8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS COMMONS The financial commons as an expression of the primordial commons, unconditional love is more important than arithmetic, which of course has its place. Most of us play in money everyday and it's easy to get lost in what is a real priority and what you want. A natural breath will help you focus on your priorities. Loans, grants and donations are three significant manifestations of money play. When you purchase Groundcover, you may give an additional donation when you sense that the person has needs greater than $2. Some years ago, I was invited to a Thank you Common Cycle for a comfortable and safe method of transit! KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 “Sharing the Commons” in the January 12, 2024 edition of Groundcover News focused on unconditional love as the bedrock of all the commons we share. We are born into the life of this world with a Mother’s love that gives many of us an experience of unconditional love. From unconditional love to “money” is a big jump. The truth of our lives is obscured by the barrage of brilliant distractions that the digital world uses to commodify everything with its algorithms and data mastery. This full spectrum war to dominate our awareness is looking at artificial intelligence to help them in that mission. Richard Werner, the German economist, cut through the mountain of deception that hides the impermanence of money. He demonstrated empirically in an experiment with the Bank of England, that loans create money from nothing more than the social commons whose potential can be used productively, or to create debt in nonproductive activities such as war and other forms of corruption. My assumption is that natural intelligence is more profound and complete than artificial intelligence. Can artificial intelligence tell you what its assumptions are? I think AI designers are lost in the enlightenment ideology of rational thought and the belief that reality is a machine that the rational man can master. You can have the power of the gods at your command. So we have nuclear power with all its unexpected consequences. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists just updated the doomsday clock to 90 seconds from midnight. The rational mind cannot fathom unconditional love because it is wedded to the belief in its own supremacy, an individualism attempting to prove its permanence. Brothers and sisters, we cannot think our way into the complete experience of reality because the conceptual mind is a small player in the vastness of reality. Your therapy may have taught you that the subconscious and unconscious mind are full of habitual patterns that influence decisions and actions. Even our intestinal microbiome can be addicted to sugar and alcohol. When cravings become powerful, we need to interrogate them, listen to the deeper wisdom of the body and detach from immediate gratification. Of course we want to feel good so the struggle is complex. Taste is important but how you feel an hour or two later is the real test of your diet. Theory and practice need constant upgrading on the path to the truth that sets us free. Experience tells you the truth of your life. If you have some daily practice of mind training, even a few minutes can give you glimpses of the freedom you hoped for. Patience and perseverance are key. When the financial commons is seen Kwanzaa celebration at a national guard post in Hamtramck (see “A proud American revolutionary” or whatever in Groundcover News June 30, 2023). The focus was on cooperative (and community) economics, defined as “a commitment to the practice of shared social wealth and the work necessary to achieve it.” This is the practice of the financial commons. I believe the financial commons can be understood in a way that leads us to share and promote creative living as an expression of living democracy. I hope you remember Pastors For Peace and Veterans For Peace, two important organizations in the struggle for peace in the world. When we live in the shared commons there will be peace as described by Toni Morrison: “The peace I am thinking of is not just the absence of violence but the play of an open mind when it encounters an equally open mind.” Many of you know that my peace activism led to a core family in Cuba. The extended family has brought a young mother and son to center stage. We meditate together with our shared four year old son, Santiago Alberto, who enjoys our practice of breathing together. I held Daniela, the mother, in my hands shortly after her birth on August 21, 2000, at a ceremony in the cathedral. I committed to be padrino, i.e., protector, mentor and spiritual friend. A few years ago she expressed the desire to live with me to the end of my life. We have an application with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services which is in long delay and not likely to be approved if it is processed due to their terms and conditions. I have been sending most of my income to Cuba where Daniela administers it to several households. In past years we built two houses. If you are familiar with the geopolitics of U.S. policy, you know about the blockade with its sanctions and ongoing financial crisis in Cuba. Many are leaving to find jobs in another country. The Cuban diaspora is global and our core family now has an invitation to live in Brazil with extended family. The situation looks very positive with low FEBRUARY 9, 2024 rent and a job for Daniela. I won’t need to send so much to Cuba and she can help with the family still there. I am confident, largely because of our shared meditation practice, that we have a workable situation and I can write my autobiography “Born in 42, History, Mystery and You.” The few pages of my first efforts are calling for completion. The challenge to organize travel is complex. Many countries do not allow Cubans to enter from Cuba but they can enter from other countries. Mexico and Brazil are the two I know about. There is a refugee route from Cuba to Nicaragua then Mexico for those heading to the United States. I have a stepson on this route now. His wife is already in Florida. The route to Brazil is through Guyana, so Daniela and Santiago Alberto need two tickets each which may total $4,000. “What the market will bear,” one of the axioms of the “free market,” can make life very expensive. I am appealing to the financial commons as a visionary with the belief that we can organize ourselves to move forward with building a democratic commons that includes loans in particular. I am asking for a $4,800 community loan to help us get established in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I believe that we can pay it back and even contribute to a fund in the financial commons to be used for the common good. Of course grants and donations will be accepted but I am appealing for a loan because I feel we have some responsibility that our situation will promote a financial flow that will “Return to the Source,” which also the title of a great book featuring Amilcar Cabral from Guinea Bissou/Cape Verde Islands, which like Brazil was once a Portuguese colony. Even if I were to die before a loan was repaid I am confident that Daniela would complete the agreement. The relations that we build now may come to fruition in an amazing future. Of all the possible world systems, may we be reborn in a pure land and enjoy the commons of unconditional love. In the words of the Lord’s Prayer “On earth as it is in Heaven.” May this earth become a pure land. I have given up dualism for the all good expanse of primordial purity which is the seamless nature of reality in its completely natural state. It cannot be defined but can be experienced. Our ancestors point the way. I hope annarborcommunitycommons.org picks up on this work. I believe Groundcover News has a role to play. I was involved as a supporter of the World Social Forum which was in Detroit in 2010, which talked about the commons we all share. Let’s look at another forum as we see COMMONS next page
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