sharing / giving / gift-ing / paying it forward / gift economy / universal basic income

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:

 

Universal Basic Income

 

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!

 

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