Today, I’m discussing the interesting topic of the essence of money. Let me first put it out there that in University, I studied business with a concentration on Finance. Since those days I’ve been intrigued by the source of money and what money meant. I even posed such controvertial questions to my professors. In my free time, I delved outside the curriculum to study money, the gold standard and that whole lot.
It occured to me only recently something that I found very enlightening and this came about after I was thinking about my whole “Life Coach” business and given the fact that I want to reach as many people as I can. Thus, I didn’t want money to be an obstacle for my clients in getting the support and guidance that they need. So I came up with different strategies for coaching people and recieving compensation for it somehow. One of the strategies/structures that I formulated was to have free coaching sessions that are run by donation basis. So you can think of it as being free for you and paying it forward (through a donation) so that other people can have a free session as well; and hopefully they, too, will pay it forward with their donation so others can get their free sessions! This way I can help as many people as possible without any financial constraints for me, nor money being an obstacle for some people to get my help.
I learned this concept from a buddhist retreat centre called vippassana which has centres all over the world. There, you are offered a room with a bed to sleep in, food and a teacher to meditate with and get guidance from. This is all offered for free! Only after you are done with the course (10 days) do they ask you to donate if you found it helpful for yourself and out of the kindness of your heart, and through your donation, they will be able to extend this opportunity to others.
This concept is seen elsewhere as well, mostly in religious organizations. For example, you attend church and it’s free. They do, however, ask for your donation. And that is how the church runs, their financial resources are peoples donations. This is the same with temples, mosques and other religious centres. This concept seems to work in our society, where organizations operate based on the kindness of others. So why can’t it be like that for everything in life?
Why can’t you “buy” everything that you want and only pay what you can? Pay only a portion of your income? Some people will make big donations because they are more financially privilidged and that will compensate for those making smaller donations!
Then, we may realise, that beggining to do things this way will lead us into a money-free society. What would there be a reason to have money? Whether it’s a camera or a car or a television or a smartphone or a computer.
Why is there a cost to anything/everything?
Why does a lawyer charge money? Why does an accountant charge money? Why do doctors charge money? When it’s a service based business, and theres nothing solid to pay for, like a car or a smartphone, why would there be a cost to services? Why does a doctor charge money? He’s just there and helping people out. He doesn’t have costs. If the office costs him something then he can do home cisits. But even a doctor that does home visits charges money (and even more money at that!).
This is when I thought deeper into this and figured out that everything is essentially free of cost. Even talking about furniture, gold, or anything for that matter, has no cost to it. Gold, for instance, is something that is readily and freely made available by nature. It is a substance that is available on Earth. You just find it and you have it. Theres no cost to it. Even the cost of extracting/mining it and the machinery is null. All the components of a machine like steel and rubber are derived from natures natural elements; so theres no cost to that either. So the cost is in labour…? So what is labour cost? What is the essence of it? Well, we then come to the conclusion that we have heard before. We are all “trading time for money”.
All it takes to have anything is people coming together to build or put things together. And they/we are all trading time for money. So all these things we have discussed such as gold, telephones, cars etc. are all things that are made by putting together things that are found in nature that cost nothing to obtain. Nature doesn’t ask for money. However, people are asking for money to give you what they have obtained/manufactured/put together because it all takes time. So, we know, that people also work their jobs putting in their time for money. And at the end of the day, everybody is trading their time for money. Objects/products/services have no intrinsic financial value.
My vision is to have a money-free society. Where everything you desire is provided for free. Everybody is doing what they are doing for the pleasure of being involved in projects and such. There would be no exploitation of nature nor of human labour or time thus people are relaxed whilsnt not having to slave for the sake of keeping a roof over their heads or being able to have food etc. Some people like to invent things, some people like to build things, some people like to grow food etc. everybody likes to do one thing or the other. And if we are given the freedom to do whatever it is we enjoy doing we would be living in an exceptional society.
People experience this sort of thing all the time and don’t realize it. Like when you are invited to lunch or dinner at a family or friends house. You are provided with food for free and the hosts cook and have you with pure enjoyment and joy. You cook for people you love, and its pleasing. When you are doing it for the people you love, you are not asking for financial remuneration for the food that you just offered! Not the dishes nor anything! It’s a labour of love that you have company and you are hosting and you are doing all these nice things for them because you love them. And when you extend that service towards the community at large and there is love that extends farther than the confines of what we have now, then we are doing things for each other and giving each other gifts and that sort of thing (not just what we do for our friends and family for Christmas).
There is no need to collect money in your savings account for security and hoard it until retirement and that sort of thing. You wouldn’t need this excess or working so much to save up money, like the situation we are in is actually completely crazy. We don’t need to do all this.
We might continue with “business as usual” for now, however, let us set the intention for a greater future where we collaborate and come and work together to have a dream reality. To live in perfection having everything we want and having the freedom to do what we want whilst annihilating slavery for good.
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