Practical spirituality for a complicated world: The triumph of greed.
Several years ago, I wrote a column titled "The Triumph of Vulgarity." In that column, I discussed some of what I saw as a decline of society in general. Here are some more observations.
As this culture has become more technologically advanced, the spiritual side of life has declined. Many people today don't even acknowledge that spirituality is a worthy goal in life. Ironically, as material life becomes ever more comfortable, people seem cut off from their spirits, their lives and careers played out in isolated splendor. Most people don't seem especially fulfilled with all their material advantage, yet they seem easily bribed by their leaders with promises for more possessions, national glory, and partisan privilege. Why must it be so?
The Hopi of Northern Arizona tell of their ancestors who once lived far to the south, in a warm, wet land, where crops grew easily and trees were laden with fruit year round. Their ancestors, they tell us, built great cities, with magnificent temples, yet despite all their material achievements, disaster overtook them. They became lazy, and neglected their spiritual duties. They had so many material blessings that they forgot to properly acknowledge the Source of those blessings. They grew arrogant, thinking that they, themselves, were responsible for their lives of comfort. They attacked their neighbors, stealing their property. One day, they were attacked by enemies stronger than they were, and the enemies, overnight, destroyed their culture. A small, ragged remnant escaped and fled to the north. They endured great hardships, crossing burning, blistering deserts.
One day, in the vicinity of what are called the Hopi Mesas today, the people came upon a strange looking man. He was sitting beside a great rock, dressed in simple clothes, and was sharpening a stick. They told him that they were wanderers, in exile from their homeland. He told them, "I am Masau. I am poor. All I have is my planting stick and my corn. If you accept my simple way of living, which I shall explain to you, then you may live here with me and I shall share with you what I have." The Hopi tell us that Spirit brought them to a dry land where life would be hard, so that they would always remember that they are dependent upon the Creator for life. Thereafter, their spiritual obligations took precedent over anything else. They developed a yearly cycle of what must be one of the most complex, esoteric, and magnificent spiritualities ever to grace the planet. At least, that's how much of Hopi life used to be before the missionaries came. The Hopi remind us that too much material comfort can be a danger to spiritual life. Why? Because part of human nature is to be arrogant, and to be greedy.
Look around our own community here in Santa Fe. Even though they may grumble in their jealousy, most people in modest circumstances secretly admire the developers and newcomers who live lavish lifestyles in palaces. Greed is the only word to describe how many people in this community live. Some are greedier than others, but it's not a difference in kind, but merely of degree. They want bigger, ever bigger, and more, more, more of it. They scrape the land bare, and build, and pave over, heedless of the consequences. The economy has to grow, money has to be made, and it doesn't matter to them that there is not enough water, that they are unnecessarily killing plants and animals, and raping the planet. Build more stores, more roads, bring in more people, and crowd them in, pack them in closer, like tinned sardines, in soulless developments with pleasant sounding Spanish names, which they can't pronounce, because the economy has to keep growing. They need to make more money, to buy more things, to have a second, third or fourth home. When the developers finish raping Santa Fe, like they raped Southern California, they'll move on, perhaps to Montana or Wyoming, and we'll be left to deal with the pollution, the crowding, the traffic jams, and the sprawl…and the drought. What will you do when there is no more water? When there are food shortages, and fuel is unobtainable, what will you do then? Where will you go for help? This is the future that your children will inherit. Why must it be so? It will be so because greedy people never know when enough is enough. They see spirituality as a weakness, not as a strength. Their greed is a form of madness, of pure insanity. Like the ancient, ancestral Hopi of the Cities of the South, modern people seem to be unable to live in spiritual balance and harmony in the midst of material comfort and abundance.
And yet, even today, there is a remnant. There are a few people who seek first the things of Spirit. Usually, they are seen as weaklings, misfits and wackos. They don't seem to fit in with the "normal" folk of early 21st century America, however these fringe dwellers recognize that what passes for normal is actually insane. The fringe dwellers look at religion, and see political oppression and control cloaked in a spiritual vocabulary. The remnant look around, yearning for community, for support, yet rarely finding it. The remnant wanders through the desolation of this culture, looking for a place to call their own, intuitively realizing that they can't settle too comfortably, too long, in the midst of so much disharmony. Some of the remnant is beginning to realize that the journey is the adventure, the journey through the desert is, itself, the prize. There does seem to be an element of loneliness on this journey of discovery, and this tells me that there is, most probably, something important to be learned from loneliness.
If you have rejected greed as a value, know that it is a good decision you've made. There is much to be gained from a simple life, as independent from this insane system, as possible. If you can tell when enough is enough, please know that this is a good thing. If most mainstream, normal people think you're weird, that's probably a very good thing, indeed. Is there perhaps a reason the remnant is called to stand apart from the crowd? Sometimes, the questions we ask are more important than the answers we seek.
Before you get too excited or too upset about this column today, keep in mind that it was written by a Santa Fe New-Age wacko. Take it with a grain of salt.
OM Shanti OM
To ask Robert a question, visit his Web site, RobertOdom.com, e-mail him at desertrj@msn.com , or write him at PO Box 33, Santa Fe, NM 87504.