sharing, giving, gift-ing, paying it forward, a gift economy, the universal basic income
the future of the economy, finances, money, surviving as i see it
a somewhat idealistic consideration ; )
Christmas is around the bend again
the ritual of lights and candles and presents
i remember, as a child the joy of writing-down of my wishes, my letter to the “Christkind”
the suspense, the sweet & also terrible anticipation for the Christmas evening
the parcels, the unwrapping …
but for a long stretch of my grownup life i did refuse to participate in all of that
in what i saw as a perverted ritual of consumerism
a hollow outcrop of the capitalist society
with not very much connection
to its original meaning
might be true to some point
but i know now
that i actually
missed the
whole point
the bliss of receiving
the giddiness of opening the gift
the surprise and delicious moment of happiness
when a long-held wish has become fulfilled
and when we have children
the bliss of seeing such joy in the eyes of your child
the jumping-around-joy or the silent kind
when the new toy absorbs them
in play
i know now, i missed out on that
i misunderstood
giving
now i understand, i dig it, i think i have finally groked* it ; )
“the essence of living is wrapped up in giving” (a line from a song)
and leaving our fear behind (a line that “A Course in Miracles” is adding to that)
I guess they mean the fear of not having enough
which is the motive at the root of greed
of hoarding, of accumulating
of exploiting
of profit for the sake of it
of maximizing one’s profit margins
of the “what’s in it for me?” culture of out day and age
of course – to a certain extent – also the “saving for a rainy day” philosophy
which is probably not such a bad idea
people tell me ; )
but giving, “giving-ness” is the radical antidote to all of that
and can be a real turnaround, the upside-down-ing of how the world conducts its business
it has just not been explored yet, not even much considered on a collective level **
a reversing of the energy flow
from getting and holding
to giving and letting go
from inhale and holding the breath to fully & completely exhale
from filling up
to emptying out
it is like love, whats happening when you give
probably it is love in action
you don’t think what you will get in return
because the giving is so sweet
meaningful
real
uff, what a futuristic idea!
to extrapolate this from the personal intimate moment out to a whole society based on such a principle
it makes me dizzy just to think of the possibility of a Sacred-Economy *** : )
I am very sure that intuitively many of us humans know the value and joy of giving
mothers practice that quality naturally and abundantly all the time
religious institutions have always emphasized it and practiced charity
and in the realm of spiritual teachings it is considered as an inherent necessity for spiritual progress
but also if we just look around, look at nature
she is constantly and abundantly giving
new fruits, new flowers
new rain, new life
new babies
seemingly endless abundance
wouldn’t this be an appropriate role model?
and also if we would look at stories about saints, the spiritual teachers, the great ones, the avatars
Jesus, Buddha and the like
obviously – or so it is said – they did not consider their share in return for what they were giving
they were just sharing all they had, giving what was needed
and – i suspect – they were not empty by doing that, not burned out or needing a holiday on Hawaii to recharge ; )
their giving-ness probably originated from an essential source beyond the actual gift, beyond the specific event
that is what i mean, this source
love
unconditional
well, another futuristic idea of mine
a society based on love
how would that be : )
but hey! we don’t need to get so far out utopian to recognize the awesomeness of unconditional giving
just look around, look t women (and i don’t mean all of them ; )
the giving principle is inherent in The Feminine
but even on the male-ish side of the world there are a few great examples of the same principle at work
like, as a web programmer and computer geek i came about in the late 1990s, early 2000s
a incredible fertile time period for open source software
Linux and wordpress and the like …
an amazing worldwide community of programmers developed around this idea, willing to share their work and expertise in forums and chat rooms, always willing to help, explain, teach and contribute their code
with no attempt (mostly) to monetize their efforts or gain status from that
it lasted for quite a long time
it is still there to
some extent
now, as for “pay it forward”, this expression does not exist in my native language (Austrian)
only after i watched this nice movie with the same tittle in 2001 i got it
another one of those lightbulb moments!!!
although i had been practicing the selfless service principle in my own spiritual community in the past, until seeing that movie i was not really aware of the practicality and incredible impact this idea could have on society
probably one of those movies to watch again at Christmas : )
so now, after all those clear insights, why has not everything changed yet on an elemental, existential level
mainly the financial & economic level
why am i still struggling to make ends met (i don’t really … struggle ; )
why is there still such a tremendous and seemingly impossible-to-cross chasm between the haves (1%) and and the have-not-so-muches (99%)?
???
in my understanding nowadays, all depends on the context of our life
if i live in a sangha, somewhat “sheltered from the world” , a spiritual community where such principles are practiced, this is my context
if i live in New York City or Shanghai, the context is … capitalistic, dog-eats-dog
if i live as a lone individual or a small core family in this world, i better take care of my $$$ and where they might come from on the end of the month …
“there is no free lunch”, as the saying goes
we have all been fed i guess, even indoctrinated with such kind of believes and philosophies of life and the ones doin the feeding were probably well meaning people speaking from experience
this may have been all very different in times far past, in tribal societies in the Amazon, untouched by civilization
Yanomami Indians and so on
Without wanting to romanticize that, i suppose in such context of living value has been measured not by what somebody has, money or stuff, but by skills, expertise, contribution to the whole
commitment as well
loyalty
you give to the whole what you have – all – and the whole is giving you, providing you with what you need
a really nice idea, right?
heartwarming!
Now lately i notice something novel and obviously revolutionary coming up more frequently in the news, in the newspapers:
a concept so different that only a few years ago it has been considers too weird, too unrealistic, to alternative, too fringe, too everything … even to be considered by most economists, bankers or politicians
well, a few yers on we have some governments even implementing pilot projects, countries more or less seriously talking about it and a couple of serious economist even considering the possible implications …
we probably will see a lot of such talk going on in a few years from now
just lets have a few more viruses devastating the job market and the income of millions evaporating in another stock market crash or such
peoples livelihood wiped out by fires, drought, violent strive …
lets just wait a little longer and people will be ready to embrace a radically different way to make a living and to live
and it will not be communism for sure, not even China’s marriage of a state controlled communism with a rampant capitalism
what it will really be or what it could look like and how it could be done practically, we all don’t know yet, at least not me
but in my mind, it will be closer to paradise as anything we ever had here on earth since the days when we discovered that we can walk on our two feet, upright ; )
heaven on earth, wouldn’t that be nice
for a change
yes, i know, you may say that Cris is a dreamer
but i am not the only one
i hope someday you may join us
and …
till then, i wish u a very good day
may all beings be healthy and happy
and full of consciousness
* to grok something >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok
** Gift Economy >> wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy
*** Sacred Economics >> charleseisenstein.org/books/sacred-economics/
you may leave a note in the Comment section if you happen to like those ideas
or want to contribute some of you own views on the matter
i’d certainly welcome that!