What do we gain?

I was talking with someone yesterday about a so-called "money-making" opportunity. They went on to describe what they'd have to do for the money which seemed somewhat questionable. After talking about the issue they asked me what I thought? Instantly I said, "short term gain for long term pain."

I went on to share with them an analogy. You get a credit card. with a thousand dollar limit. You see something that you want in the store, thinking "wow, I've got this credit card. I can get this thing for only 20.00 bucks a month, that's terrific." The truth is that, it's not really so terrific (depending on the interest rate on that card). Yeah you get it now, but there is the so-called "hidden cost." The interest. While you put 1000.00 dollars on your credit card, if you pay the minimum payments, without ever charging another thing, that object that you initially paid 1000.00 for really cost you 5000.00 by the time it's all said and done. That's short-term gain for long-term pain.

I then said "lets look at your situation. You're a grown-up. You could go ahead and do this thing that your talking about, but first let me ask you a couple of questions. What's the long-term impact on self-esteem? What about your friendships and relationships with your friends and family? What about starting down a questionable or difficult path and the problems with getting off that road, once you realize what it's really costing you? Will doing this sort of thing make deposits or withdrawals from emotional bank accounts? We can do things that are nothing more than instant gratification. It's only later that we realize that thing "instant-gratification" had some extra freight attached to it. There are always hidden costs with things.

"I didn't consider the things that you're saying. When you put it like that, it's like I'm going to set myself on fire, but like a slow burn," was the response. I replied "Yeah, but we always, always, always have a choice about setting ourselves and our life on fire. Amazingly enough, some people actually knowingly decide to do that. But remember this, when we don't feed in to the instant gratification stuff, show emotional and behavioral restraint, that's moment that we regain ourselves and we are *true."

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Thinking about Burma

“If you assume that there is no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If; however, you assume that there is an instinct for freedom and opportunities to change things, there is a chance that you may contribute to making a better world. That is your choice.” -Noam Chomsky

In Burma the struggle to change and evolve into something new... hopefully better continues. Over the weekend, there where many marches and protests, hoping that it would be strikingly clear to the Burmese Military that the world is watching and expecting peaceful action.

Though it may often seem as though our efforts towards peace go unheard at this moment, that does not imply that they won’t be heard later one. The ever so critical key is that we repeat our message over and over, like a mantra, so that the flame of truth does

Gassho,

Jaye Morris, Cruator
digitalZENDO