Launching the new website

[Dear blog followers, we are now almost ready to move the domain to the new website. When this happens, I request your attention to re-register with your email at www.economiasagrada.com so that you can continue to be an important part of this vision.]

A piece of a talk on Holistic Economics

PHOTOS AND RAGE

This is a healthy and indispensable release of anger. Pure sacred economics, a gift. I allow myself the clumsiness, the foolishness of my rage, that boils from my entrails desiring to destroy and opening space for the new. Many motives for rage: all one.

As you might know, we are working intensively on the new website, together with my very dear brother Joe from Mighty by Design. One thing has come up, and that is that until now I have used in my blog photos that I have taken freely from the web, mostly without explicit permission from the photographers. As I write this I am insisting on getting the permission of the brilliant Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado. Not only do his photographs captivate me, but I also feel that they communicate powerfully and authentically with the views I intend to share. Well, anyway.

On the new website I will stop using all photos that I do not have permission to use, out of respect. An apology if anyone might be offended. It's about my radical way of feeling free. 

But first let me make this strong claim: I disagree with the narrative behind this ethics in the use of photographs.

First of all, who is the owner of a beautiful photograph of a flower, the photographer or the flower? Who should I ask for permission from, then, the photographer or the flower? As the immense Atahualpa Yupanqui used to say, "thank you for celebrating my songs, but it's not me who puts the beauty of my song, it's the mountains, the horse, the earth and the tree. I just sing it" (something like that, I don't remember his exact words, anyone who can help me correct this quote?).

Charles Eisenstein talks at length about this in his book Sacred Economics. In short, our obsession with putting private property into everything started with the land (there was someone who at one time simply usurped it), went on with water, and continued with culture. And so on, with every bit of the gift of life. Where before everything was in the gratuitousness or in the natural reciprocity of life, the colonizing idea of ownership appeared. This notion has beautiful and healthy aspects too, such as the right to intimacy, but at the same time it deserves to be urgently questioned.

A special mention to all my friends, artists, musicians, photographers, etc., who are mostly treated without respect by the conventional system and who rarely manage to live abundantly as a result of their work (except for the famous whom by definition are always few).

What I am expressing may be unacceptable to all of them. I am with you in your legitimate claim for dignity! Only that the solution you need and which is urgent for the beauty and health of life does not require stricter control of your property rights. It's more radical.

An example that reflects this situation: the owner of a restaurant that has just opened, and asks a musician friend to come and play for free so that he can make himself known to the public. The musician answers: why don't you bring the food from your restaurant for free to my concert, so you can make your food known?

The musician, the artist, is always asked to do his/her job for less money or for free, isn't it true? Why don't we do the same with the restaurant or the carpenter? Believe me, I too am tired and angry that my work in economía sagrada is not valued properly. And I want to get it off my chest: HOW UNFAIR! 

In the conventional paradigm, we look for the culprit and blame him. In this sincere expression I do the same, how unfair that so many people buy the system as it is, and do not question these profound and unacceptable things. To understand what I am saying is to understand fundamentally this phrase of Krishnamurti: "It is not a measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society". (And of course, I will not forget to come back to the truth I know: there is no one, nothing to blame).

What I do in my job is zero appropriable. Coming to a sacred economy workshop has zero impact on a person's future income. Why. Because economia sagrada is not about how best to adapt to a deeply sick system. It's about a sincere relationship with money, with everything that that means from the intimate to the global situation. 

It is about going beyond the mental and cultural schemes that falsely choke the range of the possible.

Who will pay me to write the things I write and who will pay me to live this vision of sacred economics from the inside out? I mean to be paid well, as well as to eat well, dress my kids, go on vacation to the beach, buy a new computer (this one I'm using is very slow - thanks anyway, Mac). Buy a new car! In my rage I would like to shout that NO ONE!! But it's not true. (In fact, I hope I regret having written this very soon hehehe).

Like any expression of anger, however legitimate and healthy it may be, it is never fully true. It is in fact always absurd, clumsy. Supposedly, anger is "inconvenient". 

And yes, I am supported, I have multiple demonstrations of support and I know I will continue to have them (for example, 60 donations and more than $4,000 in the campaign for the new site). As I said at the beginning, this is a healthy, humane expression of relief.

The Consequences of Rage Without Permission (Photo with permission by Daniel Dancer)

How anger for one reason is at once the anger of all reasons. Anger everywhere, all one. How all emotions are woven. Near this anger there is a sadness too, because there are so many people who feel this oppression of the system, even misery... Sadness about friends who have been very close and who are now very far away.... And near sadness there is a fear: once again, what am I going to do this next month when I run out of all the money I have? And close to that fear is honor because I have no choice but to choose the one thing: my heart.

Property rights over land, water and scientific and artistic creations are partly illegitimate. In reality all our creations are the fruit of life itself, influenced by the sea of culture and the gift of life around us, and by the whole history of creations backwards. A creation is really only the last step in a long history of experiences and insights, necessarily collective. Necessarily the gift of life itself. It belongs to no one, and at the same time it belongs to the whole, to everyone.

Do we not want new ideas, new paradigms, new creations to emerge as freely as possible? As a creator I experience it, and my creations have nothing to do with generating income, because as I said, nothing I do can be appropriated. And if I write a book, it would be under Creative Commons, not copyright. That is why I say that I am at the service of a vision that, if I truly understand, I know very well that it does not belong to me. And I suspect Sebastiao Salgado would say the same thing. (I hope he says so).

I am upset that the appropriable is more valued than the unappropriable. The chargeable. The certifiable, for example. For a certified service, you charge well (and the more certificates the more expensive). And what about the loss of the subtle, the intimate, the different, that which doesn't fit into a transaction story? I believe that what is most valuable is usually what is left out.

In this way, I hope, I encounter the creative aspect of anger. I've despised her so much, I've feared her so much. Every time I've had anger in my life I've been terrified that the one most hurt and beaten as a result will be myself. I've been embarrassed. I have felt naked and ridiculous, weak and helpless.

I wonder about the warrior aspect present in all our history as men. In all our love and new age speeches, we talk about peace. Maybe we repress who we are.

I revalue our innate warrior, the nobleman who has been present throughout our history. The disciplined martial arts practitioner in the East. Or the indigenous warrior of America, the warrior of the northern warrior societies where belonging was a spiritual honor. And in the South: the great Leftraru of the Mapuche nation.

My son, who naturally wants to fight over and over again with his sister. And there is one thing I do know with the full certainty of my soul: there is nothing wrong with my son or any child, there is no need to 'educate' him to be a better person or to repair the innate evil in him. 

No more domestication.

I know this is going to get a lot of reaction. Instead of anticipating and speculating on what you are going to think, dear reader, let us express ourselves and reflect.

Anyway, there's one thing I don't want to do: to do something against the will of another human being. For that reason, I'll stop using any photos I don't have permission to use.

Finally, thanks to the talented and visionary photographer-anthropologist Pablo Mardones (AlpacaProducciones) who has given me permission to use his photographs on the new site. I must also mention at least two great photographers who have also supported me with photos, Doris Palma and Mattias Meyes. Sincere gratitude to all. I admire your work, your ability to see.

THE BEGINNINGS

As I am writing this piece, the new website is almost ready. So I want to say something about how much I have been supported from the very beginnings.

It is hard to say when Economia Sagrada started, because in a way it was always part of me even as a child. Definitely an intense journey started when I graduated from Chicago, knowing I had something to share and not knowing how to.

A journey that collapsed into a major personal crisis in the year 2014.

A few very interesting things happened that year. At a certain point through the crisis I made two clear decisions. The kind of decision you make with the complete certainty of your soul. The first one was that me and my family (my son was two years old back then) we would have a car, no matter what. Even though we did not have the money nor a salary to pay for it. The second decision was that I was going to dedicate myself to share this vision of sacred economics. In the moment I actually said I will become a “sacred economist”, but that sounds kind of weird. Anyways.

By the end of that year, we bought a car that we called Centella and I shared my first Workshop in Economia Sagrada.

I want to mention my dear friend Kike Ibarra who really encouraged me to do the first Workshop and even came down from far away to attend it. Even though I had declared with my soul I wanted to do just this, I was extremely scared and for sure I wouldn’t have done it without Kike’s friendly support.

At the first Workshop in Economía Sagrada

I did the second workshop in February 2015, next one in March and I believe another one in May and then I retreated in my doubts and search for several months. In November of 2015 I was so desperate in anguish that I reached for my auntie Jeannie Kerrigan. I simply asked her to pray for me.

Two days later, I woke up and wrote down the Introduction to Economia Sagrada essay in Spanish in a matter of hours, feeling completely inspired, spontaneous, truthful and passionate.

An essay that became a cornerstone and has traveled the web extensively.

'LOOM' INTEGRATION WORKSHOP

This workshop is intended for groups and individuals who feel the need to be accompanied in their collective or individual process, be it looms, flowers of abundance or fractals. Rooted in the vision of sacred economics (see post About the Flower of Abundance for my view on these schemes), I facilitate a comprehensive, intimate treatment of the circumstances in which the group of participating people is situated.

The aspirations, dilemmas and economic crossroads are not separate but intensely linked to our hearts, emotions, dreams, traumas or pains, and the talents and gifts of every human being. That is why the main goal of the workshop is integration. Integration of the experience. Integration of all it means for a human being.

The Workshop is based on the following 5 fundamental principles:

1.     Confidentiality.

2.     The human being is completely wonderful and does not need to improve him/herself. Nobody has done anything wrong.

3.     Life is completely wonderful and we don't need to improve it.

4.     Therefore, whatever experience the group has had so far, it is completely wonderful and does not need to be improved. That is, to look lovingly, without judgment. (It does not exclude the fact that decisions may eventually be taken to resolve crossroads).

5.     The conclusions of the workshop process emerge from the participants (each human being has his or her own divine center, his or her own inner guidance). The task of the workshop facilitator is not to find conclusions or make decisions, but to accompany and facilitate so that those conclusions or decisions may emerge from each person, and collectively.

The process consists of 3 fundamental parts: (1) integration of the lived experience, (2) diagnosis of the current state, and (3) conclusions.

In the online version of this workshop (which can also be face-to-face), we use whatsapp and zoom conferences as a methodology. The online workshop lasts about one week. The face-to-face workshop takes two days.

If you are interested contact me at felipe.mardones4@gmail.com

This Workshop methodology, while designed for 'Looms' of Abundance, is open to any economic dilemma faced by a human group.

ABOUT THE FLOWER OF ABUNDANCE

(originally posted in Spanish March 15th, 2016)

Lately several friends and many people have asked me about the "Flower of Abundance" (just one of the names these schemes have), and how it relates to the vision of sacred economics. This system whose purpose is to generate abundance has been becoming very popular, in Mexico and elsewhere, in different versions (just google it).

First of all I would like to express my heartfelt support for all the people who are participating (support for the people not the scheme). I hope that everyone will be able to achieve their dreams and have valuable human experiences, friendship, bonding and gratitude along the way.

It is my appreciation that many of these groups (especially the case of women participating in ‘Telares’) have a sincere focus of awareness. Where among the members of the group there is an internal and collective work of evolving towards the spirit of the gift, with all it means to be open to giving and receiving.

For those who do not know it I would like to briefly describe the practical part of the Flower (or 'Telares', or 'Fractals') of Abundance. With some variations, it is basically the following. First of all, 8 people come in with a monetary gift of $x each, and there is one person (in the 'center' of the flower) who receives $8x as a gift. These 8 people were invited by 4 others, who in turn were invited by 2 others, who in turn were invited by the person in the center of the flower. There are therefore 4 groups of people: at the centre one person, then a group of 2 people, followed by a group of 4 and finally a group of 8 people. In total 15 people. After the person in the center receives, each person advances to the next group, creating two new flowers where those in the third group each invite two new members so that the new flower center will again receive $8x, $x from each new member. And so on and so forth.

In short, from a practical point of view you give an amount of $x when you enter, and as the process continues you move forward as a group until you are in the center, and at that point you get 8 times the initial amount you put in. There are some minor variants but this is the main process that occurs. In short, it would seem plausible to generate great abundance on the sole condition that more and more people continue to enter. Permanently.

Since many people have asked me and continue to ask about it, I decided to write about it. This is actually a precious opportunity for me to express, once again, the very core of sacred economics: YOU CANNOT DISMANTLE THE MASTER'S HOUSE USING THE MASTER'S TOOLS.

I reiterate my sincere intention that all those who trust and wholeheartedly decide to participate in these systems have very good experiences and build beautiful dreams with the abundance they generate for their lives. There is a very aggressive criticism towards these schemes from the 'establishment', from the conventional world (see google for multiple examples). Obviously the reaction from that world is to look at this system as a scam, where someone is taking advantage of other people's ignorance and naivety. Or simply as a stupidity that 'weak' people choose to believe as they believe in things like Santa Claus.

Without a doubt in my heart, there is no better decision than to believe in the magic of life, and in the possibility of abundance for all. Such is the dream that I dream about with my family, and that I see born every new day with my very own eyes. Also, I have no doubt about the good, honest intentions with which many people have created and participate in these groups. Unfortunately, however, I would like to say that this system presents the same problem as the conventional capitalist system: it is based on unlimited growth, with limited resources. It's based on debt.

Like the conventional economic system, its underlying problem is not that it has bad intentions. It is simply not a problem of intent. As I have argued in other posts (please read post When will we stop the destruction of nature?), even if all businessmen, all politicians, all authorities were honest and well-meaning, the current course of self-destruction of life would not stop. The change that has to happen (and is happening) is much deeper, and has little or nothing to do with human beings "improving" themselves.

It is not a question of using the same means already present only with better goals or better purposes. By using the same engineering mentality, albeit with a high and honest intent, what we end up creating is the same destructive paradigm we already live in. That is why it is so urgent to recreate our ways of thinking, really from nothingness. It is the only way to make room for the birth of a new paradigm. Otherwise nothing new could ever be born.

This system has in itself the problem that it grows so fast that it soon begins to fail, as it becomes more and more difficult for more and more new participants to enter. This means that many people lose their money. Or rather (from the narrative of the gift) they give their share without receiving anything in return. And there is nothing wrong with that if they have chosen it, even if it is unconsciously, from the depths of their being. There is no gift that is actually lost.

There is, however, a greater problem. If it were fully successful, let's say even super well accepted by society, it would be an economic activity that generates enormous pressure for economic growth. Because where can all that money come from if it's not from printing more money. And every printout of money is issued as debt. And all debt can only be paid with greater economic growth. And all economic growth comes from transforming our natural, social, cultural and spiritual heritage into commercial activities (for a more detailed understanding see post Introduction to Sacred Economics). In short, the global success of these systems is only possible with a greater transformation of the beauty of life, the beauty of nature itself, into the ugliness of progress made of cement and pig poop (see In the Rhino, Everything).

It is for this last reason that I cannot in my heart recommend anyone to come in and participate. At the same time, though, I really wish them every success. I do not feel 'against' these systems because I feel somehow present in them the spirit of the gift, the desire of the human soul to build a new world of abundance and generosity.

This is almost a worldwide movement. It is happening for a reason. It is definitely energy in motion, of a feminine kind. And energy in motion always leads somewhere valuable, yet not necessarily what we might expect or anticipate.

I think that the abundance of life already IS, there is no need to desire it. Desiring it often comes with a burden of attachment, even if it is well intentioned.

You cannot dismantle the system using the same tools with which the system was built. One cannot by-pass the capitalist system of greed and accumulation, building an engineering system with improved intentions, using the same brain circuits for it. As much as such a system carries a sincere intention to give, to give and to receive, it has an engineering, a mindset of condition: one gives $x, and then receives $8x. That's just the way it is. A real gift, on the other hand, is free of all conditions. The abundance of life, the generosity of the spirit of life is totally unconditional. A lemon tree will never make a calculation of what it will receive in return for its multiplicity of lemons it gives away. This is not a call to be "better people", generous as lemons. The call is to be what already IS.

How does the Flower of the Abundance of Life look like, not the engineering one, but the one that already IS and has always been? The Flower of Life that is absolutely absent from our civilization, from our economic system, from our culture of separation; and that although it is present in our intentions, it cannot be recreated from our present mentality. The only way to recreate something new is with new means. Not the familiar ones. Where is that space for the new? That new which is at once so old. Where is that space for the unknown?

I think the simple question "how do we generate abundance for our lives?" is part of the problem. It is a question with desire, with expectation. How do we share in the abundance that already is, which comes 'from factory' with the unstoppable spirit of life?

In its engineering design, the Flower of Abundance is a quite masculine system, based on the linear and logical intelligence typical of the masculine mind (see post Human Reason). The Flower of Life on the other hand is feminine, mysterious, unconditional, free, elusive because no one can control it, delicate and yet stronger than the ocean.

At the end of this writing, I wonder if what I say could break the noble and sincere hopes of any friend or human being. But the deep feeling of hope, of trust in life, is untouchable, unbreakable. Where there is a flower of abundance, may it truly be a FLOWER OF LIFE, may it flourish, may it have live in fullness, and may it die with honor. Thanks to Life for all the flowers.

I leave you an invitation to the Online Workshop on Integration for these groups.

PS: I invite you to read a recent text, subsequent to this one, also on abundance and which touches on other subjects in this regard, such as the very notion of abundance: "THE AMAZING LABYRINTHOF ABUNDANCE".