Is money the root of all evil

[joyfirst]

If evil exists or has roots, then those roots are insecurities and fears, and lack of love. Love to money or to anything else is good.

[Tom Howard]

Originally Posted by joyfirst

If evil exists or has roots, then those roots are insecurities and fears, and lack of love. Love to money or to anything else is good.

Well said.

[Busby]

Originally Posted by joyfirst

If evil exists or has roots, then those roots are insecurities and fears, and lack of love. Love to money or to anything else is good.

At last we have clarity. I myself love to trip old people up when I'm in the supermarket - I can stop worrying about it now.

Money is just a buffer between your labours and the things you want to have. Your labours are converted into tokens which you can spend as you like.
It has to be a lot simpler than, say, you need some object so you negotiate directly with the maker of the object that you'll commit so much work for it;
or that you'll swap two chickens and a camel for this new i-something.

It's also a means of evaluation. That's all. People often think their labours are worth "so much" and that's where the evil may lie - wanting more than your "worth" in the economy.

Plus there's capitalism in which the profits of labour are reaped by beneficiaries who rest on the needs of others. Globalism has brought out a real evil in that. People are no longer people. They're just commodities.

...

[Busby]

Originally Posted by Lorelyen

Money is just a buffer between your labours and the things you want to have. Your labours are converted into tokens which you can spend as you like.
It has to be a lot simpler than, say, you need some object so you negotiate directly with the maker of the object that you'll commit so much work for it;
or that you'll swap two chickens and a camel for this new i-something.

It's also a means of evaluation. That's all. People often think their labours are worth "so much" and that's where the evil may lie - wanting more than your "worth" in the economy.

Plus there's capitalism in which the profits of labour are reaped by beneficiaries who rest on the needs of others. Globalism has brought out a real evil in that. People are no longer people. They're just commodities.

...

You are making it too easy. In addition, if I may say so, you are from a country where consumerism is God, where values have been lost in a race for quick profit - see the UK housing market - the best example of cut-throat competition there is. People are willing to pay millions for a load of old bricks just to sell it again at a higher price than paid.
Before Christian missionaries got their noses into the African's business there was a blooming self-help and non-selfish society on the African continent. Tribal groups existed without any form of money, sharing their hunting, farming and fishing spoils (also of war) with their village people, old and young. Everyone was looked after. In a community where everyone is dependent upon his neighbour no money tokens are needed. Other loving cultures existed of which we today still know. In north America, 'Red Indians' - eradicated by gunpowder. In the Pacific folk groups - eradiated by diseased western 'culture'. Eskimo tribes, turned into nature destructors by empty promises, Australian Aboringines fed alcohol. Tibet strangled by the Chinese. - and so on.
We, the 'civilised', have changed that, the bigger the car, the house, the bank balance, the better person you are. The more money you can squeeze out of your bum the more you will be looked upon as a success.
We have forgotten a lot, Marx tried to warn us but his ideology was turned into a political calamity.
We need to get back to real values, the first one is to help each other, espacially those who can't help themselves. The second is to stop looking in the mirror to see if our arses aren't too big and concentrate on life and its challenges so we can fight together. The third is to get teachers, politicians and leaders who have a vision to spread of how it could be if we did away with superstition, old wives' tales and got out of our cosy chairs to have a look at nature - personally.
The love of money is nothing more than greed. The billions of £s/$s/Euros lying in banks in the Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Caymans, Hong Kong, Monaco, London and so on, would solve the problem of the world's poverty but poor people do smell so.

Originally Posted by Busby

You are making it too easy.

Well, it's hard to make it more complicated than that.

In addition, if I may say so, you are from a country where consumerism is God, where values have been lost in a race for quick profit - see the UK housing market - the best example of cut-throat competition there is. People are willing to pay millions for a load of old bricks just to sell it again at a higher price than paid.

It's true (about consumerism is god and most people are really puppets of it. (I'm as guilty but not as a puppet)).
But that isn't to do with money itself. It's evil for sure but that's the people behind it. To me, it really is the devil doing his work well on the planet.

Before Christian missionaries got their noses into the African's business there was a blooming self-help and non-selfish society on the African continent. Tribal groups existed without any form of money, sharing their hunting, farming and fishing spoils (also of war) with their village people, old and young. Everyone was looked after. In a community where everyone is dependent upon his neighbour no money tokens are needed. Other loving cultures existed of which we today still know. In north America, 'Red Indians' - eradicated by gunpowder. In the Pacific folk groups - eradiated by diseased western 'culture'. Eskimo tribes, turned into nature destructors by empty promises, Australian Aboringines fed alcohol. Tibet strangled by the Chinese. - and so on.
We, the 'civilised', have changed that, the bigger the car, the house, the bank balance, the better person you are. The more money you can squeeze out of your bum the more you will be looked upon as a success.

Again true which is a consequence of politics as much as money, a topic we can't discuss here.
We can blame the Romans who made real inroads with money. It was them who saw the use for a medium than buffered earning and spending.
We've inherited so much of Rome, even to having a basis in "Roman law".

Interesting, though, that you raise a metaphor first considered by Freud: the relationship between money and faecal matter.
Phrases like "rolling in it" being "as tight as a duck's backside" and "stinking rich" illustrate this.

We need to get back to real values, the first one is to help each other, espacially those who can't help themselves. The second is to stop looking in the mirror to see if our arses aren't too big and concentrate on life and its challenges so we can fight together. The third is to get teachers, politicians and leaders who have a vision to spread of how it could be if we did away with superstition, old wives' tales and got out of our cosy chairs to have a look at nature - personally.

Umm...well, you've thrown a cloud at me!!!
Firstly, what's wrong with old wives' tales? Too often they contain some of the wisdoms of societies.

Secondly, what would be achieved by getting rid of superstition? Much daily ritual that makes a society
what it is (or what's left of it) is based, or has been derived from it.

Thirdly, you're asking to reverse globalism and business and its financial conduits - a big ask. Now who's making it too simple?
Again I have to be careful what I say here but the good side is that the world is teetering on the edge of economic and financial collapse.
(You only need look at the spread of negative interest base rates to spot that!)
Where the uprising will start can only be conjected. Unfortunately it'll mean war.
The good side is that people will be able to start again if they have the will.
While there are those ready to profit from disaster there may be no profit to make so we stand a chance.
So I think you're looking at that to create your reversals.

Of course we can help each other. Many of us do, now. But that won't get rid of a need to isolate what we earn from what we spend it on.

The love of money is nothing more than greed. The billions of £s/$s/Euros lying in banks in the Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Caymans, Hong Kong, Monaco, London and so on, would solve the problem of the world's poverty but poor people do smell so.

Would solve poverty? Very Agenda 21 but I don't know if it would solve poverty. Ask yourself how well recipient countries have dealt with poverty with the cash handouts of foreign aid. The UK has handed out many billions of £s but.....

An interesting topic, all the same.
....

[Dustin]

Originally Posted by Tom Howard

http://spiritualityquest.org/is-money-evil?

I liked your take on it.
As far as the rest of the tread there's a lot to sort though so all just add in my take which I thought was a bit similar to some of the things posted.

To exist in a physical body requires all the basic needs, food shelter..., if we existed without physical bodies in the astral or causal plains our needs would be less and would require less if anything. Money is just an exchange for work; there is a basic amount of work required to sustain everyone; technology can help to reduced the required work but it may also just be used to elevate an individual instead. In a society there are differing values placed on different types of work and so people make different amounts. The only issue with having differing incomes is when a system is set in such a way that the poor become stuck, can not more freely economically, and when the basic needs of some people are taken so that others can make more. Money is not evil but in the world of today it is one of the roots of all evil because like a system of roots you can trace most less desirable actions to either the need of money to survive or the desire to have money (greed). The evil part is not the money or the individual but is a symptom of our placement in the universe. We are where we are, on Earth, because of who we are, our karma. Earth travels in an equinoctial cycle, our sun and its dual orbit around an empty space, when Earth is closer to the center of the galaxy energy is more abundant. We wont be at the most energy abundant point in the cycle for around 10,000 more years. We are energetic beings, besides our physical bodies we have seven other layers of energetic form which relate to all things that make us who we are: emotions, thoughts, look, and ability. As a society as a whole the greatest single factor that impacts us is the energy abundance that surrounds us; as a whole we simple are not yet at a point where we use our capability’s to provide for our needs in a way that would be most beneficial for all. If there is evil its in our karma and the karma of this place which we are free to change, to learn from and to be born to a better place in the next life.

[Busby]

Originally Posted by Lorelyen

Well, it's hard to make it more complicated than that.


It's true (about consumerism is god and most people are really puppets of it. (I'm as guilty but not as a puppet)).
But that isn't to do with money itself. It's evil for sure but that's the people behind it. To me, it really is the devil doing his work well on the planet.



Again true which is a consequence of politics as much as money, a topic we can't discuss here.
We can blame the Romans who made real inroads with money. It was them who saw the use for a medium than buffered earning and spending.
We've inherited so much of Rome, even to having a basis in "Roman law".

Interesting, though, that you raise a metaphor first considered by Freud: the relationship between money and faecal matter.
Phrases like "rolling in it" being "as tight as a duck's backside" and "stinking rich" illustrate this.

Umm...well, you've thrown a cloud at me!!!
Firstly, what's wrong with old wives' tales? Too often they contain some of the wisdoms of societies.

Secondly, what would be achieved by getting rid of superstition? Much daily ritual that makes a society
what it is (or what's left of it) is based, or has been derived from it.

Thirdly, you're asking to reverse globalism and business and its financial conduits - a big ask. Now who's making it too simple?
Again I have to be careful what I say here but the good side is that the world is teetering on the edge of economic and financial collapse.
(You only need look at the spread of negative interest base rates to spot that!)
Where the uprising will start can only be conjected. Unfortunately it'll mean war.
The good side is that people will be able to start again if they have the will.
While there are those ready to profit from disaster there may be no profit to make so we stand a chance.
So I think you're looking at that to create your reversals.

Of course we can help each other. Many of us do, now. But that won't get rid of a need to isolate what we earn from what we spend it on.
Would solve poverty? Very Agenda 21 but I don't know if it would solve poverty. Ask yourself how well recipient countries have dealt with poverty with the cash handouts of foreign aid. The UK has handed out many billions of £s but.....

An interesting topic, all the same.
....

Thanks for your reply Lorelyen, I think you have spotted that I'm a bit of an idealist. This idealism I've been hiding for years, now in my last years I wish I hadn't.
Yes, the world is teetering on the edge - through greed and illusion - the love of money. I don't want the world to slide over the edge because I want my grandchildren to have good lives and by that I don't mean rich lives but fulfilled years.
We do need a shock, as you say. when it comes it'll be from a direction we have never suspected. The collective human sub-conscious will work its evil way.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Busby

The collective human sub-conscious will work its evil way.

That was a surprise...I thought you were going to say the subconscious
will work it's 'happy ending' in the end.
That is my belief...just like Hollywood.

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by Busby

If you are quoting the Bible (Timothy 1/ 6) then you are quoting it wrongly.

It's - The love of money is the root of all evil.

So ponder the question again. There's a difference.

You're right. There's a big difference when the statement is quoted correctly, as you duly noted.

On a related note, Ramakrishna once said: 'Woman and gold' is the cause of bondage. 'Woman and gold' alone constitutes samsara, the world. It is 'woman and gold' that keeps one from seeing God. No sooner is the covering of 'woman and gold' removed than one attains Chidananda, Consciousness and Bliss.

Of course, 'woman and gold' refers to lust and greed.

https://indiaspirituality.blogspot.c...gospel-of.html