14. You say you don't use money, yet aren't you using products of the money system & relying on the hard-earned money of others? [Revised October 10, 2009]
Before I answer this, please ask yourself if I am contributing to the money system in any way, and if I am a drain on anybody (i.e., if I take more than I need). I use things that are already running (whether I existed or not), already thrown away, already given away freely and voluntarily. I do not steal. My philosophy is to take only things that are at hand, in the Present, Here & Now, although I sometimes give in and allow people to buy things for me, because they are insistant, though I try to discourage it. Their desire to be generous supercedes my "regulations", and it turns out a blessing on both of us. Love is high above regulation.
Now, to answer your question, first with questions:
Are swallows nesting in house attics dependent upon money? Are pigeons nesting on bank skyscrapers dependent upon money? Are barnacles clinging to aircraft carriers and corals living on buried artifacts dependent upon money? Are bears and ravens eating out of dumpsters dependent upon money?
Nature uses everything, without discrimination. The money mind is the discriminative mind, assigning "value", but nature uses everything, labeling nothing "just" or "unjust". The sunlight and rain FREELY fall on everything, both the just and the unjust, the "deserving" and "undeserving".
Be like Nature. Be Nature.
Now this is something really, really hard for most adults to get, because it is too simple. It's hard to get especially if you've spent years trying to support a family or are heavily in debt. But please get this: Money is a figment of the imagination, illusion. Only illusion thinks anything real is dependent upon illusion. Illusion is real to illusion, but not to Reality. We humans have become walking illusions, not showing one another our Real Selves. Let me clarify: if I do something, not out of my instinctual heart, but to get something, I am acting through ulterior motivation, not out of my Being Real! Money is ulterior motivation.
If money were real, then we would start out, as babies, recognizing it. Squirrels & moths would recognize it, as they recognize air and rocks.
The whole point of the spiritual path is to return to Reality, to be free from our bondage to illusion, to idols. Idols are symbols that we falsely perceive as Reality. We must see everything As It Is, not as thoughts, not as imaginations, not as symbols, not as likenesses. Reality says, "There is nothing like Me" (Isaiah 46:9).
If you still doubt me, please see "What Money Is and What Money Is Not"
I do not pretend to be self-sufficient, independent. I am dependent upon you & you are dependent upon me. To realize this dependence, in fact, is the whole point of my living this way!
But we are not dependent upon money, despite appearances. I do rely on the hard work of others just as others rely on the hard work of myself. Somebody then places totally arbitrary numbers upon that hard work and then says we are dependent upon those arbitrary numbers, rather than upon the hard work! We confuse our symbols with the reality they represent! Yes, money is illusion, and nobody can, in reality, rely on illusion. If you call your work Santa Claus and believe it, then you also believe that I rely on Santa Clause.
Every creature and every atom in this universe relys on the hard work of another. Every creature, every particle, is a mooch - you included. If you take more than you need, your mooch-ness is not in balance.
Where does virtually all the energy on earth come from, including the energy running this computer? The sun. Now when was the last time the sun demanded payment for any energy ever used on planet earth? When was the last time you even thanked the sun, much less tried to pay it back? Even if the sun could demand payment, how can anything anywhere pay the sun back? All energy on earth is freely given! The energy running this computer system is ultimately from the sun.
Now we begin to understand the world-wide myth in most every culture about some trickster stealing fire from heaven. This myth explains what separated humans from the rest of nature. See "Our Fall From Grace: Our Departure From Gratis: The Beginning of Money"
The Unconscious Trade of Creatures
Take a look at non-human creatures. The only difference between, say, a deer and yourself on this issue is that the deer freely takes grass without any idea of obligation (money, debt). And some cougar might freely take that deer without any idea of obligation (money, debt). And some bacterium, and then fungus, might claim that cougar without any sense of debt, returning that cougar to soil. And grass will then claim that soil without sense of debt. And a deer will claim that grass without sense of debt, starting the cycle over again. All is freely given, freely taken, with no sense of barter, debt, money. And everything gets paid back perfectly, with no debts. This is called Perfect Justice. Because this system does not rely on a fictitious idea of money, it is in perfect balance, Perfect Justice. Then there is clear vision and true gratitude, a true realization of what we are really dependent upon.
Is there an economy on earth that can balance its budget? Is there a monetary system that even comes close to being just? Justice cannot exist within monetary civilization's walls. There is none just, no not one. And the more a society tries to balance credit and debt, the more unjust it becomes. Every nation is unfathomably in debt to every other nation. How senseless does it have to become before we get it?
If you are indignant about your percieved reality that I am dependent upon the money system, should I be indignant about the true reality that you and everything in the world is completely dependent upon Gift, with no strings attached. Where is the sense of gratitude? No, if I were indignant about this, then I would not be like the sun, who doesn't even expect gratitude. But gratitude & true generosity are signs of life, aren't they? Gratitude & generosity are the very force that drives the universe.