Hello my lovelies,
Verse 9 - Overfulfillment
Keep filling your bowl
and it will spill over.
Keep sharpening your knife,
and it will blunt.
Keep hoarding gold in your house,
and you will be robbed.
Keep seeking approval,
and you will be chained.
The Great Integrity leads to actualization,
never overfulfillment. (Translation Ralph Alan Dale)
This is such a timely verse for the current so-called economic crisis. We have been taught that there is never enough. That no matter how much we have we should still want more. This has led to conflict and greed on an unprecedented scale.
We find it very hard to stop filling our bowls. How many of us have seen people at those ‘all you can eat’ buffets filling and re-filling their plates long after any hunger has been sated, but because the food is there they have to take it. Then there are the ‘collectors’. People who will buy up priceless artefacts only to lock them away where they will never be seen or loved or cherished, but holding on to the knowledge that they own it and so no-one else can. Where is the joy in that?
My favourite couplet is ‘keep seeking approval, / and you will be chained’. Politicians personify this phrase. They start out, hopefully, with good intentions but they need to be loved and admired by all the voters and so they become entangled in chains and stop achieving anything for the higher good. Mark Thomas, a comedian and activist whom I greatly admire for his courage in taking on anyone and everyone that he feels are unjust, including the Arms Trade and Coca Cola, has an email address listed in his book ‘As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela’ as ‘mark@likeineedyourfuckingapprobation.com’. I think this says it all. If seeking approbation was what was important that he would never be able to take on the causes for which he fights. This is true for all of us in everyday life.
Every time we take action looking only for a pat on the back, we betray ourselves. We need to be true to ourselves whatever the consequence. This can be terrifying, but it can also be very life-affirming. History is full of people who were vilified, tortured and even killed in their lifetimes, only for them to be revered shortly afterwards when the rest of the world caught up with them. We need to remain true to ourselves rather than believe what the media tell us, especially the tabloid press, whose very purpose is to keep the plebs in their place. Indeed Lord Northcliffe, the founder of the Daily Mail, admitted he provided his readers with their ‘daily hate’. It is well known that the fat cat proprietors of all the papers print what they know their readers want to hear and not what is fact, or what indeed they believe themselves. Independent research into any of the stories will show you that for yourself. Each time that you allow yourself to be manipulated by the press you are allowing them to fill the same role as that of the ruling classes to the serfs, namely keeping you down so that you do not see the truth for yourselves and thereby hold another ‘Peasant’s Revolt’. When we start having mutual respect for all people, no matter what their race, age, gender, or background in general then these vehicles of hate and prejudice will no longer need to vilify people who were not in line with their own beliefs. Everyone’s ideas would be valid and so you would not need to seek approval for yours at cost to someone else. Daisaku Ikeda says: ‘We are all human beings, whatever our positions. If we open our hearts and speak with sincerity, we can communicate and touch others on the deepest level. World peace starts with trust between one individual and another.’
Following on from the blog on the Highest Good I personally think it vital to have the courage to stand up for what we believe in; that we let dictators and despots know that their behaviour is unacceptable and intolerable and that we, on an individual basis, will not take part.
If we take Nazi Germany as a case in point we see that the majority of people did not overtly do anything ‘bad’, but they did comply with the government stance. They took in the propaganda which they were fed on a daily basis (as indeed are we) and the majority did nothing. As the Reverend Martin Niemoller said about the regime: “When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out." This is how we live our lives every day. We know the damage that our affluent western lifestyle causes and we all do nothing. We stand by while thousands of under 5s die every day of malnutrition whilst their families work for a pittance to supply the ‘needs’ of the West. Yet very few people know or care. Next time you buy your Primark or Gap, or even John Lewis clothing ask yourself what the true cost is. Next time you bite into a MacDonald’s ask how much of the world’s eco-structure you have just complied in destroying. Next time you buy an Aero ask how many children picked cocoa until their hands bled.
All I am asking is that you are aware what our greed costs. Always ask; never just accept what you are told, even – or perhaps especially – what I am saying to you now. Check the facts for yourselves. Stop overfilling your bowl and pass the excess on to someone who really needs it.
Verse 9 - Overfulfillment
Keep filling your bowl
and it will spill over.
Keep sharpening your knife,
and it will blunt.
Keep hoarding gold in your house,
and you will be robbed.
Keep seeking approval,
and you will be chained.
The Great Integrity leads to actualization,
never overfulfillment. (Translation Ralph Alan Dale)
This is such a timely verse for the current so-called economic crisis. We have been taught that there is never enough. That no matter how much we have we should still want more. This has led to conflict and greed on an unprecedented scale.
We find it very hard to stop filling our bowls. How many of us have seen people at those ‘all you can eat’ buffets filling and re-filling their plates long after any hunger has been sated, but because the food is there they have to take it. Then there are the ‘collectors’. People who will buy up priceless artefacts only to lock them away where they will never be seen or loved or cherished, but holding on to the knowledge that they own it and so no-one else can. Where is the joy in that?
My favourite couplet is ‘keep seeking approval, / and you will be chained’. Politicians personify this phrase. They start out, hopefully, with good intentions but they need to be loved and admired by all the voters and so they become entangled in chains and stop achieving anything for the higher good. Mark Thomas, a comedian and activist whom I greatly admire for his courage in taking on anyone and everyone that he feels are unjust, including the Arms Trade and Coca Cola, has an email address listed in his book ‘As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela’ as ‘mark@likeineedyourfuckingapprobation.com’. I think this says it all. If seeking approbation was what was important that he would never be able to take on the causes for which he fights. This is true for all of us in everyday life.
Every time we take action looking only for a pat on the back, we betray ourselves. We need to be true to ourselves whatever the consequence. This can be terrifying, but it can also be very life-affirming. History is full of people who were vilified, tortured and even killed in their lifetimes, only for them to be revered shortly afterwards when the rest of the world caught up with them. We need to remain true to ourselves rather than believe what the media tell us, especially the tabloid press, whose very purpose is to keep the plebs in their place. Indeed Lord Northcliffe, the founder of the Daily Mail, admitted he provided his readers with their ‘daily hate’. It is well known that the fat cat proprietors of all the papers print what they know their readers want to hear and not what is fact, or what indeed they believe themselves. Independent research into any of the stories will show you that for yourself. Each time that you allow yourself to be manipulated by the press you are allowing them to fill the same role as that of the ruling classes to the serfs, namely keeping you down so that you do not see the truth for yourselves and thereby hold another ‘Peasant’s Revolt’. When we start having mutual respect for all people, no matter what their race, age, gender, or background in general then these vehicles of hate and prejudice will no longer need to vilify people who were not in line with their own beliefs. Everyone’s ideas would be valid and so you would not need to seek approval for yours at cost to someone else. Daisaku Ikeda says: ‘We are all human beings, whatever our positions. If we open our hearts and speak with sincerity, we can communicate and touch others on the deepest level. World peace starts with trust between one individual and another.’
Following on from the blog on the Highest Good I personally think it vital to have the courage to stand up for what we believe in; that we let dictators and despots know that their behaviour is unacceptable and intolerable and that we, on an individual basis, will not take part.
If we take Nazi Germany as a case in point we see that the majority of people did not overtly do anything ‘bad’, but they did comply with the government stance. They took in the propaganda which they were fed on a daily basis (as indeed are we) and the majority did nothing. As the Reverend Martin Niemoller said about the regime: “When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out." This is how we live our lives every day. We know the damage that our affluent western lifestyle causes and we all do nothing. We stand by while thousands of under 5s die every day of malnutrition whilst their families work for a pittance to supply the ‘needs’ of the West. Yet very few people know or care. Next time you buy your Primark or Gap, or even John Lewis clothing ask yourself what the true cost is. Next time you bite into a MacDonald’s ask how much of the world’s eco-structure you have just complied in destroying. Next time you buy an Aero ask how many children picked cocoa until their hands bled.
All I am asking is that you are aware what our greed costs. Always ask; never just accept what you are told, even – or perhaps especially – what I am saying to you now. Check the facts for yourselves. Stop overfilling your bowl and pass the excess on to someone who really needs it.
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