Being more not having more
In 1972, there was this survey conducted in the United States on what from their perspective is their priority in life. About 42% said that having more money is what is important. In the latest survey, the percentage has gone up to 88%.
Well, in a materialistic and consumerist society, I am not surprised. Until now that kind of mindset which is focused on having more wealth, more fame, more power has justified self-gratification as the order of the day.
On the macro level, it is the collective will of a nation to subdue and to colonize greater portion of the world especially in Asia, Africa and the Middle East that had been colonized when countries like the United States, Great Britain and Spain did when these countries accumulated economic and military powers in the past centuries. These more powerful countries dominated least developed ones, extracting resources, enslaving the people for the good of their mother countries. This political phenomenon is called imperialism.
The Philippines was a victim of imperial powers beginning with Spanish colonization, then sold to the Americans. Our natural resources have been exploited without let-up, treating us like monkeys. Now I know why because such was their justification to treat us like second class citizens where they could just throw their radiation waste in our seas or dump toxic chemicals in our lands, using toxic pesticides which are already banned in other countries.
Such flawed mindset brought forth a wrong development paradigm anchored on growth-at-all-cost that has sacrificed mother earth and the people to the altar of greed and profit.
As climate change and violent extremism becoming genuine threats that are putting civilization in crisis, it is time to reflect on what King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes that, “fame, wealth, power, these are meaningless, utterly meaningless; what is important is what are the principles that you are willing to advance and fight for.”
Yes, let us remember that we are all God’s creation, created in the image and likeness of God. We are spiritual beings that must develop our spirituality rather than the mundane. As the biblical passage says, “What profiteth a man, if he gains the whole world but suffer the loss of his soul?”
What is so puzzling is the truism that even great religions have failed to develop homo sapien’s spirituality. It is sad to note that the rise of spiritual leaders has even used religion for self-gratification, i.e., “being the anointed son of God” or what have you.
It is now the claim that homo sapiens is a failed specie. It is the only specie created that has caused the death of its kind – more than one hundred million human beings killed in the past century alone caused by two world wars and the socalled cleansing of Hitler and Pol Pot including the second longest war in the world, the Mindanao War. This is because of the homo sapien’s great delusion of having more – more fame, more power, more wealth.
Stop such great delusion manifesting great insanity of humankind. The imperative call now is to focus on our being and not of having more. It should be of being more; to connect with the BEING called God, means not anymore as Homo Sapiens but to become Spiritus Luminus or Homo Pacem, men and women for Peace. If such be the case, then indeed, the new earth and the new heaven will finally come.