But I don't like hearing this. If I am on the left, I would rather hear that my problems are caused by the rich, by the military industrial complex, by Christians, or by "corporations" (even though the vast majority of corporations consist of one to ten people trying to start a small business.) And if I am on the right, my problems are caused by too much government, by immigrants, by Muslims, by gay people getting married. Each side blames its opposite, and this blame only fuels the polarity.
No one wants to hear the truth: my world does not change until I change from within. I need to handle my own pain, fear, and unhappiness... Which is why the most radical political act is to teach people how to meditate. Teach citizens to transcend the angry mind, chattering with self-pity. Teach them to connect with the silence of the heart. That silence is the source of light, the source of energy, the source of creation. That silence will transform a nation of whiners into a community of self-radiant creators.
Teach meditation, then teach students how to start a business. If you go to the best schools in the country, you'll learn reading, writing and arithmetic, then you'll spend a great deal of time in verbal gymnastics, reading thousands of pages that you are bound to forget. But you won't learn these two essential skills: how to meditate, and how to start your own business.
Help students become inwardly creative and outwardly productive, then they will be on the path to financial independence and sustainability. The society of the future will not be a society that depends on "alms for the poor," but a society of creative citizens who contribute their own energy and wealth to the nation. They will ask, "What can I give?" instead of "How much do I get?"
As an economic system, "alms for the poor" don't work. Alms for the poor, welfare, food stamps, are just stop-gap measures. They can be given as temporary aids, but as permanent institutions they result in dependency. Alms and food stamps don't transform society because they don't transform people from within. Government handouts to banks that are too big to fail, agribusiness farm subsidies, and tax breaks for Exxon-Mobil or General Electric, are equally unhealthy forms of dependency.
We don't need to re-distribute energy, we need to generate energy. We don't need to re-distribute wealth, we need to generate wealth. Only then can we truly share it. Redistribution of income is just another name for entropy. The equal redistribution of energy and light in a thermodynamic system results in the heat-death of the system. So, the equal redistribution of wealth results in the heat-death of the economy.
An economy based on entitlements is destined for entropy. A functional economy should be a cooperative, not an entitlement. There's a big difference. Entitlement means you expect others to take care of you, whether you give anything back or not. Cooperative means you take out of the system what you need, because you put into it what you can. When people put nothing into a system, what entitles them to take anything out?
Marx's economy was not an entitlement but a cooperative: "to each according to their need, from each according to their ability." Our entitlement society seems to have forgotten the second half of Marx's wisdom. Again, "how much do I get?" must be balanced by, "what can I give?"
Meditate and radiate. Connect with the silence inside you. That divine silence is the very energy from which the Word of creation speaks, "Let there be light." Through the light within you, renew the world. Be productive. This is the real meaning of God's word to Adam and Eve, "Be fruitful and multiply." It is not only the wisdom of the Bible, but the self-luminous economics of the Buddha. The sutras record his final sermon:
"Beneath the sala trees at Kusinagara, in his last words to his disciples, the Buddha said: Make of yourself a light. Rely upon yourself. Do not depend upon anyone else."
1 comment:
Love this. Absolutely!
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