I recently finished a book titled " The Man Who Quit Money". If the title didn't give it away already, it's a true story about a man by the name of Suelo, who believe it or not, quits using money. In his own words, "I don't use or accept money or conscious barter - don't take food stamps or other government dole. My philosophy is to use only what is freely given or discarded & what is already present & already running (whether or not I existed)." During this read many ideas and concepts stuck out to me. The one that stuck most was the concept of non-possession . Non-possession is a philosophy that holds that no one possesses anything. The idea is that if we put aside material things, and I mean ALL material things, then there will be less obstacles in life clouding truth. Why do material items cloud truth? With all these items that we think will make us happy comes a negative baggage that we don't realize. If you think the idea of non-possession is bogus then I suggest going into some remote forest and being naked, seriously. Let me know how absolutely free you feel! Maybe my word doesn't mean much, or you just aren't into getting naked, understandable. How about the words of some of the worlds most renown philosophers? Ghandi said many things about non-possession, one of which is, " It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver." Also we have Jesus who was quoted of saying “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 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? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?". Both of these quotes ring true. Once we start to amass 'wealth', instead of life becoming easier, it only seems to become more difficult. With bills for our car, house, phone, and many other things we start to feel the need for money, thus that is what we put our hope in. Let me rephrase that. We are putting our hope into a piece of paper with a face on it! Our money does not represent gold like it use to (not that it would make a difference if it did) , it only represents an illusion of false security.
So what do we do? Well... I don't really know. We could give it up completely like Suelo did, or maybe wean ourselves off of it? I don't know how to fix this money problem, but I do know addressing it is the first step. Materialism is something that has swept across America. It is something that keeps us focused on the unimportant, on things that will fade away.
Suelo has a blog! Here is the link:
http://zerocurrency.blogspot.com/?m=1
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| This is Suelo. Look at that smile:) |
