Artwork for podcast PowerPivot
Vow of Prosperity
Episode 425th March 2022 • PowerPivot • Leela Sinha
00:00:00 00:13:31

Share Episode

Shownotes

How shall we be in integrity while holding power? And what does that mean? That's the question.

Transcripts

Leela Sinha:

So I've been thinking about vows. I've been

Leela Sinha:

thinking about vows because one of my teachers had us go through

Leela Sinha:

this process where we released vows that were not serving us,

Leela Sinha:

that we might have made by inadvertent processes in the

Leela Sinha:

early parts of our lives. And, whoooo, was that powerful? I

Leela Sinha:

wasn't surprised, of course, it was powerful. How could that

Leela Sinha:

work not be powerful. And, you know, sometimes when you release

Leela Sinha:

something, you can just let it be released. And that's it, it's

Leela Sinha:

like a bird, it flies away, no problem. Other times, when you

Leela Sinha:

release something, you're left with something, you're left with

Leela Sinha:

a hole, it removes itself from a space, and you have to decide if

Leela Sinha:

that space is just going to get kind of healed over. Like if you

Leela Sinha:

have a tooth pulled, or if you're going to put something

Leela Sinha:

back in that space. We learned in science when I was, I don't

Leela Sinha:

know, in seventh grade or so that nature hates a vacuum. As

Leela Sinha:

it turns out, that's very true. Any open space will eventually

Leela Sinha:

be filled in by something. And so the question that I've been

Leela Sinha:

thinking about and wrestling with and praying on this morning

Leela Sinha:

is what happens when we release some of those really deep,

Leela Sinha:

ingrained vows, especially ones around things like money and

Leela Sinha:

power. And specifically, I got to thinking about vows of

Leela Sinha:

poverty. Now, vows of poverty, historically, very connected to

Leela Sinha:

religious practice, across different faiths, many vowed

Leela Sinha:

religious people make a vow of poverty, and they make a vow of

Leela Sinha:

poverty, to devote themselves more fully to the work of the

Leela Sinha:

Spirit. That's, that's the usual shape of the thing. And the idea

Leela Sinha:

is not that they are so poor that they can't eat or can't

Leela Sinha:

have a place to sleep. The idea is that the church, the

Leela Sinha:

religious institution of one kind, or another, takes care of

Leela Sinha:

them. And they, in turn, devote their time and energy and

Leela Sinha:

talents and spirit, to the relationship with the sacred.

Leela Sinha:

And to this kind of religious leadership. And there are lots

Leela Sinha:

of good reasons why that's true. It's easier if you don't have

Leela Sinha:

any other commitments, to devote yourself to a community or to a

Leela Sinha:

tradition. And it does sort of help focus you because there's

Leela Sinha:

nothing else. Right. So there are things that people do, there

Leela Sinha:

are reasons that people make, deliberate vows of poverty that

Leela Sinha:

makes sense in context. So I'm not, I'm only thinking about

Leela Sinha:

those as the beginning point. Because I think, I know I have,

Leela Sinha:

I know a lot of other people, especially people, liberal

Leela Sinha:

people, have made similar vows, but kind of by accident; looking

Leela Sinha:

around seeing at the kinds of destruction that wealth and

Leela Sinha:

power have wrought on our world. And deciding that, you know, in

Leela Sinha:

the, in the common parlance, "eat the rich," right, that that

Leela Sinha:

there is some level of wealth above which wealth is immoral.

Leela Sinha:

And I don't actually have an argument with that, I think

Leela Sinha:

there is a level of wealth above which, there's no way to have

Leela Sinha:

accrued it without causing immense harm. And I don't want

Leela Sinha:

to be part of something that causes immense harm. However,

Leela Sinha:

there's a lot of space between that and poverty. And we live in

Leela Sinha:

a world at this point where nobody, and I mean, nobody

Leela Sinha:

should be going without housing without food, without clothing,

Leela Sinha:

without their basic needs met, like that should just be a

Leela Sinha:

given. And it's not. And that, that's a gut punch every time I

Leela Sinha:

think about it. And also, there are a lot of people who are

Leela Sinha:

between those two poles.There are a lot of folks who have

Leela Sinha:

some, but not really enough to get by. They're making it but

Leela Sinha:

they're making it by the skin of their teeth. And I have been in

Leela Sinha:

that position in my lifetime over and over and over. So I'm

Leela Sinha:

thinking about this in a very personal way. Well, what does it

Leela Sinha:

mean? What does it mean to accidentally swear that you're

Leela Sinha:

never gonna be rich, because rich people are bad? Because

Leela Sinha:

that's what we do. And then I was thinking about, well, there

Leela Sinha:

must be, as there are, right, when I think about intensives

Leela Sinha:

and expansives, I figured out who intensives were and then I

Leela Sinha:

was like well, there must be another end to this spectrum. So

Leela Sinha:

if there are people who inadvertently make vows of

Leela Sinha:

poverty, there must be people also in our world who are

Leela Sinha:

inadvertently making vows of prosperity,

Leela Sinha:

and I don't mean Prosperity Gospel, like, let's just not

Leela Sinha:

even, I'm not even going there. You can look it up on Wikipedia

Leela Sinha:

if you want. But that is not what I'm talking about. But,

Leela Sinha:

people who, in the going about their lives, either because

Leela Sinha:

their families were prosperous, or because their context was not

Leela Sinha:

prosperous, and they were not doing that, make a vow of

Leela Sinha:

prosperity, they make a vow that that is never going to be them,

Leela Sinha:

that they are going to rise up from that position, to a place

Leela Sinha:

of prosperity. And stay there. I think a lot of immigrants do

Leela Sinha:

this. I'm pretty sure my father did this. But I think a lot of

Leela Sinha:

people who aren't immigrants do this, too. I think that there is

Leela Sinha:

a stratum where about half the people make a vow of poverty

Leela Sinha:

because they're so hurt and angry at what wealth has done in

Leela Sinha:

our world, and the other half make a vow of prosperity because

Leela Sinha:

they are not about to get trapped under the boot of class

Leela Sinha:

inequality. So I've been thinking like, what would it

Leela Sinha:

mean for me to take a vow of prosperity? What would it mean

Leela Sinha:

for me to take a vow of prosperity? And by thinking I

Leela Sinha:

mean, it came to me in prayer, and then I had to think about

Leela Sinha:

it. But you don't have to arrive there that way. You can get

Leela Sinha:

there by straight-up logical means. What does it mean to take

Leela Sinha:

a vow of prosperity. And this got me thinking about power and

Leela Sinha:

the intersection of power and money, which, as some of you

Leela Sinha:

know, is a big deal to me, I think about it a lot. When you

Leela Sinha:

take a vow of poverty, you are relinquishing access to a

Leela Sinha:

particular kind of power. Not all power, but you are

Leela Sinha:

relinquishing access to the power that comes with having

Leela Sinha:

money in what we live in, which is a capitalist society. You may

Leela Sinha:

be gaining other kinds of power, or not, depending on your

Leela Sinha:

community, depending on the context of power. But you're

Leela Sinha:

definitely relinquishing access to that particular power that

Leela Sinha:

comes with wealth. So when you take a vow of prosperity, first

Leela Sinha:

you have to define prosperity. Is it about money? Is it about

Leela Sinha:

other kinds of resources, social prosperity? Is it about... is it

Leela Sinha:

about resource prosperity? What is the vow really? Because

Leela Sinha:

prosperity is this kind of amorphous word where we

Leela Sinha:

understand poverty to be very closely linked to money, we

Leela Sinha:

don't really think about what that means on the other side. So

Leela Sinha:

first, I'm thinking about like, what would prosperity mean to

Leela Sinha:

me? I have so much prosperity already. I have lots of

Leela Sinha:

prosperity, just not to do with money. But I have prosperity

Leela Sinha:

when it comes to that kind of prosperity when it comes to

Leela Sinha:

social context. I have prosperity when it comes to

Leela Sinha:

resources. I have prosperity when it comes to the resources

Leela Sinha:

that come from social context. I have deep and abiding

Leela Sinha:

relationships that help to hold me up, that offer me shelter,

Leela Sinha:

that offer me care, that offer me a buffer that other people

Leela Sinha:

don't have. So what would prosperity mean? What would a

Leela Sinha:

vow of prosperity mean? How would it be different from

Leela Sinha:

what's happening right now? Where would I be directing it

Leela Sinha:

and then, and then it's about thinking about this power piece.

Leela Sinha:

Because if you vow, poverty, you're removing something. But

Leela Sinha:

when you vow, prosperity, you're vowing access to, whether or not

Leela Sinha:

you access it, you're vowing access to that particular kind

Leela Sinha:

of power that comes from prosperity. You're vowing access

Leela Sinha:

to resources, you're vowing access to a bunch of stuff. And

Leela Sinha:

most of us who make inadvertent vows of poverty, do so at least

Leela Sinha:

in part, because we don't want to be like somebody else, or

Leela Sinha:

some other institution, or some entity that we've seen be evil

Leela Sinha:

with power that we perceive having come from money. So what

Leela Sinha:

happens instead, when we vow prosperity, and access to those

Leela Sinha:

kinds of power, whether we choose to access them or not.

Leela Sinha:

We're vowing access to those kinds of power. And immediately

Leela Sinha:

it becomes obvious to me that you can't make that, I can't

Leela Sinha:

make, a vow of prosperity in integrity, in isolation. Because

Leela Sinha:

prosperity happens in community, prosperity happens

Leela Sinha:

as a result of community, of interaction of resources, of

Leela Sinha:

things that are not actually mine. But things that I might

Leela Sinha:

have access to for a while. And prosperity brings with it this

Leela Sinha:

power. And so there needs to be a vow, or several vows, that go

Leela Sinha:

with it. Vows like integrity, vows like kindness, vows like

Leela Sinha:

generosity, in order to ensure, to the greatest extent possible,

Leela Sinha:

that prosperity is not a corrupting force. Because I

Leela Sinha:

think that's what we're mostly afraid of, is that we will be

Leela Sinha:

corrupted by it. We will be corrupted in its presence. We

Leela Sinha:

will be corrupted, and then we will wield the power that we got

Leela Sinha:

from the prosperity for less good ends, or for bad ends. And

Leela Sinha:

the only way, the only way to mitigate that possibility,

Leela Sinha:

because it's a real possibility, we can't turn away from it. When

Leela Sinha:

we are deliberately accruing power in some way or other,

Leela Sinha:

including via prosperity, then we have to engage the questions

Leela Sinha:

of kindness and generosity. We have to engage the questions of

Leela Sinha:

integrity, how will we stay in integrity when we have power?

Leela Sinha:

And that's the question isn't it? So often, when people rise

Leela Sinha:

to power their integrity cracks, and people who were amazing lose

Leela Sinha:

some of their shine. I don't know a single person who wants

Leela Sinha:

to be that person. I do know people who have been that

Leela Sinha:

person. I don't want to follow in their footsteps. So

Leela Sinha:

how, how will we stay in integrity? How shall we be in

Leela Sinha:

integrity while holding power? And what does that mean? That's

Links

Chapters

Video

More from YouTube