Money
The other day I opened my wallet and for the first time I realized I am finally beginning to see money differently. What I saw was pieces of colored paper with pictures of statesmen, monarchs and symbols on them.
How odd, I thought. These are not mine. These are not pictures of me and the symbols are not of anything I, as a human being, identify with. Indeed these papers are representing an energy that is not mine. As a matter of fact it is as though these pieces paper with their symbols, pictures of people I don’t even know, have power that I cannot possess. So must I focus my attention outside my self on these pieces of paper in order to have the power to live my life? Suddenly, this whole notion of revering these pieces of paper occurred to me as absolutely absurd!
If I were to write a promissory note and put my picture on it and the note said that I promised to come over for an afternoon and help plant a garden then I give it to you, it would represent something real, because I have the ability to do what the note says. It represents real human energy that passes between you and me. If you were to write a note and promise to cook dinner and give it to me we would be exchanging real currency that represented real human energy. Now, if for some reason, before you redeemed your note you decided to trade it with a friend for something else you wanted more than gardening then your friend, using the note with my picture on it, could still call on me to do his or her gardening.
I believe this is the way money was first intended to be used, as a means of exchange of energy. The value is based on the ability and energy of those people involved in the exchange. Now I realize that life now is much more complicated than this is a simplistic example but it occurs to me that something vital has been lost with regard to currency and something absolutely sinister has replaced it. What has been lost is the exchange of spiritual energy that needs to take place between human beings. What has replaced it is something that is actually criminal.
Ok, so a long time ago it was decided that some means of exchange was needed that would allow more flexibility than the kind the barter system I described above. So socities and countries created and issued their own currencies. So far, so good. But then some things started to go terribly wrong. You see, if institutions are going to print money, because they are not human beings that have both the physical and spiritual energy behind them, there needs to be some way those important looking pieces of paper are backed up with something universally recognized as valuable. For many years, gold and silver was used to back up the paper. But something happened to money in December 1971. The restriction that the US dollar, the worlds reserve currency, needed to be backed up by gold was ended. Money that was printed without backing is a form of counterfit. Currencies were allowed to “float”. This meant that money became debt that was based solely on the ability of the people who use the currency to make good on the IOU’s the institutions and governments were issuing on their behalf. Now we have the situation where there is more money than there is value in the world to back it up and more and more electronic money is put into the system every day. This is why people feel spiritually and physically drained. Now even entire countries like Iceland and Greece are being declared bankrupt.
I realize this is a very simplistic explanation for a problem that the people who led us all into this situation would have you believe is very complex. But I believe at the root, it is a simple problem where human beings have lost the vision of what is truly valuable, their spirit and personal energy, and sold out for worthless promises in the form of pieces of paper. I believe the people who led us into the current incarnation of this situation cannot get us out because many of them have been the most blind to the trap. Only we ourselves can do that by changing the way we see money. This trap has been around a long time, in fact certainly before the fall of Rome. I will leave you with this short passage from the bible that points to how even two thousand years ago we were being warned of this trap and the people who would pull us into it.
Mark Chapter 12 Verse 12 – 17
And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.
And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.
And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?
Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it.
And they brought it. And he saith unto them, whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's.
And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marveled at him.
How odd, I thought. These are not mine. These are not pictures of me and the symbols are not of anything I, as a human being, identify with. Indeed these papers are representing an energy that is not mine. As a matter of fact it is as though these pieces paper with their symbols, pictures of people I don’t even know, have power that I cannot possess. So must I focus my attention outside my self on these pieces of paper in order to have the power to live my life? Suddenly, this whole notion of revering these pieces of paper occurred to me as absolutely absurd!
If I were to write a promissory note and put my picture on it and the note said that I promised to come over for an afternoon and help plant a garden then I give it to you, it would represent something real, because I have the ability to do what the note says. It represents real human energy that passes between you and me. If you were to write a note and promise to cook dinner and give it to me we would be exchanging real currency that represented real human energy. Now, if for some reason, before you redeemed your note you decided to trade it with a friend for something else you wanted more than gardening then your friend, using the note with my picture on it, could still call on me to do his or her gardening.
I believe this is the way money was first intended to be used, as a means of exchange of energy. The value is based on the ability and energy of those people involved in the exchange. Now I realize that life now is much more complicated than this is a simplistic example but it occurs to me that something vital has been lost with regard to currency and something absolutely sinister has replaced it. What has been lost is the exchange of spiritual energy that needs to take place between human beings. What has replaced it is something that is actually criminal.
Ok, so a long time ago it was decided that some means of exchange was needed that would allow more flexibility than the kind the barter system I described above. So socities and countries created and issued their own currencies. So far, so good. But then some things started to go terribly wrong. You see, if institutions are going to print money, because they are not human beings that have both the physical and spiritual energy behind them, there needs to be some way those important looking pieces of paper are backed up with something universally recognized as valuable. For many years, gold and silver was used to back up the paper. But something happened to money in December 1971. The restriction that the US dollar, the worlds reserve currency, needed to be backed up by gold was ended. Money that was printed without backing is a form of counterfit. Currencies were allowed to “float”. This meant that money became debt that was based solely on the ability of the people who use the currency to make good on the IOU’s the institutions and governments were issuing on their behalf. Now we have the situation where there is more money than there is value in the world to back it up and more and more electronic money is put into the system every day. This is why people feel spiritually and physically drained. Now even entire countries like Iceland and Greece are being declared bankrupt.
I realize this is a very simplistic explanation for a problem that the people who led us all into this situation would have you believe is very complex. But I believe at the root, it is a simple problem where human beings have lost the vision of what is truly valuable, their spirit and personal energy, and sold out for worthless promises in the form of pieces of paper. I believe the people who led us into the current incarnation of this situation cannot get us out because many of them have been the most blind to the trap. Only we ourselves can do that by changing the way we see money. This trap has been around a long time, in fact certainly before the fall of Rome. I will leave you with this short passage from the bible that points to how even two thousand years ago we were being warned of this trap and the people who would pull us into it.
Mark Chapter 12 Verse 12 – 17
And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.
And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.
And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?
Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it.
And they brought it. And he saith unto them, whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's.
And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marveled at him.
posted by Michael from Mountains | 9:20 AM
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