SEEDS OF GREED
by
Hossca Harrison
It is easy to point out greed in a capitalistic society. However, all other forms of government find it easy to point out greed in their social structure. If greed is a moral concept, which many claim it is, then is it not to understand all moral concepts of belief change from one age to another age, or one society to another society. Does morality come from emotional values? One can state morality comes from God or religious values. Morality from the God you worship, religious values, or emotional values have shown to change over time. One can look at the moral values in the Old Testament, where the law commanded parents to kill their children, husbands to kill their wives for breaking their laws on morality, or tribes were commanded to kill other tribes. How has this changed at least in the western world? Traditional morality changes from one age to another age, laws on morality change from one age to another age. Socrates once stated, “When one attempts to place morality based on emotional values, then it can be nothing but a mere illusion.” Just what is morality? If one wants to understand the seeds of greed then do they need to understand morality?
In this age, it is very easy to place a moral judgment on a Wall Street executive paid an eighty to one hundred million-dollar bonus because he ended the jobs of tens of thousands and placed them on unemployment, but he made money for his stockholders. In this age, it is very easy to look at leaders in Europe who accepted bribes and achieved great wealth as their countries fell into a morass of debt, lowering the quality of living for millions.
Look at the middle class in America, Europe, Mexico, Australia, Japan and China, how does greed enter their lives? When it is announced a natural disaster is about to occur, within hours what occurs at the grocery stores or gas stations? Has morality, even the simple act of being courteous gone out the window for the sake of survival? Look at the poorest of the poor, in places such as Haiti, Republic of the Congo, and The Solomon Islands, does greed exist among the dying, the destitute? If the opportunity presented itself would a poor man or woman hoard food and medicine, for his or her family, even if it meant others in the community went without and perhaps died?
The point being, if the elite, powerful, wealthy, middle class, and poor, all carry greed does greed need to be looked at from a different perspective? If greed exists in all social economic and political levels, perhaps greed needs to be examined from the perspective of nature. Does greed have a purpose? Is greed good or bad, why does greed exist?
One day many years ago, I took my grandchildren to the zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado. On our visit, we walked into the building to view the gorillas. Soon after we arrived, they placed vegetables out for them to eat. It started to rain and I noticed the largest gorilla collected all the vegetables, more than he could hold, and walked into a shelter. Other gorillas attempted to take the vegetables from the large one, but were slapped when they tried. It was obvious this gorilla had the size and power to take what he wanted, he did not seem to care if the other gorillas liked it or not. He had his food. As we watched him in the shelter, he sat and ate feeling very content. When he stopped eating, the other gorillas approached him for the vegetables and again they were slapped. He had the power and he used it. Was this greed? If it was greed, the large gorilla certainly did not attempt to hide it or care what the other gorillas thought of him.
Are animals greedy? Is this greed, accepted as normal? I recently watched a DVD series, that I highly recommend, titled Planet Earth by BBC. If you watch this with the thought of looking for greed in the animal kingdom, you will find it many times. What about looking at the plant kingdom, does it have greed?
I once owned a piece of property that had a beautiful blue spruce on it. One spring I noticed it was not looking well. I ask the forest service to come look at it and advice me of the problem, as this tree had certainly been there for over a hundred years. As soon as they drove up, they said your problem has to do with all the aspens surrounding this tree. They are blocking the sun light and absorbing the limited water supply. The aspen will kill your blue spruce if you do not remove them. Soon the aspens became fire wood. Was it greed on the part of the aspens to take water and sun light to the extent they were killing the blue spruce? There was plenty of space in the meadow for the aspen to thrive and not interfere with the blue spruce. I do understand most would not look at this and state, “Greed is occurring.”
We as humans have a strong tendency to look at ourselves, and place value judgments on each other. I am not stating this is right or wrong, I am simply stating that is where our social focus resides.
Throughout nature, you see greed. The strongest of the species survive. Why? Is this built into nature, is it also built into humans?
Many years ago, I was walking with my Chinese teacher. As he would often do on our walks, he shared a story with me. Many of these stories came from ones he called, the “Ancients.” This particular story was about a land and the beginning of humans. Many ancient cultures have a very similar story. Some call this story Adam and Eve, but this story is not exclusive to the book of Genesis. This story comes from over forty different cultures such as Islamic, East Indian, Norse, Aboriginal, Hopi, Lakota, Babylonian, Chinese, Hawaiian, and many African tribes. Many of these stories predate the story of Adam and Eve in the bible. With so many similar stories there appears to be a root truth hidden within them. As my teacher began telling me the story by the “Ancients”, I could see many similarities between the Christian version and other versions I had studied over the years. According to the “Ancients”, the Garden of Eden was not a particular location on earth. It was a higher dimension; some call it the fourth dimension. Adam and Eve were not a single couple, but rather a race of people. This race of people lived in total harmony with the earth. The earth was in balance. Earth shifts such as earthquakes, tidal waves, floods, volcanoes, hurricanes, and tornados did not exist. Violence did not exist among this race of people. Murder did not exist. Child abuse and disease of any kind did not exist. Their form of government was self-government. They did not need a government to make people behave, nor to protect them from hostile people. There were no temperature extremes throughout the earth. Light, was significantly filtered by the extraordinary moisture in the stratosphere. Harmful radiation from the sun did not exist. (I plan to devote one chapter, in my book I am writing “Walking with a Master” to share the rest of this description in detail).
Paradise, where did it go? Humanity has written much in their ancient text about paradise. Most religions speak about paradise. This paradise spoken by the “Ancients” has nothing to do with religion or salvation. Certainly, the question I had after hearing of this place in history; why would we choose to live in a continually evolving world instead of an evolved world? Why would we choose to live in the midst of disease, humans crawling over each other trying to survive? Certainly, questions I had about this story by the “Ancients.” His answers helped me to understand the seeds of greed.
The story continued to describe the place we currently live, as the third dimension of earth; a dimension of evolution, of evolving plant life, animal species, insect species, and certainly the many different species of viruses, all evolving. My teacher would often state, “All life has an inherent desire to evolve to a higher consciousness. When that inherent desire is suppressed, it lowers one’s vibration, consciousness.”
Look at this in nature, first example the plant kingdom. Say there was a perfect flower garden and for some reason the flower garden lowered its vibration, lack of care, lack of water, lack of sunlight, whatever it might be. What if a vibrationally lower plant attempts to take over, such as an invasive noxious weed, soon the beautiful garden is gone and in its place is a strong noxious weed patch. In the second example, the animal kingdom where some mature animals eat the young of their own species, sometimes their own immediate offspring. An example is the chimpanzees. Groups of adult males will sometimes attack and eat their own infants. Certainly, they eat monkeys. Some state this is a means of clearing out the weak from their troops, or a male chimpanzee establishing their power base among the troop. Evolution? Survival? Animalistic nature of greed? Does this greed promote the survival of the fittest, the survival of the most powerful in order to survive the severity of nature?
Do humans carry an animalistic nature of survival? Look at Google, it has over 77 million sites on survival. Look at the social beliefs of spirituality. How many seek survival, from either the rapture, Christ returning, promised seven virgins, or perhaps even a space ship? If one is going to live under the consciousness of survival, they will need greed to survive. It reminds me of the movie 2012 where the powerful and wealthy used greed to survive. At the conclusion of the movie, it gave the appearance of a new society, a new unpopulated land. Were the powerful and wealthy going to be the teachers of the new society?
Does survival mentality use greed to survive? By looking at the examples of nature, I would say yes. However, the more important question I would have, does one need a survival mentality of greed to live a life of joy, peace, and universal tranquility?
My teacher taught me a game to teach others called, “What If Game.” In this game, you temporarily release absolute beliefs and allow your mind to explore the possibilities. In this game; what if the story of the “Ancients” is correct? What if humans, had lived in a fourth dimension of total balance, peace, love, and tranquility? What if the fall, as recorded in many ancient cultures existed? What if humans fell, or lowered their vibration to that of an animalistic vibration? Moreover, in order to survive they took on the energy of greed. Is the seeking of salvation a form of survival? Is the seeking of a savior a form of survival? What possibilities can the mind explore while the defenses of absolute beliefs are on hold? Morality; can ones with animalistic nature of greed decide morality for one who carries not an animalistic nature? Is morality from an animalistic nature of greed an illusion? I cannot teach you anything, I can only encourage you to think beyond your box of absolute beliefs.
My teacher once told me, “The need for survival, greed is only needed for those who have no plan to journey home”…Hossca