Roll up the Rim to Greed

Today's post is going to be a little different. I want to post on an event that is happening and the spiritual impact of it on those involved.

As most Canadian's will know, every year Tim Horton's (likely our largest coffee donut shop) hold a contest called Roll up the Rim to Win. Last week a girl found a cup in the garbage that had not been check. She tried to roll up the rim but could not. She then asked a friend to help her. It turns out the cup won, and not a small prize but one of the grand prizes, an SUV. Now the girls families are fighting over who should get the SUV. Then as can be expected people are stepping forward saying that the cup was theirs. Now I'm not going to go into who I think has a claim and who does not, that just adds to the negative energies involved, but that does bring me to the point I'd like to make.

This situation demonstrates how many people let greed and materialism control their lives. It is a very hard thing to fight against, how many of us would not fight over a $30,000 prize? But in doing so, we incur karma. Karma in that increases our connection to this the physical world and to physical things. Karma against the other family the people that we are attacking both in action and in thought. In all likely hood these two groups have been fighting over something for many past lives and will continue until at least one of those involved breaks the cycle.

If we are to grow spiritual we must learn to let go of our material wants, that doesn't mean we don't buy a house for our family it means that we see it for what it is; a physical dwelling to protect our family. It is not a status symbol or something to be treasured.

There are also a lot of people, who are talking about this, and I have been guilty of this, but I am working my way out. By talking about it I don't mean like I am now, but with judgement. Deciding who is right and who is wrong. When we case a judgement on someone or something we create what is call a thought form. A thought form is an energy that contains our judgements and that attacks those we judge, but it also attacks us, maybe not at the moment but it will come back, as we are incurring Karma. Once we create the thought we feed it and it grows; sometimes, like in this case, other join us in similar thoughts and their thought forms join with ours to make a more powerful thought form. It continues to grow as more and more people start feeding it. This is the reason why it can be so hard not to get swept up into mob mentality or public opinion. The thought forms can become so large that people get trapped in them.

We must be care what we thing, because despite what you might think, just because you don't say something doesn't mean it does do any harm. It is our thoughts that give life to the thought forms not our words. It is a hard thing to do, recognize when you are having negative thoughts, but as you catch yourself, realise that the are negative and do not feed them. Over time, maybe a long time, you will teach yourself that these thoughts are not acceptable to you and you won’t start down that path at all.

We should also consider what this is teaching those two young girls. If we want our children to be spiritual we must make sure we teach them the right things. For me that doesn't mean teaching my son to believe what I believe on a spiritual level but to show them what is right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable through my actions. Let’s not teach our children that greed is OK and material things are what matters.