Editor: Crass Cash
'Impermanent are all component things, They arise and cease, that is their nature: They come into being and pass away, Release from them is bliss supreme.'
Note the contrast on how people of the world have seen "ownership". The world is now dominated with the European term for ownership of land which is entitlement that one receives after buying or inheriting it from somebody else. This is a myth though and I'll explain why.
This would have seemed awfully strange to an African hundreds of years ago though. They had no sense of ownership when it came to land, since everything was "owned" by the king. So how did they perceive ownership? They did it not in land, but in people. A person's wealth could be determined by how many people he owned, which many times was from conquering another group of people. How do you think the Atlantic slave trade flourished?
Now see the stark contrasts with the tenants of Buddhism where there is nothing but impermanence and you really own nothing. This actually jives more with our modern understanding of ownership in that whether you think you own something or not the govt actually owns it. How can this be? Taxes my friend, taxes! If you don't pay your taxes the govt will relieve you of your ownership. Don't pay your property tax? Guess who will auction your house? Don't want to pay your business taxes? Guess who will seize your assets? When the govt has a right to take your assets if you don't give them money, guess what? All your doing is renting those assets from them, you don't own them. Think of it as a lease. Don't fool yourself...
This can be both discouraging or it can be liberating, it's all how you want to frame it. Think in terms of cash flow instead of assets. Break away from the assets and think about how much money you can cash flow from somebody else's assets. This is liberating!
To most anybody the thought of owning anybody else is deplorable. The thought of owning land to a communism is inexcusable. The thought of owning anything to a Buddhist is ridiculous.
So how do you reconcile all of these different beliefs? Cash flow! Make cash, "own" nothing. It took me a while to wrap my head around this, but the book Rich Dad Poor Dad helps.
Note the contrast on how people of the world have seen "ownership". The world is now dominated with the European term for ownership of land which is entitlement that one receives after buying or inheriting it from somebody else. This is a myth though and I'll explain why.
This would have seemed awfully strange to an African hundreds of years ago though. They had no sense of ownership when it came to land, since everything was "owned" by the king. So how did they perceive ownership? They did it not in land, but in people. A person's wealth could be determined by how many people he owned, which many times was from conquering another group of people. How do you think the Atlantic slave trade flourished?
Now see the stark contrasts with the tenants of Buddhism where there is nothing but impermanence and you really own nothing. This actually jives more with our modern understanding of ownership in that whether you think you own something or not the govt actually owns it. How can this be? Taxes my friend, taxes! If you don't pay your taxes the govt will relieve you of your ownership. Don't pay your property tax? Guess who will auction your house? Don't want to pay your business taxes? Guess who will seize your assets? When the govt has a right to take your assets if you don't give them money, guess what? All your doing is renting those assets from them, you don't own them. Think of it as a lease. Don't fool yourself...
This can be both discouraging or it can be liberating, it's all how you want to frame it. Think in terms of cash flow instead of assets. Break away from the assets and think about how much money you can cash flow from somebody else's assets. This is liberating!
To most anybody the thought of owning anybody else is deplorable. The thought of owning land to a communism is inexcusable. The thought of owning anything to a Buddhist is ridiculous.
So how do you reconcile all of these different beliefs? Cash flow! Make cash, "own" nothing. It took me a while to wrap my head around this, but the book Rich Dad Poor Dad helps.
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