There are two ways to be rich.
The first and usual chosen path is to work hard, create value for your neighbor, and let them pay you for your craft, talents or your product. As you gain more and more certificates of achievement (in other words, money), you can use these chits to trade for things you need and want. Eventually, you hope, that bucket of needs and wants will fill adequately…then, you will be rich.
Air! Wonderful!
But there is a second, simpler path. One that is so simple in its beauty, yet few of us follow it. The second is to whittle away at those “needs and wants.” In essence, to make that bucket much, much smaller. Theoretically, we could make that bucket infinitesimally small. Think of the beauty of the air that you breathe. It is absolutely essential to your life…a few minutes without the life-giving oxygen it provides and your body will die. The cells will still be there, but they will cease cooperating to form the entity that you consider “you.” And yet, the air is always there. It’s free of charge. Even if you managed to make that “needs and wants” bucket incredibly small, you would still need a place for air. And yet, that portion is always filled, provided for you as you need it: in this moment.
A Simple Life…A Rich Life
It’s funny to me, actually. I know the second path to riches is here. Right Now. I hop on it, and I am rich. It seems so easy and so fulfilling in the moment. But, I hop right back off of it…back on to the first path. Why is this the default for the vast majority? Why is this my default path? Chasing, chasing, chasing. Ever expanding that bucket, then trying to fill it.
As spiritual creatures, our Creator made us crave HIM. That “more” we want to fulfill is that hole needing to be filled. When we fill ourselves with Him and things of His; values, ideas, actions, emotions, etc, then we will feel whole! We really crave our spiritual Daddy. What person doesn’t initially crave the presence of their parents? It is when we get older and replace that desire with other things that we “forget” that craving. As spiritual beings in a carnal body we replace that craving with carnal things but still have that spiritual longing. We fill that longing with tangible temporary things that will never actually fill our spiritual need. THAT is why we continue to crave.
Very nice, ttigresa. I’m sure your outlook keeps you grounded, both spiritually and philosophically. The only speed bump when these things are pondered, in the writer’s experience, is that when an answer seems to be found, it eventually eludes once again. For example, your reply ends with a definitive, “THAT is why we continue to crave.” Based on the experience of finding the answers, I would reply, “perhaps you are on to something” rather than a “right on!”. Perhaps the reasons for our cravings aren’t as important as understanding them, so we can prioritize them. I lately have had great success in observing them without judging, and embracing their presence. Lately, I try not to get caught up in ultimate answers, but rather maintaining a map to navigate by.