Creating the world around us

Some recent events have presented themselves, which need to be adressed:

I would like to find the answers to a few questions which have been bothering my peace of mind lately:

The first is the situation of the economy. That is a topic and equal number of words and $$  are being written about resp. being spent. There are some who are searching for a solution  and I am no exception, because I am totally confused and need input to get things orderly in my mind.

Let me summarise the situation:

As a practising student of the Buddha-Dharma it is among my aspirations to develop a mostly serene, mostly unemotional, mostly effortless quiet mind set. And this not only during my daily meditation sessions but also in my everday life and work. Following my teachers advice I try to apply what I learned into my everyday life and transform my view of the world around me accordingly.

After all, we are taught, that we are creating our environment ourselves.

Now things have happened lately which I can not remember creating and I am fairly certain, that it was not my subconscious working overtime without my approval.

The governments around the world had reason to take measures to "bail out" banks, real estate value tumbled, the economy went into a recession.

When listening to the news commentaries you got the impression there was something like a tsunami or volcanic eruption happening, something completely out of the control of the "mighty". Something totally (apparently) unexpected shocked the financial world and the amount of money needed to try and put everything in order again took astronomical dimensions.

Somehow I got the impression, that there were natural forces at work that were absolutely unpredictable and beyond human control.

The political summits convened and decided to counteract the effects of this catastrophe and they decided to take money from their people in order to do this.

Taxpayers money has to cure this accident.

The burden of this had to be distributed on as many shoulders as possible.

This was, when I started getting confused. I had this heretic idea, that here we where in a situation where the proverbial wool was pulled over our eyes (and noses, ears, mouths and various other body openings too).

A financial market or economic system follows rules made by people - not laws of nature.

Warnings of some very few intelligent people quite some time ago, were dismissed as completely negative and the "self healing" properties of our economic system and the free market were invoked.

However, these self healing properties apparently did not work as expected.

The leaders and gurus of the financial establishment soon found out who was to blame.

In more than just a few interviews high ranking bankers and financiers pointed to the "greedy people" as the cause for this downfall.

How did I get the idea, that possibly the incorrect calculations of these same bankers had something to do with this development?

Or alternatively could it be possible, that the whole scenario was carefully prepared and ochestrated by some of these same bankers or their superiors?

Is it conceivable, that after the downfall of the communist-soviet-socialist system, now the way was free for the ultimate scam of all times came along showing the weaknesses and faults of our holy, western, capitalist system?

Weaknesses and faults? Surely not for the few people who reaped millions upon millions and trillions into their coffres!

How can you calculate losses of this magnitude? Is the value these losses represent real money or just a few numbers on a piece of paper or a computer screen?

Where does the "bail out money" come from? Is it really just printed? What does this do to the value of the already existing money. The "buying power"?

I am now old enough to have experienced quite a lot of situations. Some good, some not so good.

Never have I experienced a situation, where the person or persons responsible admitted to this responsibility and were held accountable. There was always somebody else to be blamed, always somebody else had to pay the price.

Not only in $, €, pounds but also with their limbs and lives!

Do we really have to take this BS?

Is it really true that nothing is without limit except human stupidity?

Really, I would like nothing better than to return to my meditating cushion and quieten the carousel of thoughts going round and round in my head.

Take care of yourselves, nobody else is doing it!

CREATING THE WORLD AROUND US (PART 2)

So here are a few more remarks to add to my previous article:

As stated, I refuse to accept the notion, that I am responsible for the economic mess we have in the world at the moment.

If I am not responsible, then who is?

And who is going to clean up the mess when things are sorted out?

Or will they be sorted out?

I stated also, that in my opinion the crisis is definitely not "force majeure" or caused by laws of nature. "God" didn´t have anything to do with it.

It was man made. It was no accident. It was engineered deliberately with (criminal) intent.

And the plan worked.

In another context this would be called "criminal" by the law people.

What makes me think, that there where not only losers in this world but also some winners?

It was always like this.

Am I really just imagining that there where people gaining from this global downturn?

There is another question popping up in my mind:

Should not the people who planned and executed this be held accountable for it and made to pay for damages?

After all, a thief who is caught has to hand back what he stole and is made to compensate for damages.

At what level of crime do the laws concerning fraud not apply anymore?

There is now talk about changing the rules of our financial markets to prevent future happenings like this.

I have a funny feeling, that the changed rules will soon be obsolete and some clever financial artist will find loopholes in them and devise ways and means around them.

I have a notion, that as long as our thinking is not altered, as long as egotism, greed, envy and hate are driving forces of social interaction, there will never be any betterment of the situation.

Homo sapiens unfortunately has never developed his intelligence in a direction that would allow him/her to see, what is wrong. There where some people in the long milennia of recorded history who have pointed out this lack, but they where at best laughed at and called crazy, at worst they where killed (examples: Jesus of Nazareth, Galileo Galilei, and many others).

It is evident, that as long as there is no change in our view there can not be any improvement.

And it is also clear, that since we can not make the others change, we each have to make the change of own view ourselves.

It really is time to do something, otherwise we will be extremely uncomfortable in the not too distant future.

Again, Take care of yourselves, nobody else is doing it.

Is´nt it time to wake up!

Sherab

PS. There is a number of questions rotating in my poor head, concerning various topics. Mainly Internet Marketing. I will try and write about it here and see if I can get some answers.

S.