What Comes After Money

by Daniel Pinchbeck

  With no spread between the purchase and redemption rates to benefit the governing body, we will rely on other sources of income to fund the system’s administration. While we expect to rely on contributions and grants to cover initial expenses, we should also be able to help support our organization through local currency “leakage,” which occurs when a currency is bought and then withdrawn from circulation by collectors and souvenir hunters. This will include sales of mint and withdrawn notes to collectors through an organized marketing campaign. Another source of revenue will come from sales of artwork based on the BNote, such as postcards, T-shirts, and posters, and from commissions on sales of original local artwork through our website. In addition, the money on deposit to back the notes in circulation, amounting to 90 percent of the face value of the circulating BNotes, will generate a small amount of interest and will act as a microloan fund secured against cash flow, enabling us to make hybrid microloans.

  A key part of our plan includes a microfinance program. We will use the capital gained from currency conversion to offer loans to local microbusinesses. In our view, this can be accomplished best if the microentrepreneurs are among the poorest, most disadvantaged members of the community. Traditional charities rarely reach this sector because it is difficult and time consuming, and so is not a high priority for them, while banks tend to avoid poor people like the plague.

  A secondary, but important feature of this process is the filling in of supply and service chains, which enable merchants to use the currency rather than cash it in. This, in turn, will build a stronger currency, enabling the bills to stay in circulation, and also reduce the need for goods to be brought in from longer distances, reducing the area’s carbon footprint—another contribution to sustainability.

  We have accomplished a lot in just a few months, but much remains to be done. We are in the process of writing a formal mission statement and incorporating. We will also set up an advisory board of Hampden community leaders, as well as experts in currency, microfinance, and social business. And we will continue to enlist businesses to participate in the mid-2011 rollout.

  Our discussions with other east coast currency programs have been very helpful, and we continue to reach out to volunteers, both inside and outside of the Evolver Social Movement, who share our vision. As our effort grows in experience, moving forward step by step, we are excited to contribute to a growing national movement that is spreading community currencies across the country, enabling localization projects and helping our economies to become more socially conscious and sustainable.

  19

  IS GOD EXPENSIVE?

  ELIEZER SOBEL

  In my early thirties, my favorite uncle, Norbert, recognized that I was on a spiritual path, and in a moment of candor, confessed that when he was around nineteen he used to hang out at the Ramakrishna Foundation, and later became deeply interested in the works of author Paul Brunton, whom he had had the privilege of meeting. Brunton was a well-known disciple of Ramana Maharshi’s, and my uncle had a full collection of Brunton’s books. Even after Alzheimer’s had begun its assault on Norbert’s cognitive skills, he was often pulling Brunton books off the shelf to read aloud quotations about the mystery of the inner self. His affinity for these matters was for a long time unknown to everyone in the family apart from his wife, my Aunt Karin, and was a real revelation to me, for even as a child, on some level I had recognized Norbert as a kindred spirit. Or more accurately, I could feel somehow that he had recognized me as a kindred spirit!

  The only spiritual advice Norbert ever offered me over the years was surrounding the issue of money. A purist from the old school, he insisted that if anyone ever charged any money at all in exchange for spiritual teachings, I should run the other away as fast as possible. Thankfully my two earliest teachers, Ram Dass and Hilda Charlton, never charged. But as for the rest of my career as a seeker … let’s just say I’ve paid through the nose. Uncle Norbert was not familiar with the sheer magnitude of commerce connected with contemporary spiritual pursuits, and I was reluctant to fill him in on all the teachers I had paid over the years, for surely he would have cast a leery and suspicious eye on all of them and doubted their motivations as well as my acumen.

  Nor had Norbert heard one of the popular, prevailing ideas of those times: money is simply “green energy,” and like all energy, can be used for good or ill. And who better to use lots of money for good than one’s revered spiritual teacher? The problem, of course, was that somehow that approach to spirituality and money matters also often involved Swiss bank accounts, offshore trusts, and ridiculously lavish lifestyles, perhaps symbolized most blatantly by former televangelist Jim Bakker’s famous gold-plated toilet seat. Or by Osho’s (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s) ninety-nine Rolls Royces. (In Osho’s defense, one of my heroes, Tom Robbins, insists that the cars were performance art, and that Bhagwan was merely offering a mirror to and making a mockery of our extremely materialistic culture. One does have to wonder, though, why he stopped at ninety-nine.)

  One evening in the late ’70s I attended an evening talk with Leonard Orr, the founder of Rebirthing. The price of admission was fifty dollars, but in return Leonard was promising to give people an idea that was worth many times that amount, an idea that could easily produce great riches. I revealed the idea in my book, The 99th Monkey, which costs $16.95, representing a savings of over 60 percent. And now in this anthology, I’m giving it away for a fraction of that cost!

  Here is Leonard’s idea. “My personal connection to Infinite Intelligence is sufficient to yield me a huge, personal fortune.” The funny thing is, I don’t doubt the truth of that at all. Of course, if you speak to Job about it, he might further clarify that “Your personal connection to Infinite Intelligence is also sufficient to bring you to the absolute brink of ruin.” Infinite Intelligence is very moody; it can go either way. But in the meantime, perhaps a reader can sell Leonard’s affirmation on eBay: “Invaluable Idea, Like New, Barely Used.”

  My friend Randy simply can’t believe the kinds of things people will pay for, and keeps insisting that the two of us could easily create a religion with him as the charismatic leader and make a ton of money. He has already begun working on his fundamental teaching concerning the distinction between what he is calling “The Vertical Path” and “The Path Upward,” and which one will cost more. I actually recognized the commercial possibilities of spiritual teachings one morning in the hot tubs at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where I was a group leader. I was commenting to my friend Daniel, a therapist, about how cooperative everyone was in Esalen workshops; as a leader, I could ask my groups to do virtually anything and they would jump right in and try it. On a lark, Daniel and I discussed creating a new therapy, in which participants would be instructed in squawking like a chicken. Students would also learn the theoretical basis behind the technique: how the flapping of the arms stimulates certain acupuncture meridians, and the contraction of the vocal chords while squawking clears out the fifth chakra. As we practiced a few times, within minutes several people from an adjoining tub approached us and asked us which workshop we were in, because they wanted to sign up. We had our first converts!

  Last August, I walked into a bar at Burning Man, and in order to receive a drink, patrons were asked to roll a pair of dice, and the bartender would tell you what you had to do. The challenge assigned to me was, “Walk around the room squawking like a chicken.” Ha! I thought, they don’t know who they’re dealing with, the one guy in the room who not only has actually been squawking since way back, but has actually taught it! (The girl next to me rolled a lucky seven, and she got to be publicly spanked at the bar.)

  But apart from obvious and extreme forms of financial exploitation and indulgence, most of us these days don’t think twice about the idea of paying a reasonable fee to someone for their time and services, spiritual teachers as well, perhaps even more so.

  On my recent book tour a single question kept repeatedly popping up in different ci
ties, and always in response to my rattling off a humorous and unimaginably long list of the many different teachers, retreats, workshops, seminars, gurus, ashrams, and techniques I’ve experienced over the last thirty plus years. The question was, “How were you able to afford to do all that?” And underlying the question was the implication, “If I could afford to do all that, I’d probably be enlightened by now.”

  My first answer was to remind the questioner of my Uncle Norbert’s primary teaching: that God is free. Enlightenment is not for sale, spiritual truths are not a commodity, and awakening to one’s true nature is not a buyer’s market. In this spirit, many teachers in the contemporary American Buddhist world do their work for dana, which is the Pali word for generosity. Their teachings are offered freely, and people may choose to contribute to their support according to their own measure, for what is generous to some would be impossible to another.

  My old friend Michael Freeman, founder and resident dharma instructor at Southwest Sangha near Silver City, New Mexico, has been a dana purist for well over twenty years, supporting himself entirely through voluntary contributions, whether it be for meditation instruction or a carpentry job. His insistence on this practice once caused a major anxiety attack in an intimate partner when she realized that not only did her man not have a regular paycheck coming in, but he sometimes received dana contributions in the form of a pair of handmade socks or homemade carrot cake. Both are lovely, heartfelt expressions of gratitude; neither can be applied toward rent and groceries.

  To live one’s life that way requires developing a deep trust in life itself, a knowing that one will be taken care of. Those of us who never step off that ledge will never find out if it’s true or not, whether life will indeed support us. Indiana Jones illustrated this leap of faith perfectly in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when he had to step out over an abyss, and it was only in stepping off the spot he was standing on that he released the latch on a platform that swung up to meet his next step.

  I unwittingly happened upon this idea while hitchhiking across the UK in my early twenties. One Friday afternoon it dawned on me that I had run out of cash and the banks would be closed until the following Monday morning. I had already had enough remarkably generous hitchhiking experiences in the preceding days that I had developed an unshakeable trust, and rather than panicking, I realized that things would work out and I’d find a bed to sleep in and a way to eat. Minutes later, a casual chat with a family on a beach led to my being invited to join them on their weekend holiday, all expenses covered. It felt like grace.

  In the last number of years, Rabbi David and Shoshana Cooper and I have experimented with bringing the spirit of dana to a Jewish context, for surely the idea of tzedakah, or charity, figures strongly in the Judeo-Christian culture as well. We began offering our twice-yearly seven-day silent Jewish meditation retreats for dana, and discovered that we would receive as much and usually more than had we charged the usual per-head tuition. There was a great difference in feeling, though, in that each envelope we received felt like a gift, and in addition, the process enabled those with limited funds to attend the retreat who would otherwise not be able to. My Uncle Norbert would like the idea.

  When the people on my book tour asked me how I had been able to afford my extravagant spiritual seeker’s lifestyle for so many years, I explained that I was fortunate enough to have been born into a situation where just enough money had been freely given to me so that I always enjoyed the luxury of living a rather frugal and modest hippie lifestyle while pretty much doing whatever I wanted. And as members of the Doughnuts will attest—the Doughnuts being a philanthropic group composed of those suffering with the burden of great wealth thrust upon them, and all the mixed emotions, difficulties, and strings that come with it—I always found my financial freedom either a blessing or a curse, depending on how well I was using it. I have always felt extremely driven to somehow justify my very existence through using what was gifted to me wisely and productively, something I didn’t always succeed at doing, which would plunge me into states of great despair.

  I once asked dharma teacher Christopher Titmuss about it, and he said, “When you can relate to the money in the same way that you relate to your hand, you will be free.” Meaning, my hand was given to me this time around, and I don’t have a problem with it, not a lot of guilt, shame, or issues around having a hand. It was given to me, and I simply use it. May God bless the work of my hands, and may that work be offered freely.

  20

  LOCAL CONTROL OF CREDIT: THE FOUNDATION OF ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY

  THOMAS H. GRECO

  Throughout the world today, local communities are struggling to maintain their economic vitality and quality of life. The reasons for this are both economic and political, and are largely the result of external forces that are driven by outside agencies like central governments, central banks, and large transnational corporations. In brief, decisions made by others outside of the community are having enormous impacts on life within the community. Be that as it may, it is possible for communities to regain a large measure of control over their own welfare and to ameliorate the effects of those external forces by employing peaceful approaches that encourage human solidarity and are based on private, voluntary initiative and creativity.

  I often use the analogy of the small boat harbor to convey the general idea of how local communities can protect their small enterprises while remaining open to the global economy. The process of globalization, while having many positive aspects, has thus far been carried out in such a way as to be destructive to small businesses, local economies, and democratic governance. It is as if there were a policy to remove the breakwaters from every small boat harbor in the world, the effect of which is to expose small boats to the turbulence of the open sea. As I put it in one of my lecture presentations—a rising tide may lift all boats, but the tidal wave of globalization smashes all but the biggest.

  But a healthy global economy and a peaceful world require healthy communities. Is there still a place for small businesses? Must every advantage be given to the corporate megaliths at the expense of small enterprises? The ancient economic debate that poses “free trade” against “protection” is too limiting and outmoded. Healthy economies require both free trade and protection, each confined within its appropriate bounds. Communities must create the equivalent of breakwaters to protect their small enterprises and workers, while at the same time remaining open to the national and world economies.

  It is encouraging to note that there has been a recent major awakening about the megacrisis that is developing worldwide, and a plethora of creative responses to it. Sustainability, relocalization, human scale, and the devolution of power are the current buzz. The big question, of course, is how are they to be achieved in the face of the tremendous forces that are driving us toward the precipice?

  APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

  Sadly, the orthodox approach to community economic development over the past several decades has centered upon efforts to recruit some large corporation to come and set up operations in the local region—with the expectation that they will provide additional jobs for local people, stimulate business for peripheral industries and the service sector, and ultimately add to local tax revenues. The consequent competition among cities and states in pursuing that strategy has resulted in corporations wresting enormous concessions from host communities in such forms as tax abatements and infrastructure provided at taxpayer expense. But capital is notoriously fickle and recent developments have given it unprecedented mobility. Quite often the experience has been for companies to leave town as soon as the free lunch has expired, only to play the same game again somewhere else.

  It is widely acknowledged that, in comparison to large corporations, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) contribute proportionately more to the economy in jobs, productivity, and innovation. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), “SMEs play a major role i
n economic growth in the OECD area, providing the source for most new jobs. Over 95 percent of OECD enterprises are SMEs, which account for 60–70 percent of employment in most countries. As larger firms downsize and outsource more functions, the weight of SMEs in the economy is increasing. In addition, productivity growth—and consequently economic growth—is strongly influenced by the competition inherent in the birth and death, entry and exit of smaller firms.” The same pattern would seem to hold in other parts of the world, including America.

  Doesn’t it therefore make more sense to nurture the businesses that are already part of the local economy? Doesn’t it make sense to support those companies that are locally owned or managed and have a stake in the prosperity and quality of life in their home communities? Communities that have a high quality of life, an able workforce, and a clean and pleasant environment do not need to offer bribes to outsiders. Relocalization efforts cannot get very far without the creation of metasystems that support buying locally, selling locally, investing locally, and saving locally. Conventional political forms of money, and huge banking companies that are owned and managed by remote entities, by their very nature militate against relocalization. There is no need for antagonistic opposition to those entities; they can be made less relevant and less destructive by implementing creative methods that localize control over both exchange and finance.

  I propose that groups and organizations that seek to promote healthy, sustainable local economies should make it a priority to organize regional mutual credit clearing associations as the centerpiece of a comprehensive program. As these associations develop and grow, they will provide their regions with an increasing measure of independence from the outside forces that control conventional money and banking, enabling communities to rise above “the race to the bottom” that has resulted from the kind of globalization that has been erected and forced upon the world by the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. The credit clearing exchange is the key element that enables a community to develop a sustainable economy under local control and to maintain a high standard of living and quality of life.