High Veneration to the Profit-Motive is the Culprit
GAIA (Mother Earth) is in deep pain and in the verge of falling into the precipice of extinction as the doomsday clock has been set by thousands of concerned climate experts worldwide to just “one minute before midnight,” or end of life on earth. Life on earth will end either through nuclear war or through environmental catastrophe. GAIA is dying because of the anthropogenic (man-made) climate change as that principal disease called “the power of money” has afflicted humanity. This is based on an Oxfam Study that concluded that “high veneration to the profit-motive has already captured the mindset of all governments, all institutions, all universities, the mainstream media and religious groups.” A principal disease can be likened to cancer that is causing so much pain and if not healed, will certainly result to one’s demise. That principal disease has buried humanity to unbridled materialism and consumerism; worse the disease has caused the Homo sapiens to suffer collective insanity, blinded by egotism and imprisoned in the fallacies of life and greed. The power of money is sacrificing civilization for a very few numbers of greedy people to continue making enormous amount of money as the luxuries of the super-rich means the unimaginable sufferings of the billions of people.
The symptoms of the principal disease of the power of money is the increasing gross inequities, social and ecological injustices the massive destruction of the environment, the extinction of billions of species, the non-stop melting of the glaciers, wildfires, increasing number of refugees that will reach some 400 million by 2040, according to the United Nations. If indeed the prediction of climate experts that many islands in the Pacific Ocean will perish as the Ocean’s level will rise by 78 meters in 2080 due to El Nino phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, some 100 million Filipinos will be added to the 400 million refugees. Where will we go? The disease is fast spreading especially in our country through corporate globalization which sees the world as something to be owned and the market driven by profit. The power of money thrives on greed through enclosures of the commons (land and resources) especially here in Mindanao which implies exclusion through violence, i.e., land grabbing of ancestral domain. Instead of culture of abundance, profit-driven corporate globalization creates exclusion, dispossession and scarcity, robbing the people of their rightful share of ecological, cultural, economic and political space. As horribly happening here in Mindanao, the ownership of these powerful corporations means the dispossession of the poor Indigenous Peoples.
Through the power of money, our country has lost its ecological integrity, transforming a tropical country oozing before with million species of flora and fauna only found in an EDEN-like beautiful paradise but now transformed into hell through extraction and exploitation. The loggers had erased from the face of the earth the sacrality of nature, never hearing the pitiful cries of the trees, the birds and all life forms living in the forest ecosystem for thousands, if not millions, of years.
There may be those who may not believe that the power of money has become a principal disease. Perhaps it is their contention that how can one live without money? May I stress the truism that the disease has been caused by our modern way of life, which despite its considerable achievements, is fatally flawed. We are beginning to realize that the way we live now, for all its manifold benefits, not only inhibits human flourishing but threatens the very survival of our species. We have ransacked nature, treating it as a mere resource, because over the last 500 years we have cultivated a worldview that is very different from that of our ancestors. Wake-up humanity because as glaringly declared by concerned environmentalists worldwide, “CLIMATE CHANGE IS NO LONGER AN ALARMING POSSIBILITY, IT HAS BECOME A FEARFUL REALITY.” Thus, it has become imperative to change not only our lifestyle but our whole belief system. We must realize who truly we are, as embodied spirits, more spirit than body having been created in the image and likeness of God. This is a truism that must be the basis of our existence so that the development of the spirit must be the priority rather than be enslaved to the whims and capriciousness of the body. Debunk therefore the object consciousness and leap-up to the formless and space consciousness now being trailblazed by contemporaneous spiritual advocates to know who truly we are – AS CONSCIOUSNESS. Our physical aspect is just transient but as consciousness, we are eternal. We have no life for we are life!
Indeed, we humans are the only species with the power to destroy the earth if we are not healed from that principal disease of the power of money. Yes, if we have the capacity to destroy the earth, so too, do we have the capacity to protect it. To be freed from the power of money, we must first of all, “DENY THYSELF.” That “self” is the biblical pronouncement by Lord Jesus Christ is NEVER our true self as that “little me” is a fictitious one. Such narrative of one’s self is rooted in one’s ego but is the one being collectively followed without let-up that is intensely reigning in the mindset of humanity, now suffering from collective insanity. That egoic self has transformed the Homo sapiens into the most flawed of all of God’s creation, having killed some 200 million human beings in one century alone out of two world wars, the cleansing of dictators like Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao Tse Tung and Stalin, the Vietnam war and the Middle East conflict, among others. Worse, the Homo sapiens have put the earth in a cataclysmic state as the present development paradigm called corporate globalization is sacrificing Mother Earth to the altar of greed and profit because of the power of money. By this truism, we cannot delight in nature any more without knowing that we face the urgent task of saving it from human destruction. Not only have the Homo sapiens failed as stewards of God’s creation but the ones who are killing Her because of the power of money! Jesus came to save us, thus, we must save GAIA.
Christ’s teaching to deny thyself will be the liberating force to leap-up to that realization that the spirit has always been and will always be, primary! Thus, focus on maximizing values not maximizing short-term profit or consumer goods to be unfettered from that principal disease of the power of money. When inner values are maximized, it will certainly dawn upon the Homo sapiens the truism that – IN DEPTH ALL LIFE IS ONE! In that spirit of oneness, we will have a sense of universal responsibility as our central motivation to a new attitude toward sacred nature and appreciating the oneness of humanity in the face of the challenge of global warming is the key to our survival. Then, we will launch a revolution of compassion that will contribute to a compassionate world. A new earth will loom where no one especially a child should starve to death; no innocent children and women should be killed out of social injustices and horrible wars now raging in Ukraine and Gaza, Palestine where in one year period, Israel have already killed some 43,854 Palestinians mostly children and civilians. Indeed, what a broken and crazy world we are living right now because of the power of money. It seems unbelievable that the number one climate change denier and apparently a narcistic leader by the name of Donald Trump who idolizes Hitler has been newly elected as US President. Will he be the one to finally put an end to life on earth through nuclear war or through environmental catastrophe? As a billionaire, he is so afflicted by that principal disease called the power of money and all his supporters are so much contaminated too!
When liberated from the power of money, we can honestly apply to ourselves what is written in the Western Inscription by Zhang Zai: HEAVEN IS MY FATHER AND EARTH IS MY MOTHER AND EVEN SUCH A SMALL CREATURE AS I FINDS AN INTIMATE PLACE IN THEIR MIDST. THEREFORE, THAT WHICH FILLS THE UNIVERSE, I REGARD AS MY BODY. THAT WHICH DIRECTS THE UNIVERSE, I CONSIDER MY NATURE. ALL PEOPLE ARE MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, AND ALL THE THINGS IN NATURE ARE MY COMPANIONS. When deeply internalized, the beautiful blue planet, a mother to us all, will be saved from doom as the sons and daughters of Mother Earth have finally awakened to protect Her from the power of money!
Indeed, darkness can never defeat the light. Radical action is so urgent! Where are the long-awaited light to fight against the darkness of the power of money? Our “inner light” (as described by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount), our soul can help us to become a sunny being to the outside. And we may suddenly sense that the most important thing in life is NOT MONEY BUT ARE, IN FACT, FREE: love, joy and gratitude in ourselves and service to one another. LOVE AND SERVICE (PAGMAMAHALAN AT PAGLILINGKOD) YAN PO ANG TUNAY NA DIWA NG ATING BUHAY, HINDI ANG KAPANGYARIHAN NG PERA! HUWAG NATING HAYAAN NA ANG KAPANGYARIHAN AT KASAKIMAN SA PERA ANG PAPATAY SA MAHAL NATING MUNDO AT SANGKATAWHAN DAHIL HINDI MATATALO NG KADILIMAN ANG LIWANAG. MATATALO LAMANG KONG TAYO PO AY HINDI KIKILOS. PAG ANG MAMAMAYANG PILIPINO AY NAGKAISA UPANG LABANAN ANG KAPANGYARIHAN NG PERA, TAYO PO AY MAGWAWAGI. KUMILOS PO TAYO DAHIL WALANG SINUMAM ANG NABUBUHAY PARA SA SARILI LAMANG. TAYONG LAHAT AY MAY PANANAGUTAN SA ISA’T ISA! THE PEOPLE UNITED CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED! To God be the glory!
