Monday, May 12, 2014

More is Less

More is Less

Human beings are strange species with a plethora of conflicting and contradictory  emotions. There is a mix and at times a blend of both positivity and negativity. What dominates your personality is what makes all the difference. We are born with the capacity of intense and pure feelings of love, compassion, kindness, gentleness , sensitivity and empathy. Then what happens along the way? What makes us mean, selfish, self centered, rude , manipulative and uncaring among others? We can blame circumstances, conditioning, family, friends, environment etc. Ultimately we are what we are just because we choose to be so!

Let us explore certain qualities we have. I  understand  lust, jealousy, anger, pride and even hate. What I cannot understand or even accept is GREED! Greed is nothing but excessive or rapacious desire for wealth , possessions, status or power ; much more than what one would need for this lifetime. Erich Fromm described greed as "a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction." Greed is a human beings  worst incurable disease.
It’s not the end that is crucial here ( there is NO end) it’s the means in their pursuit of ‘more’  and what it does to people. It changes them totally- making them manipulative, conniving, compulsive  liars, malicious, vain, competitive, tyrannical, dominating, think they are invincible , selfish and  worse devoid of feelings and consideration. They live half  their lives plotting and planning how to make more )most of the times this can happen by denying it to  or depriving others ) and they live the other half in fear and worrying- fear of  losing what they have or  worrying about the uncertainty !

So then where does this all lead to? Nowhere!  Except a life of chaos, confusion, fear and constant worrying.

Five of my friends are fighting legal battles for ‘inherited’ property and wealth with their own family members. Such a terrible mess! But very sadly they forget the following:

1.     They haven’t earned it neither have they worked for it . Someone else has worked hard for it and forgot to spend it on themselves! ( very stupid I must say)

2.     They are getting it just by virtue of birth and not because they deserve it or done much to deserve it.

3.     Whatever they get is just a BONUS, so they better be grateful and content with it.

4.     If they don’t get it, maybe they don’t deserve it anyways.

5.     If the will or other documents have been manipulated its because the other person was smarter and definitely greedy.

6.     What you are destined to get-  you will, without any courts or judgments.

So in a nutshell they are fighting over something that they made zero contributions to.

Where will greed end? It doesn’t. It just consumes your entire life just like cancer! Eventually you just wither away and die! And when you die, you take nothing with you! So this life greed was  for nothing!

Remembering Alexander the great’s quote- “A tomb now suffices him for whom the whole world was not sufficient.”

It is never too late to change and learn to be content and to live in love and peace.




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