Poverty, definitions, and near enemies.

[flamingsword]

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.

Comments

100%!!!

[silk_dragon_zen]

Wealth inequality isn't just bad for those in the lowest income 80% of the world's population. It's bad for pretty much everyone, imo. High income/wealthy people very often do not recognize their poverty of real human connection, probably in a similar way as someone in the throws of a serious addiction who spends most of their life chasing after their object of addiction: in this case wealth and all the trappings that come with it.

— Sage

Re: 100%!!!

[flamingsword]

Yeah, I’ve yet to meet a rich person in America who was anything like authentic or connected to a real community with whom they could be themselves. Wealth and power don’t just corrupt your morals, they warp how you relate to other people, and infect you with hierarchy, which you take into every relationship. It’s a slow poison.

[sabotabby]

Oh! This is a really interesting concept. I shall think upon it more.

[flamingsword]

Thanks! I’ve been listening to too many podcasts, and this is my brain’s intersection of AuDHD Flourishing’s episode Poverty Is Not Your Fault and Unlocking Us’s episode about the near enemies of compassion.