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THE NEW VIEW OF PROPERTY - MOVING INTO HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS
What is property and what does it mean to own it?
We think of property as those things that belong to us that we have control over and that we can dispose of according to our will. Much of what we call property has a cultural or market value, so it is worth something to us according to the price it would bring if sold, or, its current market value even if we do not intend to sell it.
Property is what we claim the right to possess.
In the course of our collective human history, land has been viewed as property, animals have been viewed as property, tangible goods have been viewed as property, and people have been viewed as property. Today, we are being asked by God and by our own unfolding consciousness to reevaluate what ‘ownership’ means and what we really do own.
Do we own our lives?
Do we own our children?
Do we own time, or space, or the things we acquire?
Do we own money or land or are these things that we claim to own that really do not belong to us?
Let us start with the blue fin tuna and the hammerhead shark. A recent report on NPR indicates that in some areas the population of hammerheads has been reduced by about 90 percent. The blue fin tuna population is facing similar positioning on the endangered species list. The report goes on to say that this is not primarily due to climate change, but to unregulated trade practices. Those who trade in shark fins and tuna are fishing without international regulation on the open seas and without sufficient concern for the sustainability of species.
What about our own lives? In theory, most of us realize that we do not own our own lives, that is, we know that we have a limited amount of control over what actually happens in life. Nevertheless, in practice, most still seek control through elaborate security measures, rather than trusting the positive and sacred flow of life. In relation to our very own lives, we need to give back to God what never belonged to us in the first place.
What about money? Do we own money? At present, a person’s worth or value is often measured in monetary terms. But what is money? Is it property or is it a resource like a stream, or river, or rainfall, or fertile soil? Does it belong to us or do we let it pass through us as we participate in the flow of life as it moves in the direction of promoting harmony and enhancing the greater good? We often do not trust this flow or its outcome because we are so accustomed to interrupting it – to channeling and bending it in the direction of our own self interest. Flow, when it happens, always moves towards the enhancement and creation of greater good for greater numbers. When we interrupt it through greed, fear, envy, or malice, we change the direction of this flow and can no longer trust its goodness because we have distorted it through our own fearful motives.
A stream’s movement does not belong to anyone. It is a property of the stream itself as it flows toward the sea or other large body of water. A stream of money, similarly, flows in an inherent direction of creating goodness for the greater number when it is treated as a resource rather than a piece of property.
Source and resource. These are the two terms for the new view of property. Property no longer as ‘ownership,’ but as energy flowing through our hands to benefit the sacred wholeness of which we are a part. This does not exclude the wellbeing of the self in terms of its direction. Rather, it includes the self as beneficiary within the greater whole.
In relation to animals, we also need to change our view of ownership. We hold the means for treating animals with respect, not only as a resource but as an independent consciousness that possesses self-awareness. However limited this awareness, by comparison to the human, animals are nevertheless living beings and we have, throughout history, treated them as property. Yet they feel things physically and emotionally, and their mental capacity reflects an indigenous intelligence that, though different from ours, reflects sentience and the capacity for thought and feeling.
We are needing to understand our relationship to ‘Source’ and ‘resource’. We are needing to let go of what we have claimed proprietorship over as a means of ensuring our own security. Such security is a house of cards that is always in danger of falling or failing. Our own higher consciousness is calling us to a new vision of property and a new practice of letting life flow through us rather than seizing or grasping it with an effort at control.
Source and resource. The security that comes from being part of the Creator and the abundance that flows if we allow rather than grasp. With such a changed perspective toward property, the nations of the world will be able to achieve a more equitable distribution of wealth and hunger and poverty will be things of the past.
This is the calling for today. Source and resource – a new definition of property and a new understanding of our sacred choice and responsibility.
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