Thursday, April 20, 2017

The Powerful Elite Have a Lot to Learn

The calendar is shifting from Judaism to Buddhism, and the focus is shifting from the loss of power by the Pharaoh and Moses wandering for forty years in the desert. The Hebrews had to depend on manna from heaven to survive.

If you are homeless and wandering, how do you overcome that severe test?

Imagine being so wealthy that your servants are forbidden from exposing you to anything that has to do with poverty. Nothing middle class. Nothing less than perfect. You can have only the very finest and grandest palaces to live in, and the finest foods and clothing. You live in a world of splendor.

Gautama Buddha could have grown up and stepped into his father's place, but one day he was accidentally exposed to extreme poverty, and that put him into a moral dilemma. He walked away from his extreme wealth, and his only possession was his begging bowl. He relied on others for his sustenance.

He went through a long spiritual test. He nearly died of self-inflicted starvation.

While Moses never made it to the Promised Land, Gautama Buddha did. He found a sense of balance in his life. He turned Universal Law from a punishment to a tool to enable him to create the life he wanted. He solved his moral dilemma in such as way that it has benefited everyone on the planet.

Gautama Buddha understood the principle of getting what he needed by making a win-win agreement. He was a spiritual man with great understandings, and he lacked food and a place to sleep. He went into the homes of the wealthy, who were very busy with their businesses and their activities, but had no time to spend on their spiritual lives.

It was easy for each to share what they had in abundance, so even the homeless person has something to share. The trick is to find the person who has what you need and needs what you have.

There is a spiritual teaching that says, "he who has, more will be given, and he who has not it will be taken away." Gautama Buddha was able to find a middle ground between his early life based on prosperity, and his years of extreme poverty, and share it with others so that he brought those who are in poverty can rise above it, and those who are extremely wealthy can see that even the humblest and poorest of people has something to offer.