Are you too broke to pay attention?
This one-line poem most directly seeks to de-link material wealth from perhaps the greatest tool available to humans: consciousness, or mindfulness. Being able to access mindfulness, regardless of wealth, status, or “worldly” power, is perhaps the greatest foundation for achieving justice and equality, as well as “enlightenment.” Being mindful of our inner life and our outer life, particularly other sentient beings, better aligns us with reality. Mindfulness is necessary to mine the inner life of our own subjectivity and how this may resonate with others’ subjectivity (including any conception or belief about God). Mindfulness is necessary to accurately, minimizing bias, “objectively, ” understand the outer world we share with others. While mindfulness is simply a process, the end result is compassion and empathy, which I believe is the glue that holds humanity together. By truly paying attention to the difficulties of life encountered by ourselves and others, it is nearly impossible to avoid developing compassion and empathy. This includes humility for ourselves, in facing the daunting challenges of life. This humility serves as a shield from hubris, the arrogance that distorts our own view of ourselves in relation to others and discounts our many ignorances about ourselves and the world in which we live. I am not too broke to pay attention. However, I am just enough broke to appreciate humility and the many graces which even allow me to ponder such matters.
