Josh was a welder. In his twenties he had been tasked with
farming, but then he had been retrained, and it was expected he’d continue in
this role for the rest of his working life. He reflected that it was very sweet
how in his society all needs of his body would be fulfilled, so that he could
focus all his energies on doing the best job he could do in the role assigned.
That was so much more convenient than money. He could free his mind from the
bank account, investments, and insurance. All he needed to do was to be an
excellent welder, and in his free time continue to cultivate his intellect, and
establish his friendships.
It was really hard for Josh to try to
understand how things worked in the other world, where the people still chose
their own careers, and managed everything by money. He knew that wise friends
are a treasure thousands of times better than any pile of goods. Those people
(if people they can be called, he thought wryly), actually felt happier in a
situation of risk, than one of security for the body. They competed over jobs,
where in his own society some administrators took care of such decisions, in a
display of wisdom he needed to admit was adequate, unless he had some better
ideas that he could contribute. “Wow,” he thought, “they really believe
they have conquered, when they beat out some other guy for a good job. The
powerful souls only conquer, when they see all are happy.”
One of the keys of success for the
Nameless, had been the immense frugality of the people. Here is how it happens.
One guy says, “I don’t want a yacht, that wouldn’t be fair to the rest of
you. If you had a yacht and I didn’t, I’d be unhappy, so I don’t want to
have a yacht myself, since it would spread misery everywhere.” The other guys
say the same thing, but eventually this self-effacing crowd decides, “Oh, we
could have a shared yacht. Then we could have an equitable distribution of time
on the yacht, so everyone gets a chance.” They all say, “Oh no, you go
first, I’m happy enough here,” but ultimately they all find the others
saying the same thing to them, and they take a trip on that yacht! “I suppose
it is only just, everyone else is going, I’ll go along too, with them.”
Then this other thing occurs among
egos, that no matter how equitable things are arranged, they decide it was not
fair. They didn’t have anything creative to say, so their minds fill up with
complaints. The communes of human history failed for this reason, that the
people demanded a rigid equality, which is not possible in a real world. Noble
people are not like that. They take the greater burden. It is something that
looks slave-like to the egos, until you notice the others are responsive and
don’t allow anyone to endure unfair burdens. If you want a selfless society to
succeed, you need to think, “I am going to do more than my share, even if the
others do not.” So if you have a lot of people all doing ten percent more than
they think they should have done under a situation of “total equity of
labor,” it amounts to a free and easy situation of joy and glory, that all the
work will be done, done well, and if you want to guide it better it is by
reducing the “slave effect” of any that have taken on burdens that can
really be relieved.
So Josh knew about welding, and he
studied advanced techniques, and also worked on establishing his own knowledge
in a way that would be reachable by future generations and anyone he needed to
train. Oh, it was so wonderful to only have to think about this, and not worry
over his house or fortune! He became quickly respected by the rest, who’d come
to him for advice over his area of expertise. He understood that it is an added
amount of power not just to do a job well, but to make it comprehensible to
others. He found that he was able to express what he was doing on many levels,
making the topic of welding interesting at the dinner table, among youths
wondering what their role would be in life, or at the workplace among other
welders who would challenge his knowledge.
This business about a fortune, was a
big deal. Like others among the Nameless, Josh didn’t want more for himself
than what the others received. In that situation, he could engage them in the
depths of profound spirituality, where the idea of competing over objects is a
violence inconceivable, almost like falling back to the animal plane. “We are
all the people who don’t want very much,” is a basic motto of the Nameless.
They live in many respects, in one another. They get up in the morning not
thinking to conquer or to obtain, but to interact in a beautiful, harmonious and
satisfying way with the other entities. The resources are there, and these are
employed to meet actual needs, with awareness that too much is stealing from the
future generations.
The Nameless seem like simpletons, to
the egos. They find the glorious in the ordinary. This is the result of intense
divine awareness, as they constantly remember the opposite potential, that there
might not be anything at all, then God decided to create. Thus among the
Nameless you find chopping up the green peppers for an ordinary midday meal
becomes an adventure with many interesting remarks and repartee, where the
humans had decided to buy cars and make inferior merchandise for their day’s
work. The Nameless are saying, “Oh, I am going to chop it, you are going to
chop it, here is an interesting way to chop it,” all the while no resources
are wasted. The humans thought it was trivial, but it is a glorious spiritual
interaction of the kind God truly values, light on the resources and heavy on
the personality and fun.
Josh didn’t have to chop any
vegetables, though he could identify with the cooks, since that was obviously a
fun and crucial role for anyone. He appreciated the attitude of the Avatar, who
had remarked that he’d prefer to be in line to sample the food prepared for
everyone, than what he’d seen in his own spiritual teacher, meals prepared
separately for his private satisfaction. It amazed Josh, that God Himself in a
body, could really enjoy a simple meal, and not expect special treatment. The
Avatar remarked that everyone is divine in the core, and if he were truly God,
he is no slave to the sense of taste. The attitude put a heavy burden on the
cooks, that if they were cooking for a large group or for God Himself, it is the
same. That’s the special role of a cook, to find the ultimate in nutrition and
taste, but also for a sizeable group, not just one or a few. It can be
fulfilled.
He thought wryly of what a privilege
it was, that he could focus on his work and forget about his food, a role that
had been assigned to others. In the other world they still cooked for themselves
or else the wife was burdened with cooking for the family. What does he have to
do? He has to show up and stand in line for a few minutes, catching up on the
latest details of daily life conversing with friends, then fill up his plate and
eat! “It truly is a wonderful system,” he thought, “and if I am called to
cook, I’d be there too.” Agriculture and the division of labor are what make
civilization. The humans always divided labor by happenstance and greed, but the
Nameless tried a more rational approach, trusting that people who had worked
within the system until age fifty, would make compassionate and charitable
choices with respect to the rest, if handed the power.
Josh had to admit too, that wisdom
could not be contained in his welding skill. He’d seen how the egos throughout
human history had been able to master such skills, so if there is wisdom it must
lie beyond these egos, in regions of warmth and friendship for the other
entities. He wanted to be the supreme welder. He learned everything he could,
and did the best job he could. Yet this work was all within a larger context
where he was forming positive mental models for literally hundreds of persons
within his commune. He could begin to understand, his power was greater than
that of the egos, who do their work but shrink back to the family each night.
Though he was a married man who had brought two children into the world and
raised them to the sixth birthday, his family was small in his sight, and his
society was large. “These are all the angels,” he thought, “and the
accident of birth is but a small thing, where in Heaven the bodies are
everlasting and eternal.”
The egos found this most shocking
about the Nameless, that there seemed to be no extra warmth between parents and
children. The Nameless, for their part, thought that pregnancy and birth are
like accidents in the way of the Creator, as He brings the independent souls
into a context of expressing rationality. There is a duty, if you have a child,
to bring him or her into remembrance of their powers, within the developing
nervous system of an infant. But after the age of six the children say, “We
are not special lovers of our parents, we love all noble beings everywhere.”
The parents say, “We have helped in this marvelous process of rebirth, and
give the same love to our children as we give to all others, but no more, for
there is no extra connection that is real.” God made the souls independent.
When in embodiment, they are to love all around them, according to the nobility
of these others, which makes them deserving of love.
Among the Nameless, therefore,
you’d see the children walking around basically drowned in love for all around
them, including the parents. So when the extra feeling about parents is removed,
it is supplanted quickly by a general love for everyone nearby. If the parents
approach later, the child will say, “Oh, you are dear ones!” But the child
was also thinking that about the other community members. That’s how it works
among the Nameless, and the parents, for their part, rejoice in their exclusive
romance, where the child has not interfered for special affection as it is among
egos. It looks cold to egos, but the Nameless know that it is the greatest
warmth; they respond lovingly to all around them.
It amazed Josh, that as he’d go to
dinner each night, the conversations at the tables around him seemed so subdued,
that the conversations at his own table seemed intimate and private! Rather than
talking louder to drown each other out, among the Nameless the conversations
tended to be reticent, careful, and quiet, so that even if there were a thousand
in the dining area, the conversations of each table remained intimate. It was
amazing to be in such a vast sea of human forms, but also to be able to utilize
his full powers of conversation, as well as to enjoy the most profound emotions,
that he’d laugh over the claims of the egos about the family environment.
Day after day, year after year, the
Nameless made a mockery of the family, for any advantages they’d claim. If you
want an intimate meal with loving conversation, go to the Nameless. If you want
individual, loving attention for each child, go to the Nameless. If you want
total security of the body upon which spiritual joy is founded, go to the
Nameless. Anything the egos thought they could do better, they only did worse.
The Nameless were reticent of speech.
Each began with the proposition, “I am probably not the one who should be
talking right now,” and if they were not talking each was engaged in profound
thought and emotional experience. The whole thing requires telepathy to succeed,
that occasionally is acknowledged. The “right one” to be speaking at each
moment, among the advanced crowd, was already decided before anyone speaks.
It is a big deal to see that when
another is quiet, thought and emotion are still proceeding. That is a huge
barrier to egos, who see others in terms of object-models, seeking to dominate.
The most powerful souls, appear weak to the egos. Yet Josh was proving in his
own way, that a fully rational person has real powers. He can choose where he
will live, and how he will employ these powers. In isolation among egos, Josh
would have been weak, but with others of his own kind, the “perfectly
inoffensive personalities,” Josh could help provide a world that was really a
quantum leap, far beyond the egos.