15. What do you do if somebody offers you money or buys things for you?
People buying me things:
I prefer that people give me what is already at hand in the present moment. Sometimes I let people buy me things. They dearly want to give and just their freely giving is a release from the system of credit and debt. The spirit of generosity supercedes all. But I'm liking it less and less to have things bought for me. It causes too much confusion. If something is not available in the present moment, then I surely don't need it or want it. This is the point of not using money.
Money represents everything except what is at hand.
And only the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
People giving me money and what to do with it:
I often try to tell people that I don't take or use money before they try to give me anything. If they then try to give me money, I refuse it and tell them again, "I am not joking, I really don't take or use money", and I thank them for their intention. If they don't know I live moneyless and they give me money, I often take it and then leave it some place random, at least within 24 hours. This way I am accepting people's generosity but not their money, and everybody is happy, including a third party stranger who finds that random money. Once in a while I pass it on to somebody I encounter who might need it.
Give to everyone who asks.
Render to Reality what is Reality and render to illusion what is illusion.
Most people are dependent upon the illusion of money and I respect their need and pass money on to them. Contrary to conventional wisdom, if I find a beer and I encounter an alcoholic who asks me for a beer, I will give him the beer. Not giving him the beer won't lessen his alcoholism even a bit. In fact, I dare say, withholding the beer will make his alcoholism worse. The root of addictions is lack of love, judgmentalism, not the addictive substance itself. The next time you feel judgmental toward an alcoholic or a meth addict or feel like you have to parent him, remember your own addiction to money and your expectation that somebody give you money when you feel you need it.
However, it is better not to have any beer to give to the alcoholic,
and it is better not to have any money to give to the moneyholic.
Then we all have to deal with the reality of circumstances beyond our own power (called the Law of God). Then the addict faces his addiction without anybody judging him or trying to parent him and you are forced to be creative and give love that goes beyond material things.
In other words,
it is better not to have money than to pay taxes.
It is better not to have anything that belongs to Caesar,
because all that belongs to Caesar is unreal.
If you depend on money, you are no better than the Caesars who depend on your money. If you don't want to pay taxes, then don't own money. Don't be a hypocrite about it. If you don't like the Wal Marts and the Exxons, then don't buy from them, don't own anything from them, and stop thinking you can't live without them. Make it up in your mind that you would rather die than be dependent on Wal Mart or Exxon, that you need absolutely nothing from Wal Mart or Exxon or any corporation or bank. If you think you can't survive without corporations or banks, then you are declaring that you are their life-blood. They wouldn't be the monsters that they are without you. Money is their life-blood, and all who rely on their life-blood are one with them. I don't care what Christian or any other faith you profess, if you think you cannot possibly survive without corporations, then you believe corporations are greater than God. And you believe God is not in control, is not sovereign. If you think you can't survive without corporations and banks, you have no faith, and all your talk of God is utter nonsense. You are using the name of God in vain. Then you wonder why the word "God" is so loathsome to people.
Everything just written here is one principle.