this meditation on the karma of money arrived in my inbox courtesy of a Vipassana teacher I have sat with on retreat  a few times, Christopher Titmus.
Its an interesting reminder...

WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR MONEY?

We have the unfortunate karma to have been reborn as consumers. A tiny privileged minority, often in the entertainment and sports world, have daily three very bad karmas to deal with – namely to be rich, famous and desirable. Money is the key to the doorway into the kingdom of heaven for the consumer although it is a short lived heaven, often leaving in its wake disappointment, frustration and disillusionment. So what are we doing with our money? Exploration of our relationship to money is an ethical practice (Pali: Sila), an act of virtue, a precept for training and is as significant as any of the Five Precepts (not killing, not stealing, not engaging in sexual abuse, not lying, nor abusing alcohol or drugs) or we could see money as an integral aspect of Right Livelihood, and/or the second precept?] Here are a few areas for inquiry about money. In these and other areas we can all make the effort to take conscious steps, as part of our Dharma practice, to use our power power as consumers to make a difference to our world. We must also be willing to challenge the corrupt system of government and corporate power that casts its dark, controlling shadow over our lives.

BANKS and SAVINGS: Check out banks with an ethical policy and insist on ethical investments wherever you are placing extra money. Visit www.triodos.co.uk and www.co-operativebank.co.uk.

BUY ORGANIC FOOD. You will pay more for organic food than food grown with chemicals or genetically modified food but the gap is getting smaller and smaller. Sometimes the difference is negligible. Support small shops as much as possible. At the same time, notice: where is your food coming from? Aren’t organic vegetables flown half-way round the world also damaging to the environment? Visit www.soilassociation.org.uk

MARKETS: Shop in local markets as much as possible. Enjoy the friendly atmosphere, locally made or locally grown food, great bargains, largely free from unnecessary packaging, and numerous items for sale recycled from previous owners.

SHOPPING: Be well informed about ethical companies. Make a list of multi-national companies to avoid – Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Nestles are among the world’s largest and least conscious multi-nationals. That’s the tip of the iceberg. www.foe.co.uk

FAIRTRADE: More and more consumers buy Fairtrade products to support the poor in other parts of the world, as well as to purchase fine food. www.fairtrade.org.uk

CHARITY SHOPS: Support good causes, your purchases contribute to making things last. Explore also used book shops, second hand furniture shops, local recycling centres, car boot sales and classified advertisements in local issues for a bargain.

CLEAN ELECTRICITY: Choose a supplier who supports renewable energy and only use lights and heating in occupied rooms and offices. Examples are: www.good-energy.co.uk and www.ecotricity.co.uk.

TRAVEL: Use a bus, train or bicycle as much as possible. Avoid driving your car to the shops. Take a backpack, shopping bags or suitcase bag on wheels to collect your groceries and other items instead of adding to the demand for plastic bags. Walk and stay fit. Regard carrying of groceries as exercise.Car pool. For example: . www.caresharedevon.com. For information on sustainable transport. www.sustrans.org.uk If you fly give £5 (€7.50) for every four hours of flying to cover carbon costs by planting trees. www.treesforlife.org.uk Forests. The sites for USA are www.amfor.org or www.americanforests.org.

MAY ALL BEINGS LIVE A CONSCIOUS LIFE

Christopher Titmus
www.insightmeditation.org

the other evening i revisited Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation .. and was struck once again, on this second viewing, by what a beautiful mediation it is on alienation and love. 

The film catches its mains Bill Murray and Scarlet Johannsen inside of a web of meaning; cultural codes that they don't have the key for,  woven around them in a palpable sense of alienation.   Yet within the dislocation of this frame Scarlet Johanssen's character chances upon moments of intensity and beauty; moments of depth which  (temporarily) sear through  the gap, requiring no translation.  And then there are moments of human connection, of warmth, empathy, simpatico .. the radiant joy of randomly finding someone who truly and  unexpectedly brightens the way on our path.

Watching the film  illuminated something that I've been musing over : a  shared characteristic in some of my  favourite musicians - Joni Mitchell, Beth Orton, Nick Drake.  The rawness of their music holds out beauty wrapped in melancholy, a sense of the intertwining of pleasure and pain, of both the gap between them and the continual and constant relationship of the two. And I read in Lost in Translation an echo of the intimate nature of that relationship : the inseparability of melancholy and joy. And I see something there about  confronting the gap between our self and our world,  the yearning to make that connection, to understand and be understood.  And the tenderness of the very fact of the randomness of the manifest beauties and multiple losses that texture our lives...