Poverty, definitions, and near enemies.

In Buddhist psychology, a “near enemy” is a mental state that looks like a positive emotion but is something associated, nearby, which undermines it. Unlike something’s opposite, which is easy to spot, the “near enemy” of a positive emotion is much harder to tell apart and damages the good thing which it is associated with.

If we speak from a place of healthy enough-ness, then poverty looks like the inability to access that state of having enough. That it’s the lack of the things that you need being accessible. If poverty is defined as not getting your needs met, then you would think that wealth would be the opposite, and would get your needs met. But material wealth in this culture has nothing to do with your emotional needs for connection being met, and seems to correlate negatively with healthy relationships, ime. So it seems to me that wealth might be the near enemy of having healthy enough-ness, of worthiness and belonging and connection. That it can be just a different form of not having enough.

Thinky thoughts for today.