Changing the System Mindfully. Are we imprisoned by our unexamined concepts???

Changing the System Mindfully. Are we imprisoned by our unexamined concepts???
Humanity is imprisoned by a heartless monetary system, co-dependently arising from dichotomy of man and nature, self and society, ecology and economy, and public and private. How is the system fabricated? How do we awaken from our collective delusion and suffering? Please share this blog for Contemplative Social Action to Cultivate a Culture of Awakening! "Do everything with a mind that lets go" - Ajahn Chah

Thursday, January 12, 2012

The Millennium Koan of 2012


The meditator abides independently not clinging to anything in the world. - Satipatthana Sutta, Buddha

The first inspiration for this blog in 2007 came from this riddle or Koan (captured within yellow line  from the left hand corner of a dollar bill). May be it will occupy your Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Before sitting with the Koan, you may want to take a bite of lunch here. 


Contemplative Social Action-Non-Action~
  1. Can Spain and Greece learn from Iceland Revolution
  2. Euro web of debt, Timeline, Roarmag.economy
  3. World Bank Whistleblower Karen Hudes educates citizens, state elected officials and finance ministers
“Deep within every one of us lies a natural understanding of good and evil. That is why one man can tell the truth convincingly...but it takes the entire apparatus of the State to peddle a lie, and propagate that lie to new generations.”...Gandhi

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. What we think we become" - Buddha

Koan: "Public and Private.   Not One, Not Two.  What the Buddha Will Do?" - SB

What is the dhamma of ' money as capital ' ? Can we use dhamma viccaya, the second of the seven factors of enlightenment to pierce through our collective delusion?

Can we engage our collective attention, intention and wisdom to transform the Vicious cycle of debt, poverty, war, inequality to a Virtuous system of Dharma Economics which uplifts humanity above greed, fear, trauma and struggle for survival?

Can we begin to trust the basic goodness of the people and society to seed and grow a virtuous economic system, that is wholesome in the beginning, wholesome in the middle and wholesome in the end? How do we begin to disentangle from the entanglements of Crony Capitalism with Bill Moyer?

They did not know it was impossible, so they did it! - Mark Twain

Breaking out of the illusion of false limitation is now possible if we trust in our basic goodness and refuse to be ruled by fear. Pema Chodron on opening to Fear and Fearlessness. Taking care of earth is taking care of our bodies and healing of earth and humanity are mutually interdependent. In his recent interview with Jo Confino of the Gaurdian, Thich Nat Hahn spoke on liberating our consciousness from Wrong Views through spiritual practice and see Earth as a great and beautiful Bodhisattva.

Learn how legal constructs "Corporate Personhood and Money is Speech" are undermining peoples' and planet's inalienable rights. Can you play with the above concept of money to come up with something fresh and wholesome? What is the source of this debt-based money paradigm? Listen to Positive Money, UK.

Can we let go of clinging to this dichotomy of public-private, socialism-capitalism to a clear and silent space in our mind long enough for the sake of all children? What would happen if we wake up and stop projecting a concrete world of debt to a fluid process of debt-free life? How do debt-burden gets passed from consumers, homeowners to young students (see planet money)?  Do we have democracy, when our Governments have to constantly borrow from outside? Global Public Debt Map.

There are experiments done with different means of open source payment innovation by Social Trade Organization (STO). Debt and interest-free Cash and Coin is preferable to electronic system of currency to combat poverty with right understanding of currency, foster real economy and right livelihood for vast majority in the planet because of their transparency and less corruptability at the source. See Food Crisis in Sahel, West Africa and End Poverty Campaign by 2015.

In this Century of preoccupation with 'Self', Citizens came to be seen as 'passive consumers' driven by unconscious impulses and dangerous desires. Marriage of Democracy and Capitalism was forged with help of Freud's psychoanalysis and this spawned vast government programs, public relation and mass media strategies. See BBC Documentary 'Century of Self' .

"Contentment. That is a very unpopular word. Because the whole economy would collapse if people were content." - Tenzin Palmo

Dharma of mindful-awareness is about discovering the inner freedom, creativity and joyfulness of 'Selflessness' or freedom from the illusion of mind-made self, ego and alter-ego. (See Dharmaseed teachings on Anatta).

Contemplations ~
"Letting go of attachment [and apathy and aversion] is the ultimate generosity, because it connects us with our wisdom and compassion" - Ruling Your World, Sakyong Mipham  [Insert mine]


With Zen everything is a good thing. Without Zen even good things are bad things. In the Beginners Mind, they say there are many possibilities ~

Inquiry: Is the medium of money (and credit) a private commodity, a public service, a social contract (agreement), a commons, or a public-private agreement/partnership? Is it some, all or none of these?   did the intentions behind modern money arose from one of the skillful (kusala) roots of non-greed, non-aversion or non-delusion, or from one of the unskillful (akusala) states of greed, aversion or delusion? [note the word 'kusala' as in Kusala Sutta is also translated as skillful, productive, fruitful, beneficial, profitable, advantageous states of mind;] Can we take refuge in our own basic goodness to wake up for the benefit of all beings? Can currency be crowdsourced like the recent Constitution of Icelnad?

- (Susmita Barua)
“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring…”  Dr. M. L. King Jr., 1967
Monetary  Diversity by Bernard Lietaer

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"it is inherent in the methodology of economics to ignore man’s dependence on the natural world."
- Schumacker, Small is Beautiful

said...

Deep Conscious Capitalism = oxymoron

You Tube Video List

PBS Commanding Heights: Battle of Ideas for the World economy, Part 1 & 2