Wealth is Exploitation

Material wealth and accumulated knowledge are closely related. They both are the result of the desire to be secure. There is only so much money and material wealth to go around. Not everyone can be wealthy or even moderately well off. So how is it that some people become wealthy? Are they clever? Very hard workers? Just lucky? Maybe a combination? Whatever the perceived reason, one thing is certain. You cannot become wealthy without exploiting others. When one has accumulated much wealth, that wealth has to come from other people. One can dress it up and appear to be concerned with those less fortunate, by meaningless give aways, that are more often than not just publicity stunts. If you are wealthy, you are self absorbed and conceited. Your conceit is manifested in your desire to excuse your status by efforts at humanitarian gestures. But they stand in opposition to your desire for even more wealth. Exploitation of others, either of the material or the psychological, is a destructive and violent activity. It fosters only resentment and conflict.

One can argue that if one has labored and earned wealth then it should not be resented. But what is the actual truth of it? Can you look in the moment and see your own greed at work. Can you realize in this very moment how that your mind is obsessed with accumulation. Not only of the material, but also the psychological. Do not look at it with a ready conclusion or judgement, otherwise you will never see the truth of it. One must look dispassionately, but with full attention. One must not conclude, just look at your greed as it is. Realize that you are the greed and that it is not something separate from you. See that your every movement is an attempt to exploit either consciously or subconsciously. Do not say that it is good or bad, it is neither good nor bad it just is what it is. When one has realized the true self, that which is unconditioned, then it is possible to see into the nature of greed and the desire for security. When that happens one no longer needs wealth or fame or any of the other trappings of a mind that is deluded.

One may realize the futility and shallowness of a mind that is caught in the pursuit of wealth. The acquisitive mind is shoddy and consumed only with the advancement of the self. If you are wealthy you cannot truly love, because your consciousness is consumed with the self perpetuated idea of your image. You must protect what you have, so you have lost all vulnerability. You cannot truly love unless you are vulnerable.

You cannot "become" illuminated by simply giving everything you have away. If you do you have missed the point. You have to be choicelessly aware of your thoughts and actions. One has to find out why the mind clings to accumulations. Why the mind is in such fear. It is a journey that one must make alone. There are no guides or paths. One must blaze an individual trail to the truth. It must be your truth and not something someone has taught you or that you read in a book. First and foremost one has to realize freedom. Not the idea of freedom from something, but freedom that is the realization of the true self. That freedom is when the self is not.