SHOPPING MALL SYNDROME (SMS)
Shop ‘til you Drop, Mall ‘til you Fall and Buy ‘til you Die

EntroPhilosophy
Our loving, merciful and compassionate God gave us two natural and spiritual laws.  One is the biblical law of sow and reap, otherwise known as karma, which governs our actions. The other one is the law of entropy which explains how matter and all of physical creation goes through a period of decline.

Physical Considerations and Scientific Manifestations
The Law of Entropy refers to the 1st and 2nd Laws of Thermodynamics.  It also considers that:
 
1. Everything is made up of energy.
2. Matter is form of condensed energy.
3. Energy can either be created or destroyed.
4. Potential energy to kinetic energy.
5. If there is movement, energy from higher level is transformed to energy at lower level.  Ex: Steam Engine – it runs by burning a coal, as the coal burns out, it loses its potential and energy is dissipated.

In Simple and Familiar Terms 
1. Whatever is new will become old.
2. What you don’t use, you lose.
3. What goes up must come down.
4. There is order in disorder.
5. Ordered state progresses to chaotic state.

The last three statements in the above list are more scientific while the first two are more logical and practical. So, please join me in further exploring these two principles and see if we can find some value which can help us effectively deal with this consumerist, commercialist, and materialistic world.

Let me begin with the premise that nothing and absolutely nothing in this world that is new will not become old.  This includes, with no exceptions, all our material possessions. This also includes our own bodies and our relationships with people.

The second statement has more to do with physical blessings, specifically, material things.  Sometimes, we take so much time and energy in saving more money to buy an item which we are only too excited and happy to use while it is still new. Yet, we forget it when it gets old and worn out, until finally we lose our interest in it.  Another gift that we should also use is our mind, because if we misuse or under-use its capacity, we are sure to lose the brilliance it has to offer. Why, for example, are some people dull-headed? Or maybe develop Alzheimer’s disease in old age? The less we use and develop the capacities of our mind, the less it will work for our benefit.

Attachment and Affirmation
There is nothing wrong in shopping or buying for something beautiful that gives us pleasure and happiness.  The danger arises when our capacity to shop and what we shop for becomes the anchor of our self-worth and self-identity. This erroneous mindset reinforces a wrong sense of living as nothing more than a pattern of ownership.  When we devote our energy to money and material possessions, we distract ourselves from our real purpose in life, which is definitely more than what money can buy. 

The karmic enemy number one associated with commercialism, consumerism and materialism is attachment.  There is nothing wrong with being a consumerist as long as we have enough money and other resources coming from legitimate sources to buy whatever we need for our daily subsistence. What makes it wrong is when we use ill-gotten money to buy things. Another level of this problem is when we start to identify ourselves with the things we bought by becoming super proud, arrogant and egoistic of our material acquisitions – as if our lives depended on them.  Worst is, when we get angry when somebody tells us that what we bought look cheap and fake. And when we misplace of lose these things, this can also become a reason to feel unhappy. All these are signs of attachment.

I will tell you what to do when you are confronted with this situation so that you will not lose your self and get angry.  Do not ever identify and attach yourself with the things you buy.  If somebody tells you that what you just bought look cheap and fake, just ignore the comment.  Remember, you were the one who personally bought it and therefore you know very well the real value of what you use your money for.

In the event that you misplace or lose an item, do not feel bad or mad.  If you have enough money, just buy a new one and enjoy it. Do not ever depend on other people for affirmation.  Affirm your own self and God will affirm you –this is all you need.  Remember, the real purpose of life and living is to experience and share peace and happiness.  So, hold on to these and do not ever lose them.

Retail Therapy
To look for something we desire is “shopping.”  To acquire what we need is “buying” and to buy what we want is “accumulating.”  Materialism appears to be the archrival of the soul.  However, anti-materialism can become just as inimical to the growth of the soul.

Shunning away from the material world is not an automatic source of spiritual benefit.  What we need to watch and turn away from is the attitude that our wealth and material possessions are us. Material things are never the true reflections of our intrinsic worth. 

In the process of over-identifying ourselves with our possessions, we lose our true identity as spiritual beings.  When this happens, our peace and happiness are always in peril.  What we will constantly experience is pain and sorrow instead.  I do not think that this is what we want after doing everything in order to become very successful in life. Real success, after all, is when I am able to live by my deepest values and make other people’s lives as valuable as my own.

Simply, simplicity!
For purposes of this presentation, let us try to redefine and simplify the spiritual meaning of the virtue simplicity.  For me, I find that contentment is the main foundation of simplicity.  In practical life, this means that if we are planning to buy something quite expensive that we really want, whether we really need it or not, and we will be happy and content in buying it, then, by all means, we should buy it. 

However, if there is a different brand with a lesser price and quality and yet we will have the same level and intensity of contentment as with the more expensive one, then, we should buy this one instead.  But, if we think that we will just regret after buying it, then, forget it and buy the more expensive one.  It is as simple as that and it is still simplicity by our own standard and definition -- not of others.

Some Thoughts about Simplicity

1. When there is less expenditure, there is more splendor, and where there is more splendor, there is greater glorification.
2. Simplicity breeds generosity and abundance. Greed creates a culture of scarcity that leads to poverty.
3. The true measure in the practice of the value of simplicity is the happiness and contentment experienced by the person and not in the quality or quantity of things he or she acquires.
4. There is greatness in ordinariness.
5. Simplicity is spiritual economy which brings out our integrity and dignity.

The Shopper-Avenger

Some people turn to retail therapy as a quick-fix to their problems.  Other people buy the most expensive items to exact revenge or get even with the person whom they are angry with in order to have temporary relief from negative emotions. 

Credit Card – the Plastic Monster

A credit card can either increase or decrease one’s credibility, depending on the person’s actual capacity to pay.  It also depends on how disciplined the person is in managing his or her credit lines and privileges.  A credit card gives the holder a kind of  excitement while the card is being swiped. It also gives him or her some temporary happiness when the credit is approved, and a short-lived contentment once he or she receives the item purchased. However, for some people, the very same card is the source of their tension, fear, apprehension, pain and sorrow when payment due date comes, especially when bills are piling up and funds are low.

Twenty years ago, I got my first credit card from one of the most respected offshore banks in the country after almost three long months of very strict documentation and processing.  When I received it, I could not explain my feelings.  I was so happy and proud.  I immediately went to see my boss and officemates, showed the card to them and treated them for an expensive snack.  I went home hurriedly and excitedly, showed it to my wife and children and treated them also to an expensive dinner. That was the beginning of my agony every payment date because there was no more stopping in using the card for my buying spree.  Can you relate with me? Am I not alone here?  Have you done the same thing? Good, now I know I am not alone.

Fashion, Debt and Resuscitation
The more we feed our material appetite, the hungrier it becomes.

As spiritual beings like Jesus Christ, we have also in our own Passion, Death and Resurrection in our life and probably, for some of us, it is a cycle.  This is how we fluctuate from being very passionate about something. After some time, we lose our interest and enthusiasm, which is a kind of death. When we discover new inspiration, we resurrect and become active and alive again.  As human beings, we are not always stable and constant. We are easily moved and affected by situations and by how other people think and behave, especially when they are not similar to our own ways. 

As material and social beings, we spend time, money and energy in becoming very fashionable just to cope up with the Joneses -- to the extent of losing our own sense of self.  In the process of maintaining our expensive lifestyle, we start living beyond our means and at the same time, we accumulate unnecessary debts in the process. Once we are trapped in this very precarious position, we take out unnecessary loans to resuscitate our anemic finances and this is again, the beginning of our agony and sorrow in life.  Some people are passionate but fashionable while others are fashionable but not passionate enough.

Daydreams and Nightmares

Sale...Sale...Sale...                           Midnight Sale
10% to 20% Off                             30% to 50% Discount

0% Interest                                    Buy 1...Take 1...
No Down Payment                           Low Down-Long Term Payment
No Down -36 Months to Pay             Pay in Cash-Get More Freebies

Win A Brand New Car                      Win A Brand new House
Win A Brand New TV                       Win A House and Lot
Win A Trip To Boracay Free              Win A Trip to Hongkong Free

Sweepstakes                                   Lotto
Jai Alai                                          Jueteng
Horse Racing                                  Casino

I have been in the business of selling and marketing for the last 34 years. And I used to gamble a lot. I may be wrong and I wish I am but all of the above marketing ploys show the extent and percentage of mark-ups that some businessmen put to cover expenses for such big promotional campaigns.  Business is always business for profit and anything that is given for free is a myth.  With the numbers games and betting systems including Lotto and Sweepstakes, it would be nice if Congress will enact a law requiring all the concerned business entities to put up, or better, print the approximate percentage chance of winning in the face of the tickets.

Each and every prize in the promotional campaign looks very attractive. Similar to gambling games, we are not familiar with actuarial subjects as we are not statisticians.  We do not even bother to sit down and compute the percentage of our chance of winning any of these attractive prizes being offered. Well, of course, the benefit is that, while waiting for our numbers or names to be drawn, we are already imagining that we are the winners and we are also thinking of what we will do with our winnings.  This is good as long as we do not feel bad when we lose. But this is also not so good because we waste our time in creating a delusion about our perceived yet unattainable wealth.

I hope that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will be able to come up with a memorandum or circular requiring all businesses conducting promotional campaigns to be transparent and honest enough to their customers by incorporating in the campaign posters the percentage of winning the prize.  We should always remember that in bigger contests or promotions like the ones conducted by giant companies, for every one winner, there are always hundreds, thousands or even millions of losers.

Personally, I do not believe in luck.  One author defined luck merely as a preparation for meeting an opportunity.  It means that if we are physically, emotionally, psychologically, financially and spiritually prepared to face and meet that opportunity, when we get it, we say to ourselves, we are lucky. And if we are not prepared and did not get it, we say we are not as lucky.  Probably, we should start to consider believing in destiny instead.  We cannot hope to win a prize in a sweepstakes draw if we did not make effort to buy a ticket at all.


Potlatch and Fetish

“Potlatch” is a term used by one American tribe where people gave away, burned and destroyed their most valued possessions as a display of generosity and social status. The term “fetish” comes from a Portuguese word meaning “charm.”  The word was used by 16th Century sailors to describe what they thought to be a bizarre and worthless object made of wood and rag, but it was worshipped and held in great esteem by the natives of western Africa.

We are all surrounded by our own versions of  “fetish” – fancy cars, fashionable clothing, big houses, expensive gadgets, etc.  We invest on these objects with our own material resources and we allow them to define our worth. We make their acquisition one of the central goals in our life.

While these two words describe our tendency as human beings to impress other people more than ourselves and God, it is hidden in the beautiful guise of service and generosity. But when we dig deep into our hearts and see that we still desire to be recognized and appreciated for all our efforts, then this is still ego silently working inside us.  


Truth in Advertising

Each day, the media constantly bombard us with so many advertisements.  They influence our decisions and we buy things we really do not need.  This further blurs our ability to discern what is of real value in life. What is the truth behind advertising? 

When the alloy of falsehood is mixed with truth, it merely becomes a reality.  Even with smallest trace of false claim, truth loses its purity and eventually, its clarity of intention and credibility.  Reality only applies to matter and truth to spirit, but not in advertising. In any business, the profit-motive is the main mantra. Truth is too hot to handle when profit is at risk.  The unwritten law of the field is to never allow a business to fail at all costs.

Any advertiser will agree that for a product to sell successfully there should be a certain percentage of falsehood which has to be applied to make the product sound good and look better to the target consumers.  Advertising, through the magic acts of manipulation, has the power to make even the most ordinary of products look larger than life—glamorously enticing and delectable to the eyes. All for the sake of profit!

The Pyramid of Compassion   

Unconsciously, each of us constructs a hierarchy of compassion into a pyramid.  On top might be our children, spouse, parents, relatives, friends, community, our country, the world and somewhere in the pyramid, we place ourselves and our material and earthly possessions. Ironically, sometimes, we cannot even find the merciful and compassionate God in the pyramid.  Where is God in our own pyramid?

God wants us to always remember Him.  Out of His merciful heart, He hears our cries when we are in distress. And when we are happy, He does not mind when we forget Him I think we will do well in our relationships when we learn to relate to people the way God does—always accepting, never imposing. This is real compassion.

Money is a means to life but it is not life

If money and other material blessings are the bases for determining one’s happiness and peace of mind, then Fortune Magazine’s top ten wealthiest people in the world should also be the happiest and most peaceful people.  But, are they? Are they really that happy and peaceful?  Are we sure they are happy?  Are you? How much money do you have right now in your possession?  If you have twenty five million pesos, you need fifty different banks or account names at 500T per bank account just to keep it within Philippine Deposit Insurance’s allowable maximum amount.

Code # 34567 – The Great Divide
 
The combined wealth, in dollars, of the 3 richest persons in the world is equivalent to or even more than Gross National Product (GNP) in dollars of the 45 poorest nations in the world which represent 67 percent of its total population.  On a smaller scale, maybe, the very same situation exists in our country.  The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) are just mum about this crippling statistics but they know that the combined wealth of the 3 top tycoons in the Philippines is equivalent to or even more than the total money in the coffers of the 45 poorest provinces in the country.

The Crippling Statistics

Personally, I still believe that there are really no poor people in the world.  There are only greedy people and nations. More than 1.5 billion people or 25% of the world population survive with $1.25 meal budget a day while more than 50% live below poverty line.  The great irony is that the Group of 20 (G20) richest and most powerful nations in the world are busy negotiating among themselves on how to reduce their nuclear arms which they spent billions and billions of dollars to build. The money they use in building nuclear weapons is more than enough to pay the hungry and dying people in the world. 

If you build something and spent a lot of money in building it, are you not going to use it?  Tell me honestly.  So, what do you think about the war-freak countries?  Do you think they will just display their nuclear weapons, their most precious possessions, in the museums?

Socially, there are two kinds of people in the world and these are those who are rich materially but poor spiritually and those who are poor materially but rich spiritually.  Psychologically, I would categorize them into three types, the greedy rich, the insensitive middle class, and the ignorant poor.  When we combine all of them, what we have is a dirty, chaotic and poverty-stricken world.

Clash of Class

Each day, the gap between the super rich and super poor keep on widening, a situation silently despised and resented by the poor, especially that they all know that the rich conveniently justify their poor condition as the result of their laziness, and not because of lack of opportunity. The poor are even branded as economic “leeches”.  As this situation continues to persist, some of the poor have already taken arms against the rich to get a fair share of the crumbs. It’s not just through burglary and other petty crimes, but in a massive level through their membership in militant leftist groups that justify the armed struggle. Clashes between the rich and the poor perennially arise.

Spiritual Poverty
 
We are witnessing a crisis of values where the culture of greed, wealth, acquisition, accumulation, consumerism, commercialism and a misguided form of materialism take precedence over values such as simplicity, generosity, sharing, sense of fairness and equality. This is a profound spiritual crisis resulting in spiritual poverty which presently crosses all barriers of faith, culture, caste, wealth and geography.  Spiritual poverty is due to the following reasons:

1. Corruption
2. Greed
3. Fear ((99% is due to fear of losing)
4. Possessiveness
5. Hunger for power and position
6. Oppression
7. Anger
8. Violence
9. Sexual perversion
10. Lack of responsible leadership

Drawer and Cabinet Technique

It is time to simplify. Dispose and dispense all the things that we do not need externally, internally, and materially. Let us replace them with something truly personal and spiritual.  Let us use the “drawer and cabinet” technique. Let us go and visit our drawers and cabinets and try to smell the things we have kept there, our clothes, shoes, bags, etc., and if some of them do not smell good already, dispose them.  Let us donate or give all of these things to those who have less but have much better use for them. This is also a way for us to claim the good wishes from others and more blessings from God.

Let us also try to look for some rusty items and if we can find some. It means that we have not used these things for quite sometime and probably we have no use for them anymore.  Similarly, our mind is sometimes like a cabinet or a drawer, full of thoughts which are old, wasteful and useless.  It is about time to clean up our minds by getting rid of all of our wasteful and negative thoughts and replace them with useful, meaningful and positive ones.

One example of a positive thought that we can think of daily is “I am a peaceful soul.” Try saying this to yourself in the morning, during the day, and before going to sleep. And even if you feel peaceless, you will actually begin to feel the peace that is just waiting to re-emerge from within you.

Natural Spa and Spiritual Gym  

We make regular visits to a natural spa for beauty treatment and body massage and to a fitness gym to exercise in order to gain more physical stamina. Let us not also forget to make regular visits to the little corner of our own mind to massage our soul and to exercise our spirits for our own spiritual and mental development.  Silence and quieting the mind is a good mental and spiritual exercise.  Try it.


All is fair in God's Love

It is said that the poor ones are already assured of a special place in heaven because they have already experienced hell here on earth, while the rich ones who have already experienced heaven here on earth will be in a very ordinary place in heaven. 

When very rich people are in a very beautiful, clean, cozy and very expensive beach or mountain resort together with their family, relatives and friends, eating superb and very expensive food and drinking first class wine, in extreme happiness, they say, “This is life!  This is heaven!”  While the poor ones, in dirty and dark places, with no food on the table and in extreme poverty, they say, “this is hell!” They are so frustrated that they call on God in distress and ask God to end their miseries by ending this world.

The Last One Billion Seconds

It is 2010 and last July, I have just celebrated my 57th birthday.  I abused my body during my younger days and I suffered the consequences from what I call karmic accounts with my own body.  I am sick but I do not have cancer. But I think our sick world has and I am giving myself and this world 28 years more to live. 

Do you have 28 years more to live?  Good for you.  Congratulations! Do you have cash to spend in the next 28 years of your life?  Great!!!  Spend it.  You may not have anymore the time to do it later.  Or better, if you have more than enough for you, share it, create your fortune in heaven and get your commission from God in the form of peace and happiness. 

Disclaimer:
This book is based on my own interpretation and experiences and does not reflect the opinion of my sources of materials.

Sources of materials and inspirations:
Brahma Kumaris including its books, tapes, DVD’s, CD’s, etc.
Brahma Kumaris Teachers and Students
Dadi Janki
Sis. Jayanti
Mike George
Purity Magazine