A Journal of Humor and Verbal Anarchy

 
Zen capitalism

"if snow is falling on a bank, you don't say - look, snowflakes are settling on the roof of an institution where rich people put their money so that other rich people can borrow it to make even more money by buying up foreclosed mortgages , leaving other less fortunate people to stand out in the cold snow, selling apples and huddling next to a grate. You say, look how beautiful the snow is, how myriad are the flakes, how precise and unpredictable is the trajectory of each flake." Chungka Thorndike Bass, 11th descendant of the Lama Real Estate Trust.

Everything is ok. It's ok to be rich, to make money. Money is impermanence, transcience, illusion. Just like ice cream. You put ice, cream, sugar, food coloring together, then freeze it again. It becomes Ben & Jerry's. Solidity, cash flow, little trucks trudging through the snow, bringing a high ticket product to yuppies all over the world. It employs teenagers from low income families, making minimum wage, scooping little balls of pistachio mint goodness into $3.75 cones. They can't afford to treat their palsied old grandmothers to a single pint, even if they work 4 hours a day for 48 weeks. But it's ok. Then the ice cream melts, merges, becomes part of Sealtest, General Food, whatever, flows back into the great river of capital. Illusion, impermanence, transcience. It's all goodness. It's ok.

Think of a matrix. In electronics lingo, a matrix is a process in which several signals are combined for transmission or recording and then separated for reception or playback. One signal may be more powerful than the others, more capable of projecting to distant places, reaching as far away as LA or Monte Carlo. Other signals are small, weak, incapable of being transmitted much further than Groton. But they are all contained in the matrix, the womb of life. Some signals go up to the highest peak. They go up to East Hill, where they accumulate the wisdom and technogical smarts to make money, to launch IPO's, build research parks in the beautiful woods. Some signals stay downtown and get night jobs, making or delivering pizzas. But it's ok. Because the pizza dough is goodness, whether you produce it or consume it. It feeds into the matrix. Think of the dharma as a matrix. Nothing is intrinsically bad. Nothing is nothing. Everything is nothing. Be at peace. If you own a $60,000 car, go to an expensive ivy league school, have 75 pairs of dockers in your closet, you should try to happy, If you own a rusted out 1986 Honda with the bumper wired on with a coathanger, you should also try to be happy. It is your lot. Be content with what life serves you because if the sky falls tomorrow like a big blue Denny's pancake, it will fall on the head of the guy with the $60K BMW as well as the head of the guy who has to take the bus now because his bumper finally fell off. Wealth is an illusion. Poverty is an illusion. Don't get worked up because someone has a bigger, more expensive illusion than you. It's ok.

More of the teachings of the Dalai Kidder later. In the next installment, we will ponder the koan of Cohen, as well as the concept of the Buddhist Millionaire, drawing on the example of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, founder of Shambala Industries.
Comments invited at: ezrakidder@gmail.com - Peace, Ezra at 9:44 AM