The Root Of All Evil

 

 

 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, 

they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

                                            (1 Timothy 6:10 )

 

 

Before the Industrial Revolution everything we could possibly own was handmade.  Every piece of cloth was handspun and handwoven.  The crockery was made by a potter and the furniture by a carpenter.  Every item was crafted, rather than just produced.   That life accumulation of stuff was often the only inheritance left to the heirs.  The products were made to last, were made to be passed down generation after generation.

 

Now everything for sale is largely cheap and disposable.  Our children don't want our "old stuff." The items only have value if they are valued.  We value many items because of a specific memory or story.  If you know the story you don't really need the object.  

 

Planned Obsolescence is the darling of the manufacturing.  Nothing is meant to last and therefore it doesn't.  Our disposable packaging is an environmental nightmare.  Not only are we throwing more away than ever in our history, but what we are throwing away presents us with unknown dangers as chemicals break down and enter our water and air.

 

The fossil fuel industry is opposed to renewable power out of greed.  If we can generate our own power from local sources, then that ends Big Oil's power over the world's economy.  Again those in power with vast wealth do not want the rest of us to figure out how to live without them.

 

A similar situation arose in the early Christian church with the Gnostics.  Like Buddha, the Jesus in the Gnostic Gospels is proposing salvation by seeking the Kingdom of Heaven within.   No rituals, no magic words, no need for confession and absolution, no need for priests and a church hierarchy.  The Council of Nicaea under Emperor Constantine forced the early church into the Roman mold, producing the power model that still survives today.

 

Under the guise of salvation, the Church ruthlessly enforced the idea of uniform worship.  Any deviation was deemed heretical and thus endangering the populace as a whole because their god was petty and vindictive.  The world will be at peace just as soon as everyone believes exactly what we tell them to.  This made many very powerful and obscenely rich.  It did not, however, do a damned thing to promote Christ's message.  And to this day it still doesn't.

 

The path found by Gautama Buddha (which I believed Jesus learned during his 18 year hiatus from the Gospels) requires no external anything.  The process takes place entirely within the mind of the meditator.  It takes time and patience but is infinitely more rewarding that prayer.