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Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Persecution Complex, Wealth, and Religion

It may be time to start blogging regularly again.
Before getting started, sharing this video is a must:


Some of the most generous people I know have no money
1 minute of wise words from part 1 of the brilliant 3-part film HUMAN. Watch it here: http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/human/
Posted by Films For Action on Monday, October 19, 2015




Adapting To My New Life

It's taken me a while to adapt to my new life of living with and caring for my aging parents, living with compromise.

It's taken me a while to fully realize how precious a privilege this is.
Front yard of my outdoor home at the Colorado River.
(I snagged this pic taken by my friend Amber Stone)

Yes, I'm still living with my parents in their house, part time. Part time means I also have a camp near the Colorado River, to help me not lose touch with the realworld.

Ironically, though I still do not have, take or use money, I keep my parents' financial books, and I help my dad with shopping. And, of course, we live in a house owned and provided by my wealthy uncle (and, yes, I am grateful for his generosity), utilities paid through my parents' social security, which I would otherwise choose not to live under.

We could totally live well on scavenged & home-grown food alone, but it's hardly possible to get two 88-year-olds to fully agree to that. But, amazingly, unlike most 88-year-olds, they gladly and wholeheartedly eat the bulk of their diet from my scavenging & home gardening. And I love to cook. Cooking is a forte of mine.

There are lots going on around Fruita with prime friends, as well as family, I'd like to talk about in future posts. In the mean time, I have other things to share.

After many months of feeling dried up, I have been experiencing epiphanies the past few weeks. I have posted some on facebook, and I'm sharing them with you here:

Musings on the Persecution Complex



Overcoming
the taste of Death

All of us, without exception,
will give up all our possessions,
voluntarily or involuntarily,
and return to our nativity, the earth.

There is no taste of death (no sense of loss)
if we do it voluntarily.

Voluntarily means doing exactly what we want,
not because we have to.

You have only 2 immutable choices:

Give it up because you have to,

or give it up because you don't have to.

When we don't voluntarily give up possessions,
we identify with them,
we think they are our selves.
We say "thank you" when somebody compliments our possessions.
And we are offended when somebody insults our possessions.

Most of all, we think any challenge to our possessions is persecution,
even if it is simple suggestion of sharing.

When our possessions, our whole identity, is challenged,
we live in fear, fear of persecution.

Beliefs we cling to are no less our possessions.
Our most cherished religious beliefs are possessions, dogmas.

A challenge to our dogmas is perceived as persecution.

Paradoxically, if we are to find the truth of our religion,
we must give up all possessions.

That includes all beliefs we cling to.

Paradoxically, only then can we understand faith
when there is nothing more to cling to,
nothing more to possess.

There is then only the unseen, the un-thought.

When there is no more possession,
there is no more loss,
meaning there is

no more taste of death.

Immortality is freedom from possession.

The Persecution Complex
of the Dominant Religion

I grew up white Evangelical.
I sincerely believed we were the persecuted minority,
all outsiders our enemy.

http://www.pewforum.org/2014/09/22/section-1-religion-in-public-life/


The Persecution Complex 
of the Dominant Social Class®

Please, let's take a moment of silence® to contemplate the suffering of this persecuted minority®. Don't be afraid to cry®.
Let it all® out.

A religiously Right® chap recently posted on Facebook® that people who speak ill of amassing wealth® are just jealous.

This is why we® recommend editing© the most blatant wealth bashers, like Jesus Christ and Apostle James, right out of our Bible© (see below),
and we® need to excommunicate all of the early church fathers and mothers, who unanimously bashed accumulation of wealth® (see below)

Then we® can finally enjoy the blessings® of trickle-down™ warm golden liquid®.



The Golden Rule & the Persecution Complex

Yes, droves of people in this world think they are the persecuted minority.

I had an epiphany just the other day while hiking the canyons, about the Golden Rule:
"You always do unto others
as you would have others do unto you."
Duh! This is not a command!
Love can't be commanded.
There can be no grace in commandment.


It is a statement,
and not necessarily a positive statement.

This Golden Rule is a law, the social manifestation of the law of physics:
"For every force there is an equal and opposite force, simultaneously."
The law of physics is not a command.
All of us follow this law whether we hate people or love people!

The Golden Rule is the Mother of all laws.

When I love people, I want and have love for myself, and vise versa.
Self-love is light, self-dissolving into all, aware of others.

When I have a persecution complex, I hate myself,
and I persecute others unawares, and vise versa,
and I want to be persecuted.

Self-hate is self-absorption, blindness, unaware of others.

And guess what?
I looked up "Love your neighbor as yourself" in the Hebrew Torah
[Leviticus 19:18, Young's Literal Translation, plus Hebrew text].
Indeed, literally it is not a command, not imperative tense.
It simply describes what is!
"You always love your neighbor as you love yourself."
Simply describing what is brings light to what is.
All resolves itself in the light, which does not command, does not force, does not control.

In the light all that is illusion vanishes, all that is real remains.

This is the Tao

The Broken Spirit Behind the Machinery 
of "Free Market" Capitalism
If our spirit (empathy) has been broken through abuse, we become machines without empathy, and we want to deregulate unfeeling machineryand we want to regulate life.
"Free market" is an oxymoron.
Free means no money.

"Free market" is called "laissez faire economy."
This is Orwellian doublethink.

Laissez faire means "let it be" or "hands off".


Natural ecology is the only balanced
laissez faire economy.

Laissez faire is impossible in a money economy,
as history never ceases to show us,

because the very nature of money is control of the balance of positive and negative, credit and debt.

True laissez faire, in fact, is the philosophy of living without money.

Invention of money is loss of faith
in the laws of physics and ecology,
fall from grace, fall from gratis.

True laissez faire is faith in the very law of physics and ecology:
For every negative there is always an equal positive.
For every credit there is an equal simultaneous debt.
All life is already balanced - we've just become blind to this.

You can try laissez faire for machinery or
you can have laissez faire for life.

You must choose one. You can't have both.

You can serve (work for) money or
you can serve (work for) life.

It is impossible to do both.

The market is a machine, without empathy.
Machinery has no morality, no life, to self-regulate.

Ecology is life, whose essence is empathy.
Empathy is self-regulating morality.

Life has already regulated itself for eons
and undomesticated life already regulates itself in balance
as we observe all around us.

Those who deregulate machinery must regulate living beings.
Those who deregulate living beings must regulate machinery.

None of us wants to be regulated ourselves,
We all want laissez faire for ourselves.

So we deregulate what is like ourselves,
and we regulate what is unlike ourselves.

If our spirit (empathy) has been broken through abuse,
we become machines without empathy,
and we want to deregulate unfeeling machinery
and we want to regulate life,

and we regard empathy as silly naivete.

If our spirit triumphs through abuse,
we become life, compassionate,
and we want to deregulate life
and regulate the machinery 
that would otherwise regulate and abuse life,

and we regard empathy as the essence of life.


When we have life, machinery serves us.
When our spirit is broken, we serve machinery.

Laissez faire of life is the spiritual concept
that all life balances itself outside our control

(Like "Tao" in eastern tradition, "Grace" in western).

Attempting laissez faire of machinery is materialistic
(materialistic means matter without empathy),
In other words, deregulating machinery is based on desire to regulate nature,
based on the concept that nature needs our control;
It is based on our loss of faith that the laws of physics and ecology actually work.

"Free market" capitalists hijack such profound spiritual concepts for marketing purposes.
They have hijacked religion, as they hijack music, art, food, and all life, stripping it all of empathy.

Money has upset the balance of ecology.

True laissez faire can only work for life, not money.

It's the same principle as a tight rope walker losing balance when consciously trying to control balance, when the left hand tries to know what the right hand is doing, not letting it be.

Hot off the press!

OUR FAITH® & OUR WORLD-DOMINATING EMPIRE® UNDER PERSECUTION
BY A HOMELESS BUM 
& HIS EARLY FOLLOWERS!





"COMMUNISM:
1 a : a theory advocating 
elimination of private property

b : a system in which goods 
are owned in common and 
are available to all as needed"
(Webster's Dictionary)


"Now all who believed were together, 
and had all things in common,
and sold their possessions and goods, 
and divided them among all, 
as anyone had need."
(The Bible, Acts 2:44-45)


"Now the multitude 
of those who believed 
were of one heart and one soul; 
neither did anyone say 
that any of the things he possessed 
was his own, 
but they had all things in common."
(Acts 4:32)

Confirmed by our® witnesses:

"Christians despise all possessions
and share them communally"
--Lucian of Samosata (c. 125-180 CE)
Assyrian Pagan Author


List of the 
WANTED
For Sedition Against Our Empire®:

Jesus Christ
(from a painting in Rome, 530 CE)



"One thing you lack:
Go your way,
sell whatever you have
and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven;
and come, take up the cross, and follow me.". . . .

It is easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."
(Jesus, Mark 10:21, 25)

So then, none of you can be my disciple
who does not give up all his own possessions.
(Jesus, Luke 14:33)

Iacov
(James,
brother of Jesus)



Listen, my beloved brethren:
Has not God chosen the poor of this world
to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom
which he promised to those who love him?
But you have dishonored the poor man.
Do not the rich oppress you
and drag you into the courts?
Do they not blaspheme
that Noble Name by which you are called?. . . .

Come now, you rich,
weep and howl for your miseries
that are coming upon you!
Your riches are corrupted,
and your garments are moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver are corroded,
and their corrosion will be a witness against you
and will eat your flesh like fire.
You have heaped up treasure in the last days.
Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields,
which you kept back by fraud, cry out;
and the cries of the reapers
have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury;
you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
You have condemned,
you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.
(James 2:5-7 & 5:1-6)

Augustine


"Those who wish to make room for the Lord
must find pleasure not in private,
but in common property….

Redouble your charity.
For, on account of the things
which each one of us possesses singly,
wars exist, hatreds, discords, strifes
among human beings, tumults, dissensions,
scandals, sins, injustices, and murders.
On what account?
On account of those things
which each of us possesses singly.
Do we fight over the things we possess in common?
We inhale this air in common with others,
we all see the sun in common.
Blessed therefore are those who make room for the Lord,
so as not to take pleasure in private property.
Let us therefore abstain from the possessions of private property—
or from the love of it, if we cannot abstain from possession—
and let us make room for the Lord."
(Augustine, 354–430 CE)

Basil
the Great


"You are like one occupying a place in a theater,
who should prohibit others from entering,
treating that as one’s own
which was designed for the common use of all.
Such are the rich.
Because they were first to occupy common goods,
they take these goods as their own.
If each one would take that which is sufficient for one’s needs,
leaving what is in excess to those in distress,
no one would be rich, no one poor."
(Basil the Great, 329–379 CE)



Teresa de Ávila


"Thank God for the things that I do not own."
(Teresa of Ávila, 1515-1582)










Justin Martyr


“We who once took most pleasure
in the means of increasing our wealth and property
now bring what we have into a common fund
and share with everyone in need.”
(Justin Martyr, 100-165 CE)







Irenaeus

“And instead of the tithes which the law commanded,
the Lord said to divide everything we have with the poor.
And he said to love not only our neighbors but also our enemies,
and to be givers and sharers
not only with the good
but also to be liberal givers
toward those who take away our possessions.”
(Irenaeus, 130-200 CE)





Clement of
Alexandria


“Private property is the fruit of iniquity.
I know that God has given us the use of goods,
but only as far as is necessary;
and he has determined that the use shall be common.
The use of all things that are found in this world
ought to be common to all men.
Only the most manifest iniquity
makes one say to another,
‘This belongs to me, that to you.’
Hence the origin of contention among men.”
(Clement of Alexandria, 150-215 CE)

Tertullian



“We who share one mind and soul

obviously have no misgivings
about community of goods.”
(Tertullian, 160-225 CE)







Ambrose


“Nature has poured forth all things
for the common use of all people.
And God has ordained that all things should be produced
that there might be food in common for all,
and that the earth should be the common possession of all.
Nature created common rights,
but usurpation has transformed them into private rights…
God gave the same earth to be cultivated by all.
Since, therefore, His bounty is common,
how is it that you have so many fields,
and your neighbor not even a clod of earth?”
(Ambrose of Milan, 340-397 CE)

John Chrysostom

“The rich are in possession of the goods of the poor,
even if they have acquired them honestly
or inherited them legally.”
“Not to enable the poor to share in our goods
is to steal from them and deprive them of life.
The goods we possess are not ours but theirs.”
(John Chrysostom, 347-407 CE)






Gregory
of Nyssa



"We are all the same family:
all of us are brothers and sisters.
And among brethren it is best and most equal
that all inherit equal portions.”
(Gregory of Nyssa, 330-395 CE)











Cyprian


"They think of themselves as owners,
whereas it is they rather who are owned:
enslaved as they are to their own property,
they are not the masters of their money but its slaves.”
(Cyprian, 200-258 CE)







Cyril
of Alexandria

“Give away these earthly things,
and win that which is in heaven.
Give that which you must leave,
even against your will,
that you may not lose things later.
Lend your wealth to God,
that you may be really rich.
Concerning the way in which to lend it,
Jesus next teaches us saying:
‘Sell your possessions, and give alms,
provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old,
with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail’
(Cyril of Alexandria, 378-444 CE)


The Didache:
The Teachings of
the Twelve Apostles

“Share everything with your brother.
Do not say, ‘It is private property.’
If you share what is everlasting,
you should be that much more willing
to share things which do not last.”
(The Didache 4:8, c. 90 CE)







Pray for Your Holy Empire® Under Attack!

"Fighting & Civilizing, 
Refining & Repackaging
Indigenous Peoples!

Co-opting & Marketing 
Spiritual Traditions
For Your Security!"™

New!
Fun Size!Slick Disposable Packaging!

Do not purchase if Seal is broken.


Your Trademark
 of Monetary Empire®
for over Seven Millenia:

Facing both Right and Left
for your baffling entertainment!
Empire of Rome® 
Empire of America®

Holy Roman Empire®, Russian Empire®, Turkish Empire®.
Austrian Empire®, Byzantine Empire®, Albanian Empire®
Family Owned & Operated
Since Our Humble Beginnings
in c. 5500 BC!
Empire of Sumer
(Babel)
®
Empire of the Aryans of India®
Empire of Egypt®
Empire of Babylon®
Empire of USSR®
Empire of China®
Empire of Fascism®
Empire of Latin America®
Empire of Southeast Asia®
Empire of Arabia®
Empire of Israel®

28 comments:

  1. This is just about my favorite blog spot. I know there are many that agree. Peace.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice work Suelo! The pictures, too. Now we need a similar collection from Indigenous Religion, Buddhism, Taoism, "Hinduism", Sufism, and Secular Humanism. (Might be hard to find strong enough quotes from mainstream Judaism and Islam?). Then we need to get it out everywhere, until wealth-craving is seen again as the dangerous mental disease that it is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Satya! I'm really happy you could read this, and for your comment, my friend.
      On my website for years I've had quotes from all the major religions (including Judaism, Islam, & Mormonism! - it's amazing the gems you find in them, covered up by their own followers, as in Orthodox Christianity):

      "Here's the One Point We Know the World's Religions Agree Upon (in Word)" https://sites.google.com/site/livingwithoutmoney/Home/all-the-world-s-religions-agree-on-this-one-thing

      Though I have quotes from natives of this continent interspersed in the website, I haven't yet compiled a native religion page. And I haven't compiled a secular humanist one, yet, either. Something to work on.


      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. great. you know don’t listen to these haters plus you deserve the truth. keep up the great work sir.

      Delete
  4. Daniel S., I think you got your epiphanies from a few bottles of Blue Nun. You rub the empty and out comes a genie that tells you what to think.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Glad you are writing and seeing the privelege of caring for your folks. I had a different epiphany about the Golden Rule a few years ago. The greatest danger to humankind is our ability to "other." That is the first step in committing a violent act.
    That being the case, the Golden Rule is filled with "othering" language.the ultimate reality is that there s no "you" nor is there an "other," there is only oneness.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, the irony. To say "there is no self and other" is filled with "othering" language! If we hold to a dogma of no self-and-other, we like to establish our belief apart from the *other* belief that speaks of self and other, even going so far as to perceive the Golden Rule as an "other" belief system!

      The very nature of language and thought is self and other. Self speaks to the other. Thought thinks of other. My thought deceives itself into thinking it understands no self and other. If it did, it would not think. The Golden Rule, (especially in realizing it is not a commandment), is beautiful in leading us to oneness of self and other. And it breaks down divisions (otherness) between religions. The Golden Rule taken to its conclusion, cannot be spoken or thought, transcending thought, becoming the realization that the other is the self. My mind likes to think it understands this, anyway :-)

      Delete
    2. I came to a similar conclusion Daniel after studying it for a while. There are two level of understanding the Golden Rule. There is the "3rd grade" level taking it as it is written. Then there is the deeper understanding you so eloquently outline. In my way of thinking, sooooo few people take the time to explore it deeply that a 3rd grade understanding is all that is going to be understood by the masses. Granted a 3rd grade understanding and practice would be far better than the current situation. All that being said, I still do not use the GR as an example because of the possibility of "othering." Guess we will have to agree to disagree.

      Delete
    3. Really we don't disagree, jbk. In the end, it's simply being. As you point out, the GR (or any words) cannot be used as example of being. In words we think we have eternal life. But only being is an example. Whatever words we use, however eloquent, whatever scripture, are guaranteed to be distorted by somebody, in endless loops of argument. But nothing can argue with being. Being is One, transcending all that ear hears, eye sees, or what enters the mind. But, alas, here are more words (parables) some contentious mind out there is bound to argue with :-o My mind is known to do the same.

      Delete
  6. ^^^The above comment is Pennie Lee. This site is really acting up. It would not refresh the page or change my identity when I couldn't sign in as me (I'd forgotten my password). Then when I erased cookies to get a fresh page, it wouldn't let me edit my comment to include my name. So, here I am here.

    Pennie

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well, now my above comment is missing! So, I don't think what I referred to as "the above comment" is mine any longer! :P This is what I wrote:

    But isn't this dogma? You make one dogmatic statement after another. Just because you name many religions doesn't make it any less dogmatic. In fact, it is so dogmatic that anyone who does NOT accept your chosen dogma from all religions is wrong and called various pejoratives. Just because you pick your dogma from 10 fields instead of 1 field, doesn't make the dogma any more encompassing or less intolerant. Because, after you've gleaned from each of the religions, you castigate religion (biting the hands that fed you). You have a small row of dogmas picked sparingly from many fields, making a new religion that is just as narrow as any of the others.
    Pennie Lee

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thought-provoking, as always. Glad to hear you are receiving the opportunity to care for your parents as a privilege. Having recently cared for my mother through two forms of cancer and her passing, I can honestly say that taking care of another and helping them from this world to whatever is next is truly an honor.

    Fascinating quotes/teachings you have assembled here as well. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I liked the video you shared at the very beginning of your blog. And I am glad you will be blogging regularly again. Always enjoy reading them!
    Sue G.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hey, Suelo. I just read The Man Who Quit Money. Knowing people like you exist nourishes my hope. Keep it up. I'll keep reading. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 1 is not the other, 2. They are both numbers, indeed, but not the same number, amount, result. Even 2, when put in a different position, is no longer 2, but an other. 0 becomes an other and is far removed from its original self, when placed into a different position. If someone insists on putting its other into an equation where it should be self, or vice versa, the equation breaks down. If all is one, then all is none.

    "But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

    "All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.

    "There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

    "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

    "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

    "It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

    "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

    "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

    "Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

    "The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven." (I Corinthians 15:38-47)

    Pennie Lee

    ReplyDelete
  12. Furthermore, it is an assumption to declare that all religions are nothing more than many witnesses to the same phenomenon. There have been many and abundant false witnesses in the world. Take Christ's trial, as an example. Also notice how the last two false witnesses quoted Jesus Christ exactly.

    "Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death; But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses, and said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days." (Matthew 26:59-61)

    Pennie Lee

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Daniel, Thanks for the wisdom. Your message is still strong and true and close to my heart. I wish I knew what to do with it for myself.

    I have fond memories of spending time with you and our other friends in the cave and those memories keep me going!

    Love, Max

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Max! Good hearing from you!
      Yeah, good times with you.
      I suppose if anything is strong and true and it is for you, it will grow on its own and take hold & show you what to do. If not, it won't. No worries either way.

      Much love rebounded to you!

      Delete
  14. I have always felt that the modern religious followers accept the new "teachings" the way we all check the "I have read and accept the terms and conditions" box on most websites and computer programs before installing...without actually going through and reading it!

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  15. http://support.shopgo.me/hc/en-us/article_attachments/200775182/terms-and-conditions-checkbox.png

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  16. Cody I just read your comment above, regarding the "terms and conditions". Not normally reading this, I'd like to know what you were referring to as "New teachings"

    ReplyDelete
  17. After many months of feeling dried up, I have been experiencing epiphanies the past few weeks. I have posted some on facebook, and I'm sharing them with you here.

    Live in care jobs

    ReplyDelete
  18. Thank you.
    Some Of the clearest and most profund Work. It's a war between reality and this illusion created in this matrix. Where people value and become slave to the inorganic and reject and oppress the natural organic

    ReplyDelete