'ware the Takers

Beware of the takers - you will know them. Everything is about them, everything is about fulfilling their needs, everything is about them getting what they want. There is no concern whatsoever for anyone or anything else. Beware of the takers because you will, invariably suffer at their hands, if you let them.

Takers ride on the waves of fear. They have to do what they do, because they are terrified for their very existence. They are terrified that if they don't take, they won't have anything, and if they don't have anything they won't be seen and acknowledged as living people. Takers take because they have no faith, that they will be taken care of. They plow through mountains, kill whatever is in their path (often in the most brutal and inhumane ways fathomable) and leave havoc and devastation in their wake as they walk away, rubbing their hands in glee because they got what they wanted, and "those poor suckers" they left behind, as devastated as everything around them, cannot do anything.

These, these are takers on the largest scale and yet, how profoundly must we realize that these very takers are the ones guiding us. They guide our economy, our business, our politics, our media, our sales and marketing - they have gone so far as to guide our religious leaders, too.

But takers exist in every way - on the smallest of terms - the takers just leech off of you. They arrange everything in their lives for their own comfort and they make you responsible for it. It is all about them.

There is only one cure for taking and that is giving. And yet to give with only your own self interest, your own personal gain and personal glory - those are not giving, just a shady, hidden way of taking. To give freely - is to give humbly. To give is to honestly not care about an outcome that can in any way be related to you. To give is to see beyond you, yourself and you, to the world that you are an integral part of and it is to recognize that glorious wholeness that is only possible when we give as much as we take. It is to recognize the incredible balance that is vital to our very survival as a species. It is to let go of need and understand trust. It is to serve others, and know you will be taken care of.

Beware of the takers. And make a choice about whether you want to participate. And it is a choice. Consumers drive consumerism - despite the hardworking sales and marketing department! Your awareness is what changes the world. You can choose not to participate in the things that are so out of balance and so wrong, that they are clearly taker-energy, and counteract them with your own giving-energy.

Blessings.
- Darshan

© 2009 Darshan F Jessop