Poverty (Un)Consciousness
Due to the unfolding financial crisis, it appears that Americans are on their way to joining the majority of the world in terms of economic access and privilege. As Americans we consume and pollute way too much, so this is a good thing. Still, this is not happening without considerable pain and difficulty for many people. But you can survive. Having seen in Havana what Cubans did to maintain their lives and dignity after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent "special period" that followed, it amazed me how music and culture can be such a resilient tool of empowerment. This doesn't mean that the option of black markets and prostitution were also ignored. Everyone has a choice how to respond to his or her environmental condition. You can be "disturbed," to borrow from ecology, but you still can choose how to respond. Your response will depend on the level of open architecture maintained in your state of being.
Bush Sr. once said the American way of life is not negotiable. This kind of mentality will not handle the disturbance of crashing markets very well. That's why Americans, who are accustomed to a certain lifestyle, should reconsider what it means to be "wealthy." I'm a fan of Lynne Twist, author of the Soul of Money, who argues that "abundance" is the wrong goal. She says it's better to be "sufficient." I find this an aspiration that is in keeping with justice/equity and ecological concerns. It's in keeping with Gandhi's notion that the world has enough for our needs, but not enough for our greed. Sufficiency suggests we live within our means; that we only consume that which is available in real time. This means that we stop borrowing against the planet's resource bank by extracting ancient solar energy, and return to using the solar energy that is available to us on a daily basis. This is how our ancestors lived, and this is how the surviving humans of our age will live as well.
Sufficiency is a spiritual issue. Like the ideology of the capitalist system, are we always aspiring to a better, utopian future rather than being grateful for what we have? This is a core issues for well-being. I once participated in a "prosperity group," which was a weekly gathering of friends (mostly folks from my yoga class) who wanted to read a "channeled" book, Creating Money, and to do the exercises together (it's a great book, BTW). I realized rather quickly that most people in the group would never transcend their state of "poverty," because they were spiritually impoverished. That is, they believed that their lives lacked sufficiency in that moment, and would always be trapped on the treadmill of negative thinking about their present state of being. I don't mean this in "The Secret" kind of way in which positive thinking is your answer to wealth, but in the sense that we are constantly projecting into the world like a waking dream the innermost challenges at the core of our being. We constantly seek healing, and sometimes we externalize from our inner depths that which cannot be articulated by the egocentric mind.
I read the book closely and discovered something quite useful. It asks readers to imagine what their life would be like if they suddenly received a million dollars (or any large lump sum). Don't visualize the things you would buy or other material goods, but focus on the feeling. What emotion or sensation would it be? What sensation am I aspiring to? At the time I was a struggling freelance writer, so my simple goal was that I wanted to be able to write without the stress of having to constantly find work and to write BS articles to pay the rent. I deconstructed my desire to find out why I wanted to write in the first place. I realized that it was because it allowed me to connect with a higher, creative force than what I normally experience in daily life, that I liked to solve puzzles and explore ideas, and to lose myself in them. Or to put in more intangible, esoteric terms, to connect with the Great Whatever. By the end of the exercise I learned something very important: I didn't need a million dollars to achieve that, all I had to do was to sit down and write. Problem solved. The money would come later. Or not. But at least I would be happy doing what I love.
A final note on context. I've become aware of late that everything I believe and say is benefited by my "cultural capital." That is, I'm the product of an investment of both my family and society in terms of education and cultural privilege. The truth is that everyone operates from the means that are available to them, and the knowledge that it constitutes. I just want to give thanks that I have lived a "sufficient" life and I hope that I can share whatever wisdom this life has afforded me. As it stands, I write for fun and as an act of generosity. The reciprocal relationship that media and communications of the Web 2.0 represent is a new kind of social capital. Congratulations, by reading this you are already in the alternative economy. The economy of life.
Image by jespis, courtesy of Creative Commons license.
Tweet- 12-30-08
- Antonio Lopez's blog
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More on this subject!
You said: "We are constantly projecting into the world like a waking dream the innermost challenges at the core of our being. We constantly seek healing, and sometimes we externalize from our inner depths that which cannot be articulated by the egocentric mind."
What a far out idea! I've been thinking about this a lot. The Greeks said, "Your character is your fate." It's such a different view from what I grew up with - that life is random and therefore meaningless, and that our thoughts don't affect anything - conciousness is only inside our skulls. However quantum physics (and ancient myths/teachings) really don't seem to agree with this at all.
Understanding that the challenges we face are our own, and that facing them is in the best interest of our personal growth (and the growth of the universe) can be very uplifting and empowering.
Here is part of the book mentioned "Creating Money"
http://orinaffirmations.paradisenow.net/excerpts1.html#Creating%20Money
And some excerpts:
"If people lose their jobs or a lot of money, it will only be because those things are not for their higher good; such events will change their lives in some way for the better. If anything is truly serving your higher good, it won't be taken away....
Your thoughts set up the model of what is to be created, and your emotions energize your thoughts and propel them from your inner world to your outer world....
As your thoughts become higher and more positive, your soul allows more and more of them to manifest. The more you evolve, the more power your thoughts have to create your reality, and the more responsibility you have to think in higher ways."
Its all about what you are looking for in the first place....
Wonderful article. Success is a relative concept...it means you find what you seek.
Noble Emerson:
“To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson [emphasis mine]
"You must *be* the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi
No offence, really
Hey, thanks for the rant. Really. I agree with what you are saying, this is why I contextualized my remarks by saying that they come from a place of accumulated cultural capital. I have the luxury to muse about this problem. I'm well aware of that. I think you missed my point about the The Secret, though. What I'm talking about is finding an intent for well-being, not wealth, which requires changing the film, not the screen. I have traveled the world and met some very economically disadvantaged people who still maintain positive feelings about their reality. I remember a time when I lived with a Hopi family who were laughing about government officials who had come to tell them they were poor and that they needed help. They said no thanks. There was even a brand new tractor sitting in the yard that was given to them. It was never used. They still plant corn with a stick and finger.
But I digress. I'm talking about projecting happiness (not the fake kind), not prosperity. I hope that makes sense. I'm arguing that we tend to put the cart before the horse. Anyhow, thanks for the comment!
Oh Sweet Don!
Oh Baby, I hope you get a handjob from someone you love real soon. Recieve the good things that are out there for you!
"You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul." - Swami Vivekananda
Happy New Year back! ^_^
Hi Don, =)
I'm not sure I understand what about the article you are speaking out against.
Is it simply that you feel it will be read by one in a true position of deprivation, and will seem like the facile and meaningless rambling of spoiled know-it-alls? That is perhaps the case, but I don't see that as a reason to not write it. Such a one might, alternatively, find something in the article to give them some solace, or think differently about their own situation in a positive way.
Are you tired of the Law of Attraction half-truth that has been circulating the New-Age/esoteric circles of late? I definitely feel you there.
Or are you simply overcome by the sheer scale of the suffering our species is inflicting upon itself and the planet, seemingly without care, and railing against that in general? I can understand that, surely.
What I, personally, perceive this article as trying to accomplish is to reassure a populace (or, at least, the RS readership base portion of it) that is very likely about to become impoverished -- speaking of higher moral judgement being called down -- that being impoverished isn't all bad.
It explains that we will simply be living the way the majority of the world does already, that meaning and happiness can still be found in our lives; and that our attitude about where they are headed will strongly affect our perceptions of it.
I don't see anything wrong -- or untrue -- with any of that.
I find nothing bad about looking on the bright side...finding the silver lining...whatever you want to call it. Sometimes, that's all that keeps us going, when those tough times come calling. Or when we are faced with a situation we are powerless to stop.
Though I know what you mean that too many use it simply as a method of turning away.
"You must *be* the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi
One further thought
The ears to hear...
Hey guys. I, for one, enjoyed your article, Antonio.
I think finding contentment with simply BEING is a noble aim and the coming change to the "American way of life" will build toward our realization of this in the West. We're about to realize that there certainly is a vast difference between "need" and greed. Americans often confuse the two.
As for the idea that we, the spoiled brats of the Western world with our material comforts and lack of real visceral concern for our own health and safety, should avoid realizing the spiritual fruits of our being simply because we don't "run from rockets" of our own is, to me, a very bleak and nihilist notion.
Sure there are places in the world where things are worse than, say, my neighborhood. But I don't see how turning our backs on the spiritual quest, to shun seeking the fruits of contentment in being, is going to help make this world "a better place."
I do agree with you entirely, Don, that this commercialized new age idea of applying spiritual wisdom (like attracts like, mind over matter, etc) to greed in hopes of "attracting" to oneself a new BMW is completely counter-intuitive and a sign that any truth can be bastardized by the ego. But does this mean that, since the tool is misused, it should be discarded?
I think Antonio's main point is exactly what you're saying. That for Americans fearing this big scary collapse of their capitalist empire, there's really nothing to fear at all. We weren't "meant" to live in such a state of imbalance and as things even out globally, all of humanity will find improvement in their lives.
I can see that another aspect of this debate is the idea that we "create our own reality." While I believe this wholeheartedly, I accept and acknowledge (as Lopez did) that my ability to take stock in this belief is informed by my privelaged place in the world. Most people like to combat this idea by saying "Oh, so those people being killed in mass genocide in Africa chose to create this reality for themselves?" Then of course, I would seem like a real insensitive asshole if I said "Well... yes."
Incarnated in this world where duality gives us the notion of time and space, good and bad, right and wrong, we're easily swayed by the emotional aspect of life. It seems awful to think that if someone is beaten to death by a gang that they "chose" for this to happen to them or that it is somehow a reflection of their psyche. But the belief that this is the case does not mean we give up all empathy and compassion.
The idea that an individual brings about all "bad things" on himself is not cause for the rest of us to say "Oh well, dumbass, it's your fault." Quite the contrary actually. All mystics and gurus from Christ to Gandhi profess the same message: Compassion. As the Buddha said "if there is suffering in the world, then I am suffering."
So this silly new age hippie concept that we project our own reality from within does not mean that we turn our backs on causes and suffering and focus on ourselves. It simply means that the answers to our problems won't always be found outside us somewhere. It's a way of taking responsibility for ourselves, our reality, and our world.
I find that to be a beautiful way to approach all the vileness of the world. To take responsibility for our interconnection to it. Internalize it. Work on the self. Then work toward manifesting that inner peace in the outer world.
And now I'll go hug my tree... ;P
cheers
Group hug!
happy?
just let me laugh when it's funny
and when it's sad, let me cry