It seems that every time we try to design the ideal economic system it fails. Then we blame the failure on the system. Somehow the failure belongs to the system instead of the misunderstandings of the people in the system.
Communism is a great example. It is an economic system that was developed out of love, where each person works according to his or her ability and received according to his or her needs. But the results of communism in countries like China and The Soviet Union were the some of the worse dictatorships ever seen. Moreover they banned spirituality and some of the deepest philosophies ever known to humans.
The result was that communism motivated people through fear and restriction instead of through love. When fear no longer worked as motivation, the communist system toppled.
Then on the other side of the ledger capitalism had a different idea for setting up an economic system. It’s called free markets. If you just let everyone sell what they want the markets, without outside regulation, will become self regulating. But we just realized that the people who designed this system forgot one thing: greed. Recently the whole system collapsed under the weight of greed.
Understand the failure of our economic system by understanding desire
So why do economic systems seem to fail us in ways that we cannot anticipate? The clue is in the nature of desire. Desire is very intense. That’s because desire is the key that takes us back to our original nature, our real home. Here is where we find limitless joy. This is the peace that passes all understanding.
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Step by step, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive points you to the source of
timeless Wisdom, the place of enlightenment; this is Bliss that does
not depend on what you do or what you think; it is your natural freedom.
For more information go to:
http://www.light-up-your-life.com/wisdom.html
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Objects cannot provide lasting happiness
But as long as we take happiness to be limited to an object it will never be enough. The evidence here is that objects cannot provide lasting happiness. So if you find that one object cannot provide you with the happiness that you want, you may think that many objects can. If a million dollars and one house can’t provide you with the happiness that you want, then maybe a billion dollars and 5 houses can.
But wisdom, the third item in the title, gives us the ability to look ahead before we act. By wisdom we can see in advance that a billion dollars will not make us thousands of times happier than a million dollars. Seeing this, we are now in a position to look in another direction for the happiness that we want.
Where do we actually experience happiness?
The question that we now ask is, “No matter what I take to be its cause, where do I actually experience happiness? Is it in an object that I see and hear or is it in my own heart?” Indeed the cause of happiness is my own heart and not an object that I see. In other words the cause of happiness and the place where I actually experience it is the same.
Once we see clearly the actual place of happiness, happiness returns to its source and now there is plenty of room for compassion. Not a forced compassion that is supposed to be good for us, but a natural compassion that comes right from the depths of our soul.
Wisdom is the key to getting our world back on tract
As long as we feel that happiness comes from things, we will not be able to get out of the spiral of producing more junk. If we attempt to add more regulations to our economy, we will find more ways around these regulations. Then, like now, we will start to feel that the things that are supposed to give us happiness are the cause of our misery.
But through this wisdom we can begin to shift our focus away from the objects that we see and towards the source of happiness. Here the people in this world will be in a position to begin shifting their economies, bringing them back into balance. The labels, communism or capitalism, will not be as important as the wisdom of the people.
Feel free to ask questions
Please
feel free to continue asking questions. I’m always glad to hear your
reactions and clarify my answers. Unlike the path of faith, on the path
of Self-Knowledge it is curiosity that destroys limitation and allows
you to abide in your natural freedom.
If the comment section of this blog doesn't work, please send your questions and comments to michael@ananya.com. To find out where this all leads go to, www.light-up-your-life.com. And finally, if you enjoy these blogs please tell your friend
Best Wishes,
Michael Gluckman
