-hike in cars, sleep in offered houses, use computers, etc. Swallows sleep in attics, storks nest on roofs, barnacles ride on ships, pigeons & rats & roaches hang out in cities. They use what is at hand, here & now. Do you think any of these would care an iota if attics, roofs, ships, or cities never existed? Okay, I'm a human moving away from thought of credit & debt. I try not to cause anybody to spend money. But I am no dogmatist. If I lose flexibility & love, what am I doing this for?
About friends treating me to dinner. I sometimes give in & let somebody buy me something that's not at hand, because people's friendship & generosity (what life is all about) over-rule my "rules". Take people as they are, where they are. I will sometimes share a beer with an alcoholic hobo, because not doing so won't make him any less an alcoholic. But doing so breaks down judgmental barriers. It is lack of love that drives people into addiction, not the presence of alocohol or meth or money. However, it is eventually very good to get away from all addictions, like alcohol, meth & money. Why surround yourself with addictions when you can get away from them? But, until then, why fight what can't be fought?
Another example: if you happen to find an escape route from a prison and the only way your friends can also escape is for you to go back in and show them the way, wouldn't you go back in if you have any kind of compassion?
If somebody gives me money, like when I'm on the road, I get rid of it by sunrise & not use it for myself. But when I first started this moneyless thing in the first couple of years, I would sometimes use it if I could do it by sundown. I allowed it in my "daily bread" game.
But I normally take only what is in the present, as all wild animals & plants do, and I often refuse people buying anything for me. It's a case-by-case sitch. Love has to be the guide over-ruling all rules. I like to call my life a potluck. I looked up potluck in the dictionary and it means sharing the food at hand, whatever happens by luck to be in the pot. I looked up potluck because I had thought it came from potlach. A potlach was a traditional party thrown by many American Indians. They believed it wasn't right to hoard, so if somebody accumulated lots of stuff, they'd call all their friends around to party and give it all away. I don't think it's mere "luck" that potluck & potlach are so alike.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coming up: I'm hoping to talk about world banking, Darwinism & nature, world religions, the mysteries in the Bible, mixed in with daily journaling.
