When I was younger I began a practice of meditation. My spiritual life had been eclipsed by selfish living and pursuing a materialistic life shortly after becoming a born again Christian. My excuse was that I was young and I hadn’t really thought of living a holy life, until I became so miserable that I felt I had no choice but to seek God again. I took on a new mindset in life, and I stopped pursuing materialistic things in my life like partying, drinking, drugs, and women. I was never really money motivated, but my beliefs about money changed too. I didn’t want to become a hermit, so eventually on my new path I would seek and find employment. What brought me happiness at this point in my life was my pursuit of God. I began a meditation practice and all that stuff that the world says it needs to be happy no longer made me happy. What made me happy was the joy I felt while practicing meditation. I believed in God, so it wasn’t a Buddhist meditation, it was a mixture of Hinduism a...
In the 80’s and 90’s of the last century there was more importance placed on how we treated one another, especially the poor. Human rights violations had the attention of the free world, and would garner the attention of the media through organizations like Amnesty International. We are currently living in a culture now that places more importance on money, status and power, and lacking these, your voice goes largely unheard. Corporations have a monopoly on our economy and work hand in hand with the government, which makes the agenda of the powerful more important than those who have nothing. In the past, religious groups were more respected because they truly were there to help the vulnerable and the poor, but now what money politics has done is persecuted some religions throughout the world, and as a result the poor are suffering. They use the social agenda of the rich to feed an unhealthy balance of power, and pour more and more money into war, thus feeding the destruct...