世界上几乎没有不用钱的人,金钱如水流向四面八方,它的影响力没有国界。无论多少,它流经我们的时候,我们可以把握接下来的流向。金钱之流可以承载我们的爱与分享,也可以承载我们的恨与控制欲,这就是为什么金钱是绝佳的自我实现工具。
一句话概括:当我们感到“足够了”,我们就不再沉迷于短缺心态而盲目积累金钱物质,我们会用金钱表达爱、实现人生最高理想,会开心满足,自然而然地开始分享。
Lynne Twist作者:Lynne Twist,一位全球性的慈善活动家,担任全球性NGO大型计划领导人近四十年,地球母亲联盟(The Patchamama Alliance)合作创始人,个人网站Soul of Money Institute。活动的主要目标是:终结世界饥荒;保护雨林;改善女性健康、经济与政治处境;增进对人类意识的科学性了解。因为在全球筹款和开展项目,对金钱关系有了深刻的了解。她致力于帮助人们重新清理与金钱的关系,认清自己的内心,重拾更健康、更自在的生活。
版本:Publisher:W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (14 Mar. 2017)
A world where we live in the context and truth of sufficiency and respect for enough, exactly enough for everyone everywhere; a world that works for everyone, with no one and nothing left out; a world where solidarity replaces charity, and a world where the dream is a dream not for some at the expense of others, but a dream for all; a world where the intelligent and benevolent “force” of Nature is the force that we respect and align with; a world where the love of money is replaced by the use of money as an expression of love.
过多并非丰足
“诺贝尔经济学奖”今年第二次颁给与心理学结合的行为经济学者。想到从前主流经济学假设“所有人都是追求利益最大化”已经开始逐步动摇瓦解了。“最大化”难道不是殖民、掠夺、战争、疯狂购物、滥用的诱因吗?背后的逻辑就是如果不拼命占有更多,自己就会是得不到充足资源的那个人。资源足够每个人享用,却不支持每个人滥用。如果大家都追求越多越好,那真会有人缺少资源,无法正常生活。
与其追求“最大化”,不如追求"刚好",多余的用来分享。在与金钱的关系上,看清这些金钱文化的迷思,不再对金钱感到焦虑不安。安全感并非来源于拥有更多,而是在于体会、感激我们真正的财富--我们的时间精力技能、我们的亲人、我们的知心朋友、我们的物品、我们的公共资源。当你发现自己其实拥有这么多价值与财富。当我们不再恐惧、自卑,这些能量都释放出来,流向实现理想,流向分享合作。分享不会让你真正财富越来越少,反而会强化富足感,让你的财富不停传递下去。
Everything ultimately was about caring for one another. Everything ultimately was about collaborating, partnering, and ensuring that everyone had a chance. In this connection and caring, these women not only survived, but experienced their true wealth.
有钱不一定有良好的金钱关系
作者和丈夫属于富裕阶级。正因为有很多钱,在自己的社交圈里,必须不断升级衣服、酒、车、房、艺术品、度假地点等一切能在在别人面前突显自己地位的事物,三个孩子也多半是由保姆照顾,陷入追求更多的迷障。
作为一个全球筹款人,作者还常与全球形形色色的有钱人打交道,意外发现,他们存在不少症结:有人认为自己是特权阶层,把自己隔离开来,丧失了与人连接的很多机会;有人周围的同学都因为他有钱从而疏远他;有人因为金钱纠纷导致原来应该亲密的家庭关系不和;有人用金钱数量定义自己,深深恐惧失去金钱,为了留住金钱,即使剥削控制别人也再所不惜;也有人因为要继承大量的金钱,不知道如何有责任地使用,怕别人因此利用她,感到十分无力崩溃。
Where money defines life and character, the fear of losing it is often profound. People behave defensively and even desperately to hold on to the money, to get more and more of it, and use what they have as a carrier for their own need to control others.The vicious circle of money---Money alone does not guarantee a fulfilling life, and excessive amounts of money more often become an obstacle to it.
公益是平等互助
即使强调尊重“受助人”,我们可能还是觉得捐款就是单方面地献爱心。其实不然,资助人与受助人是一起朝共同的愿景努力的合伙人-资助人提供自己无法消耗的多余物质和金钱资源,受助人提供创造力、技能、实际操作,二者平等互助,双方的精神财富都得到了提升。
“If you are coming to help me, you are wasting your time,” an indigenous saying goes, “but if you are coming because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
书中举了不少例子,尤其是作者初期的一次筹款经历。一个大型食品公司出现公关危机,想用给”消除饥饿项目“资助挽回形象。作者来到公司总裁的办公室,讲了15分钟项目情况,总裁完全没有互动交流的欲望,不耐烦地听完后,写了一张大额支票给了作者。作者惴惴不安,但是要赶飞机去下一个筹款会,就收下离开了。下一个筹款会是在一个不富裕的社区,作者讲完后,一个黑人大姐站起来,带头把自己给别人洗衣服赚的钱捐赠给”消除饥饿项目“,自己虽然没有很多钱,但是认同项目的目标,愿意花钱在上面。在场众人的捐款,远远低于那张支票的数额,却出于真心认同,想要参与实现消除饥饿的愿景。作者醍醐灌顶,虽然项目初期很需要资助,还是把支票寄回,除了感谢总裁,还附言可以把这些钱用在给自己真正认同的地方。神奇的是,过了几年这位总裁已经退休了,他回过头来仔细了解了”消除饥饿项目“,发现自己真的很认同,从自己的财产里面捐了一大笔钱给这个项目。是否接受资助,取决于资助人是否真的认同,而非有什么其他目的。
从塞内加尔沙漠到全球顶尖公司,作者从女性视角关注全球的女性。她为塞内加尔的女性赋权,让她们能用自己的知识给17个村子带来宝贵的水资源。她给世界最富有的一些女高管带来了反思的机会,让两个群体可以连接在一起。高官们打破不断追求晋升、工作的焦虑,停下来欣赏自己的才能、自己的公司、自己在工作和家庭生活中的美好收获。之后的一年里,她们有的退休做其他事;有的加入了公司的慈善基金会;有的还是过着原来的生活,但是状态是从焦虑和竞争到感激和满足。
正因为全心全意认同自己的工作,我们会更加持之以恒、坚韧不拔。就像作者在遇到问题,觉得项目前景渺茫的时候,没有退缩而而是问了自己以下几个问题:
Who do I need to be to fulfill on the commitment I’ve made?
What kind of human being do I need to forge myself into to make this happen?
What resources do I need to be willing to bring to bear in myself and my colleagues and in my world?
足够了,摆脱“不够心态”(Scarcity)
“不够“心理:钱不够多、时间不够用、身材不够美、衣服不够穿、职位不够高、影响力不够大。早上起来,想着休息不够,晚上睡觉,想着今天事做得不够。我们列新年计划、列行动清单、列人生目标很多,却很少编写已有事物清单。其实身边的人很多都很富足,”断舍离“、”极简生活“、”怦然心动的整理法“这类帮我们对付多余的好方法才使我们受益良多。“You or I”的世界观让我们不自觉地接受了要生存就必须得到更多,如果别人得到更多,我们就会得到更少,看到身边人的成就不免眼红。世界完全是可以“you and I”,身边人的成就意味着ta可以分享更多了。
Let go of a lifetime of scarcity’s lessons and lies.Rather than scarcity’s myths that tell us that the only way to perceive the world is there’s not enough, more is better, and that’s just the way it is, the truth of sufficiency asserts that there is enough for everyone. Knowing that there is enough inspires sharing, collaboration, and contribution.
成长(Growth)并不是得到更多,而是加深与当下一切人事物的连接,增强欣赏能力,开发敏锐的感官。我看完《怦然心动的整理法》后,仔细抚平折叠一件衣服,才发现衣服剪裁的细节,衣服真实的形状,衣服原料的质感,一些用心的小设计,让我愈加珍惜这件衣服。大自然是我们最好的老师。大自然里的资源是有限的,但也是足够的,比如阳光、比如水,不多不少,万物长到它们应有的样子,正是我们需要的平衡。
找到一个使自己感到富足的自然状态,把心停留在那里,用自己金钱实现自我吧。
最后,作者对我们日常生活的期许:
2017版封面I challenge you to use your money, every dollar, every penny, every purchase, every stock and every bond, to voice this transformation. I challenge you to use the money that flows through your life—and it does flow through all of our lives—to express the truth and context of sufficiency. I challenge you to move the resources that flow through your life toward your highest commitments and ideals, those things you stand for. I challenge you to hold money as a common trust that we’re all responsible for using in ways that nurture and empower us, and all life, our planet, and all future generations. I challenge you to imbue your money with soul—your soul—and let it stand for who you are.
金句及知识链接
“To be known for what you allocate, not what you accumulate.”
”Make a living, not a dying or killing"
"'You and me ' world, not 'you or me' world“
“Now, I ain’t got no checkbook and I ain’t got no credit cards. To me, money is a lot like water. For some folks it rushes through their life like a raging river. Money comes through my life like a little trickle. But I want to pass it on in a way that does the most good for the most folks. I see that as my right and as my responsibility. It’s also my joy. I have fifty dollars in my purse that I earned from doing a white woman’s wash and I want to give it to you.”
The job of our time is to hospice the death of the old unsustainable systems and structures and to midwife the birth of new sustainable systems and new ways of being.
Bernard Lietaer, Of Human Wealth, says that greed and fear of scarcity are programmed; they do not exist in nature, not even in human nature. They are built into the money system in which we swim, and we’ve been swimming in it so long that these shadows have become almost completely transparent to us. We have learned to consider them normal and legitimate behavior.
He concludes that Adam Smith’s system of economics could more accurately be described as the allocation of scarce resources through the process of individual greed. The whole process of Smith’s “modern” economics actually has its roots in primitive fears of scarcity, greed, and the implementation tool—the process by which this became real—was money.
Vicki Robin, in Your Money or Your Life, writes about people who, instead of making a living at their work, more accurately “make a dying,” or, in some cases, make a killing.
Buckminster Fuller,We could move from a you-or-me world—a world where either you or I make it, and where we need to compete and fight to see who wins—to a you-and-me world, where all of us can make it.
“Remember, your children are your elders in universe time. They have come into a more complete, more evolved universe than you or I can know. We can only see that universe through their eyes.”
Riane Eisler,The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. She described what she calls the dominator model of action in which men and traditional masculine principles prevail, and the differences between that and what she calls the partnership model characterized by more feminine principles of collaboration and partnership.
The great environmentalist Dana Meadows said that one of the most fundamental laws of the earth is the law of enough.Everything born of the earth grows to its appropriate size and then stops. The planet does not get bigger, it gets better. Its creatures learn, mature, diversify, evolve, create amazing beauty and novelty and complexity, but live within absolute limits.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh understood the exquisite distinction of enough when she wrote, in her book Gift from the Sea: One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few.
Mother Teresa never kept any cash reserves. When I visited her at her orphanage in India, I asked her if she had any advice about fund-raising. She replied that her method of fund-raising was to pray, and that God had always provided what she needed, never more, never less.Most of us can’t imagine living in that way and I’m not even suggesting it, but the knowledge that Mother Teresa operated a successful multimillion-dollar operation just that way, makes you think anew about money and flow.
Joan Holmes, president of The Hunger Project, challenged contributors “to be known for what you allocate, not what you accumulate.”
David L. Cooperrider, Diana Whitney, and their team of researchers and consultants in the field of organizational theory and human development introduced the concept of “appreciative inquiry” as a formal model for change. In their book, Appreciative Inquiry: Rethinking Human Organization Toward a Positive Theory of Change, they suggest we shift our frame of reference from one of “problem solving” to one that seeks to identify the sources available in any collection of people for inspiring, mobilizing, and sustaining positive change.
“Organizations, as centers of human relatedness, are ‘alive’ with infinite constructive capacity”?Look for what’s working instead of what’s not, they say, and “instead of negation, criticism, and spiraling diagnosis, there is discovery, dream, and design.”
To quote the visionary ontological thinker Werner Erhard, “Transformation does not negate what has gone before; rather, it fulfills it. Creating the context of a world that works for everyone is not just another step forward in human history; it is the context out of which our history will begin to make sense.”
Teilhard de Chardin: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience.”
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