“The quality of owning freezes you forever into ‘I'” is a fundamental teaching of perennial wisdom.
A key teaching of perennial wisdom is that as long as one believes that one owns anything, one cannot own everything, even though in reality, you ARE everything; for reality is indivisibly one. Wisdom is realizing this. Love is the great unifier. Spiritual maturity is the expansion of love.
Right living is based on stewardship rather than ownership. Ownership is the booby prize. It is also a booby trap.
An economic system based on pursuit of self-interest, acquisitiveness, and ownership of property can never be the basis for a highly functional society. Internal contradictions arising from clashing interests and asymmetrical distribution doom it. The childish game of king of the mountain goes on until the level of collective consciousness rises enough to transcend it.
The applicable perennial wisdom is summarized in Meher Baba's discourse, The New Humanity, to which I have link several times in the past. This is the nub of it: We are captured within our own ignorance collectively, and we must rise above it individually in order to shift the collective mindset. A spiritual awakening is needed for this.
The root-cause of the chaos which precipitates itself in wars is that most persons are in the grip of egoism and selfish considerations, and they express their egoism and self-interest individually as well as collectively.
This is the life of illusory values in which men are caught. To face the Truth is to realise that life is one, in and through its manifold manifestations. To have this understanding is to forget the limiting self in the realisation of the unity of life.
With the dawn of true understanding the problem of wars would immediately disappear. Wars have to be so clearly seen as both unnecessary and unreasonable that the immediate problem would not be how to stop wars but to wage them spiritually against the attitude of mind responsible for such a cruel and painful state of things.
In the light of the Truth of the unity of all life, co-operative and harmonious action becomes natural and inevitable. Hence, the chief task before those who are deeply concerned with the rebuilding of humanity, is to do their utmost to dispel the spiritual ignorance which envelops humanity.Achieving spiritual understanding of true value based on the unity of existence and life is the practical aspect of the perennial wisdom that lies at the heart of all religions and wisdom traditions and has been imparted by sages from of all times and climes from time immemorial.
To understand the problem of humanity as merely a problem of bread is to reduce humanity to the level of animality. But even when man sets himself to the limited task of securing purely material adjustment, he can only succeed in this attempt if he has spiritual understanding. Economic adjustment is impossible unless people realise that there can be no planned and co-operative action in economic matters until self-interest gives place to self-giving love. Otherwise, with the best of equipment and efficiency in the material spheres, humanity cannot avoid conflict and insufficiency.
But what about individualism and freedom?
National, economic, religious and cultural freedoms are the reflections of the duality of existence. They exist only in varying degrees, subject to constant discordant adjustment. Even when won through persistent effort, they cannot be permanently maintained because the external conditions upon which they have been constructed are themselves subject to deterioration.
Only spiritual freedom is absolute and unlimited; when it is won through persistent effort, it is won forever. For, although spiritual freedom can and does express itself in the duality of existence, it is grounded in and sustained by the realization of the inviolable unity of all life....
One important condition of spiritual freedom is freedom from all wanting. It is wanting itself which chains life by attaching it to the conditions in environment which would fulfil that want. If there is no wanting, there is no dependence, and therefore no limitation."
The individual never achieves true freedom until he is no longer pushed or pulled by any inner compulsion. When he has worked through all the desires and worn them so threadbare that he can be, or not be — have, or have not — then he is free."
When the individualized soul breaks through the encasing steel armour of wanting, it emancipates itself from its illusory bondage to bodies, mind and ego. This is the spiritual freedom which brings with it the final realization of the unity of all life and puts an end to all doubts and worries....
It is only in spiritual freedom that one can have enduring happiness and unhampered self-knowledge. It is only in spiritual freedom that one finds the supreme certainty of truth-realization. It is only in spiritual freedom that there is a final end to sorrow and limitation. It is only in spiritual freedom that one can live for all, and yet remain detached in the midst of all activity.
Any other lesser type of freedom is like a house built on sand, and any lesser attainment is fraught with fear of decay. There is no gift greater than that of spiritual freedom, and no task more important than helping others to find spiritual freedom."Meher Baba in The Narrow Lane, edited by William Le Page, pp. 133-134
“The quality of owning freezes you forever into ‘I'”
David F. Ruccio | Professor of Economics University of Notre Dame Notre Dame
David F. Ruccio | Professor of Economics University of Notre Dame Notre Dame
4 comments:
Ownership and private property are privileges which can be taken away at any time. This instinctive knowledge makes people angry and frightened. It gives them reason to be violent.
Meher Baba’s ‘The Narrow Lane” is anything but narrow.
What good is Meher’s so-called spiritual freedom once you’re dead?
God said there is no peace for the wicked. And while His word instructs us to practice good stewardship over all He has created there’s nothing in the Bible that suggests not doing so will RESU in the demise of mankind.
Mat 24:35 tells us ‘Heaven and earth WILL pass away, but my words will never pass away.’
Here is a relevant teaching of Jesus from Matthew 6 (NRSV):
24 “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.[i]
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,[j] or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?[k]
28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin,
29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’
32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But strive first for the kingdom of God[l] and his[m] righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
{emphasis added)
Compare Meher Baba: "Don't worry, be happy."
For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. -
2 Corinthians 11:13-14
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