Time to Roll West

We're still in Missoula, but bicycling out tomorrow!

Yeah, the moneyless tribe is down to just Javier and me for now.  Thus we decided to postpone going to South Dakota for some future chapter when we perhaps have more numbers.  We're heading to Oregon instead.

Time of Cycles, Cycles of Time

Suelo building a bike

Bob Giordano

And, yes, we finally got our bicycles built, thanks to all the folks at Free Cycles, Gill, Dave, Tie, and, of course, Bob Giordano (the founder).  Javier commented on what a high quality human being Bob is and wanted to get a picture of him, but couldn't, so I found this pic on the net.

I met Bob last summer when I was in Missoula, very impressed with him and his whole demeanor.  He has changed the face of Missoula.  Javier and I have kept running into him in town, and he would immediately stop what he was doing, put his work bib on, pull out his tools, and help us with our bikes.

Suelo, Brandon, Javier at Michael & Kate's house

More Missoula Friends

Last I blogged, Brandon  took off to help his family for a month or so, Javier and I left off staying with Kate and Michael Golins and went back to the Clark Fork river to camp.  We stayed there quite a while while building on our bikes.  We were finding so much cast-away food we started distributing it to various river dwellers and also leaving it at random places.  We even found eight bottles of wine.  Maybe we were being enablers, but it was quite fun leaving it at random places for river dwellers and in parks.  I doubt if withholding it would really help or cure anybody from being an alcoholic :-)

 It's also been a treat being back in Missoula so I could hang out with my good friend Kate Keller.  She made Javier and me an absolutely splendid Thai dinner while we watched videos of Peace Pilgrim.

Any time I need encouragement and inspiration, I simply think of Peace Pilgrim.  Her energy and vitality were astounding.

I finally got to meet Rhonda (we'd been in cyber-contact for a while), randomly and unplanned when Javier and I went to Open Way.  Rhonda happened to be sitting right next to me, not even realizing it until days later.  Rhonda invited us to stay at her house, where we are right now.

 More Freely Giving, Freely Receiving

After we finished building our bikes, we were still held back from leaving--not having a bike cart and/or paniers, and no bike pump.  Then I remembered good ol' Freecyle Network - the other Freecycle, on the web.  So I put in my request for a pump and a cart.  We immediately got replies.  A couple named Michelle and Mike gave us a pump which needed repairing, and a woman named Heidi gave us a bike cart that needed repairing, looking pretty ghetto.  Both were easily repaired, so now we're ready to roll out, probably tomorrow!

Everything We Need, Right Here

FYI, the pump's tube split, seemingly dooming it to uselessness.  This happening seems trivial, but it turned out immensely satisfying to me. I started giving up hope, feeling like we would have to postpone the trip even longer until we found another pump.  This wouldn't be such a big deal for a moneyed person.   Just go buy another tube for cheap, or even a whole new pump made by Asian sweatshop workers for the same price!  Then I took a deep breath and that mystical calm feeling of "everything we need is right here" came over me.  My eyes darted around the garage I was in, knowing they would fall on what I needed.  I realized right at my feet was a bicycle cable sheath.  Like two lovers realizing their destined coupling, the sheath fit perfectly inside the rubber tube, reinforcing it to better than before, also preventing future splits.  It now works beautifully.  This is what is so beautiful about having no money, which I keep wanting people to understand.  It opens up mystical possibilities and creative juices that you miss out on if you just buy it at the store.  This is why I don't like people wanting to buy me things.  It blocks the magic.

Wouldn't Society Fall Apart Without Money?
For those skeptical that a society would fall apart without money motivation, I finally found the author and name of the book I've often talked about, that gives empirical evidence that there is a human motivation productively better than money motivation.  Anybody who listens to their heart knows this.  But, for us when we find  ourselves so removed from knowing our own hearts that we need scientific evidence, here it is:

Dan Ariely

In his book, Predictably Irrational: the Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions, Dan Ariely (Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University) speaks of an experiment he conducted with three groups of students at computer screens, each group unknown to the others:

"In this experiment, the task was to drag the circle, using the computer mouse, onto the square. 

. . . . We measured how many circles they dragged within five minutes."

For this task,

The first group was paid $5 per circle dragged into the square.

The second group was paid 50 cents or 10 cents per circle.

The third group was paid nothing.  They were told it was a "social request", merely a favor asked.

"...those who received five dollars dragged an average of 159 circles, and those who received 50 cents dragged an average of 101 circles.  As expected, more money caused our participants to be more motivated and work harder (by about 50 percent).

"What about the condition with no money?  Did these participants work less than the ones who got the low monetary payment - or, in the absence of money, did they apply social norms to the situation and work harder?  The results showed that on average they dragged 168 circles, much more than those who were paid 50 cents, and just slightly more than those who were paid five dollars.  In other words, our participants worked harder under the non-monetary social norms than for the almighty buck (okay, fifty cents)." [p. 78-79]

Finding the Greatest Force in the Universe

This is the motivation I envision for a moneyless tribe, the motivation that trumps money.  Where your heart is, there is your treasure.  When your treasure is not elsewhere, not in the past or the future, but in the present, your heart is totally into what you are doing.  "Do all things heartily as unto the Eternal Present."  The Eternal Present is Lord over all.  There can be no heart more powerful.  Can a small tribe with this Strong Heart go over Jordan and conquer the land of Commerce? (Canaan means commerce, trade, and Canaanite means merchant, trader).  Can a little guy conquer the Dragon of Leviathan (Leviathan the Dragon or Serpent symbolizes debt).  Or is this an absurdity, wishful myths of the ancients?  Who is willing to give up all treasures on earth, have all treasure in heaven, in the heart ("The Kingdom of Heaven is within you")?  The Pure Heart is the Heart with no treasures on earth, the Heart which acts fully for the present, whose reward is in doing.  The Pure Heart is the Strong Heart, the Divine Heart that conquers the delusional world.

You cannot work for both Reality and Mammon.  You cannot work for both the Eternal Present and profit. 
The word God can actually mean something other than the ridiculousness it has been imbibed with for centuries.  The Eternal Present, beyond words.  There is nothing and no one more powerful than the Eternal Present.  Why work for anything or anyone else?  I care not what you call it, even if you never ever use or like the word "God".  It's better not to use or ever mention the word than to use it in vain.  I don't hear that word used in vain as much as I do by droves of churches and politicians, even with zeal.   

I love how the medieval Christian, Meister Eckhart, in his commentary on Jesus driving the merchants and moneychangers from the temple, used the word:

"...as long as we do any work at all for gain, as long as we desire anything God may have given or may give, we rank with these traders.  Would you be free from any taint of trading with God?  Then do what good you can and do it solely for God's glory, as free from it yourself as though you did not exist.  Ask nothing whatever in return.... The traders are driven from the temple and God is there alone when one has no motive but God.  See your temple cleared of traders.  The man who is intent on God alone, and on God's glory, is truly free from any taint of commerce in his deeds..." [The Best of Meister Eckart, p. 44]

Do not all the religions teach this same principle?
Judge for yourself:

The Jewish Branch  
The Orthodox Christian Branch
The Mormon Christian Branch
The Islamic Branch
The Taoist Branch
The Hindu Branch
The Buddhist Branch
The Jain Branch
The Sikh Branch  
The Bahá’í Branch

Zeal for Heaven

Why, people often wonder, are droves of religious zealots so zealous for commerce, in spite of  their claimed founders' teachings about giving up wealth and doing for the sake of doing?

When your religion is based on desire for heaven and fear of hell (credit and debt), you automatically will be the force behind commerce.  When your religion is based upon even desire for enlightenment as future reward, you are going to be the force behind commerce, and you are the money-changer and merchant in the temple.

Conversely, when your religion is based upon love, you would rather love than go to heaven, and you give up all craving for future "salvation".   You would forfeit heaven and go to hell for love.  "Love" that desires to save its ass from hell and looks for heaven far away is not love.  One day I realized the purpose of the concepts of heaven and hell--why such concepts exist.  They are our test to prove our love.  Love is not swayed, not burned or changed, but is refined by the fire of hell.

But "love" that desires heaven and fears hell is also a "love" obsessed with a Messiah in the past or a Messiah coming in the future, but cannot stand the idea of Messiah within, in the present.  Such "love" cares not for the life of this earth, not for the environment, not for the animals and forests, not for the social justice of fellow human beings.  Such "love" has no self respect, no personal responsibility.  But such "love" parades itself in pious zeal.   Love that is willing to forfeit its place in heaven for love's sake is the only love that exists.  This is the only Love that casts away all fear--all fear of hell, all fear of others. Love realizes that the "Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," not some distant place and time, and that the "Kingdom of God is within you."  Such love has no ulterior motivation, no desire to convert, no need to compete.

Rabia al-Adawiya

True devotion is for itself:
not to desire heaven nor to fear hell.
 --Rabia al-Adawiya (The Mother of the Islamic Sufi Way)

Love is the eternal blood flow of the universe, forever freely given.
Love washes away a multitude of debts, taking no credit.
Love exists long before any religion, any scripture, any prophet.
You, yes you, have known this from the beginning.