Debt
Good morning Joseth, good morning Roy.
Wholeness requires separation. In order for us to
experience ourselves as being whole, we spend most of our lives experiencing
being separated, trying to get back to wholeness.
One of our most creative ways of moving away from
happiness has been through consumer debt. Our fixation with spending, gives us
little time to contemplate being whole, until it hits us in the face with a debt
load that we can no longer manage.
The Black Plague of the industrialized world is debt for
consumer goods and services. No matter how you may reason it, going into debt to
buy a big screen TV or stereo system, a new boat, or lawn furniture, just is not
necessary. You have been taught that all of these things are necessary to be
happy and successful. You have moved away from happiness in order to feel it
again by learning how to be miserable. Now that you are up to your ears in
bills, you think that you would be happy again, if only you did not owe all this
money.
As adults, you spend one third of your lives paying of
loans and mortgages, another third of your life paying taxes. The last third is
supporting someone else. The fourth third you get to keep for yourself. Debt is
the majour contributing factor in marriage and business break-ups. Where is
there room for happiness in this chaos?
Consumerism feeds the fat pockets of debt. It is like
bulimia, you eat and eat and eat, then puke it all back up, only to start over
again. Consumerism is the industrialized world’s version of happiness. Because
humanity has moved so far away from happiness, he no longer understands what it
is, and believes that "things," make him happy. He cannot live without things.
Because he is unhappy and notices that other people appear to be happy with
their things, he believes that if only he had one of those, he would be happy
also.
The insanity is that you have been collectively doing
this thing repeatedly for so long, you do not believe you can be happy without
spending and going into debt. Humanity has not learned from this mistake. You
cannot buy happiness. You must be happy first, and then your spending will
reflect that happiness and will not be dependant on the spending.
Debt is the cancer that kills your happiness. Move away
from spending and debt and get in touch with your true feelings and basic needs.
When you begin to move to this place of wholeness, you will never do anything
that could jeopardize that happiness. Money does not buy happiness in place of a
failed belief system. At best it is only a temporarily relief like debt
consolidation until you start the cycle over again.
Life lived simply, allows lots of room for happiness, it
is the playground of happy people. Happiness comes naturally to all beings; we
learn how to be unhappy before we can move back to it.