Premium class.

Premium class. 

About packaging and content or our fatal need for instant gratification. 

A note: This writing is not about cats in boxes; it is a rebuke to materialism and an exhortation to seek true spirituality as the only source of happiness, which in the words of Jesus Christ is: Seek the kingdom of God. Everything else will be given to you. Or in other words: cultivate your inner life and stop worrying about material things, because God will give everything he needs to those who seek His kingdom. 

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We are cunning, skillful, hardworking, persistent and full of talent; nothing can resist us. We know how to exploit the properties of every resource, every material, other living beings and even people to our advantage. We are productive, competitive and even ruthless, for no one could believe that all the good we have in this life comes from business activities with impeccable morals. 

Individuals endowed with superior intelligence can blindly put their God-given light at the service of other individuals who blend forward persuasive motives in their speech, such as security or freedom, to even produce goods that are not good at all, such as weapons or drugs, which I include many medicines, which are also simply called drugs in English. I am not only referring to those who are directly criminal groups according to our laws, but to the majority of companies and institutions with global power, such as big technology, the pharmaceutical industry, NATO, the WHO and all those who provide services to them. They all want to profit from these great gravitational centers of power and money. The only ethic is to win or lose, to have or not to have. The last one is a fool. 

With the money they earn in the shady business of health and war, they buy houses, cars and yachts, sometimes even people. The ravenous appetite of these people knows no bounds and they squeeze the most out of life that others can only dream of or not even imagine. But let us not dwell on the unethical behavior of many brothers and sisters on earth, but on the fact that at all levels, whether immoral, illegal or simply part of the game, the totality of our talents, intelligence and love is directed towards making life more pleasant and comfortable for a few, namely those who have the means, the money, to pay for the goods and services that we know are often produced by the poorest on this planet. 

The fact is that the rewards they receive for their efforts, the rewards that represent their property, their titles and honors, almost never come from solidarity or fair trade, but from the power to exploit the few over the many. And there is something fundamentally wrong and evil about that. But the lure of pleasure, security and comfort is greater than the voice of our conscience. Let's at least be honest: we do everything we can to feel good and to obtain pleasant stimuli of all kinds, of which there are so many that the list is endless and which, incidentally, represent big business that generates billions of dollars every year. 

Where our need to receive rewards and praise is particularly evident is on social media. People who years ago would not have been able to step out of anonymity, which might have been better for them, now have thousands of followers who cheer everything they post; a horde of fans interested in all sorts of topics. The quest for likes and followers is, of course, as much about ego as it is about money, and both can lead to a so-called content creator resorting to ridiculous exaggerations and lies to boost the numbers on their account. Fortunately, there are also those who are dedicated to criticizing everyone, the so-called trolls, who please nobody, but provide these irritating counterweights so that no one thinks he is infallible and perfect. It's easy to lose perspective and humility when everyone goes along with you. 

The issue that concerns us here is much broader than it seems and is not limited to what we call social justice. This consideration refers to each person and what he or she seeks in life and how he or she tries to find peace. What happens here in this life has consequences for the soul and its life on the other side. But, if you do not believe in the immortality of the soul, you can stop reading, unless you feel that it might be true that there is life after death and that there is something called judgment. I tell you that there is not only life after death and judgment, which is certainly quite different from what you believe or imagine, for God is not a cruel but a just and loving being; there is also what we call heaven, and heaven is happiness, the happiness we seek so much here. In the meantime, the lover of his life, which gives him so much joy, aspires to become part of the select group of premium or high-end individuals; to be among those who live better, safer and more comfortably than the middle class, not to mention the rest of struggling human beings on earth in many places where life is basically to work for food. Pleasure has become a ruthless pro-race that constantly creates new groups of winners and losers. 

I would like to talk to you, dear readers, about our need to reward ourselves, i.e. to have the feeling that everything in life is smiling on us and that we have practically reached paradise, a perfect life. The bad thing is that this is an illusion, a fantasy like the immortality of the body or eternal youth. We are experts at deceiving ourselves while we manage to feel joy and be safe from the suffering and pain of this life, if only for a few hours. The caresses we give ourselves make us so foolish that we believe that by driving a nice premium car, eating in luxury restaurants and traveling around the world, we have accomplished something for our inner peace; that we have achieved a goal that must fulfill all our desires and dispel all our fears. Unfortunately, this is not the case and the countless amount of pills swallowed for anxiety and depression in the happy world of the affluent (the poor don't take these legal drugs) is testament to this.

Materialism is a trap; it always has been, it's just that it has taken over in the last few decades, so it's a huge problem in this world because it has become a religion. Everyone wants to get a nice portion of what it offers. But this religion does not lead to heaven and in any case ends with the death of the member who belongs to it. In other words, if we only strive for a comfortable life, it is a huge waste of time and a serious waste of our talents. But it has even worse consequences, which we will see in a moment. 

We are worth much more than that. Actually we are far too precious to behave in such a blind and stupid manner, running after the gold of this world. We miss out on our actual living content. To use a parable: We tend the sheepfold and our sheep get lost and are torn and eaten by the wolves, because the world is full of wolves. Our life, however well we make it with a lot of money and effort, is not a paradise; it has, at most, a few pleasant moments. That's why the drug market (legal & illegal) is so huge. Most of us suffer from physical and/or psychological pain. Medicine, helpless, is content to administer drugs to keep our chronic diseases at bay, a great business for the pharmaceutical industry. That's how bad things are and nobody seems to care too much. 

We delude ourselves by normalizing what is not normal because we have no alternatives, or we think we do because we don't know ourselves! This is a simple turnaround, which unfortunately is not so easy when everyone around us is pulled in a certain direction by the Zeitgeist and its propaganda because we are reluctant to swim against the tide. But in order to find true happiness, what is now at the top must be at the bottom, i.e. our outer life, and what is at the bottom, as good as dead, must be lifted up urgently into the light of our consciousness, namely our inner life, which is also our true nature. More about this in a moment. 

So this alternative to the life we are pursuing here would be a richer inner life and a simpler, less stressful, peaceful outer life, with time for ourselves and love. 

In reality, most people's lives with a high economic level are a complete disaster that can only be solved with more money, if you can even call that a solution. If I go shopping because I'm depressed half the week and anxiety-ridden the other half, that's no way out of my luxury hole. 

When we reward ourselves with material goods and all kinds of services that others who are less fortunate perform for us, we behave like a stupid child who, after opening a present, throws away the contents and plays with the box. We literally let the plant that was in the box dry up and curl up in the box like a cat. That's another parable...

...and although it sounds like a joke, it's not. 

And what is this content that we so foolishly throw away in favor of an empty piece of cardboard? It is life, our life. We are throwing away what really lives within us and is forever connected to life, to the source of all life. This life is not found outside, not in exotic places, not in luxury stores and not in five-star hotels. This life is to be found within ourselves. 

We are this content and it is spiritual. Spirituality is love, not competition; this love finds happiness in itself by favoring the happiness of others; it is the love of the friend, the one who offers comfort and support, not the one who wakes up thinking about how much he will earn today and that he is a winner because he leaves others behind in the race for success. 

I know that questions will arise. 

Does that mean that I should live miserably, even though I could live better, well or even very well; that I should give up my comfort, my luxury car and my AI-controlled house with pool? Actually, yes and no. It's a question of priorities, based on what I am and what life, my life, is, which is all my love, of where I put my love into. It's more a question of perspective, how I use what I own, whether it only benefits me or whether someone else can also improve their life from everything I own, and by that I don't mean my family, my children, but the unknown neighbor. Being rich is not a sin in itself, but only if the love of my possessions takes over my whole life and I forget two things: that I am mortal and the suffering of others. 

Beyond my basic needs for food, clothing and shelter, what I buy and accumulate serves a purpose that I call wealth, luxury or comfort. But psychologically, it is a reward, a satisfaction for my effort, my work, my wisdom and my talent. And, as I say, we love being premium-class, being at the top of the hill and feeling safe from the mire of life that we contemptuously observe below, where the losers writhe in their agony and futile efforts.  

I repeat: we will not deal with social considerations, social justice and the distribution of wealth, natural resources and productive goods. Communism has already tried to solve this problem with a completely wrong approach that has cost the lives of millions of people, which only led capitalism to boast of being the model of happiness and prosperity par excellence. As I said, none of that interests us here, only the psychological aspect, that will lead us to the spiritual meaning of this topic. 

Why do we all, or most of us, like to give ourselves material or sensual gratification (pleasure)? Because it is pleasant and gives me security, the feeling of having achieved something special and of being someone special. Feeling special, i.e. being above the unfortunate who cannot afford the luxuries I enjoy, is stupid enough, because something external and material that gives the appearance of a better life, cannot influence a person's value. Above all, however, it cannot bring security and inner peace. But unfortunately the swindle works, both for those who enjoy luxury and for those who feel envy because they do not have the same luck. But what is the point of all this and what am I suggesting? I will try to explain it without making these reflections too long for a world that is in a hurry to earn more and enjoy itself more. 

I will now address a topic that requires an integral (holistic) approach. This word, the one in brackets, has become fashionable and is used for all sorts of non-holistic topics. We have already said that the psychological background to our need for satisfaction is how little we know ourselves. It is about who we are, holistically, a term that comes from that which is whole and sacred. And what are we holistically? We are spiritual beings in a physical body; we are energy in matter, but not energy that arises from matter, but temporarily occupies and uses matter for a higher purpose. And this higher purpose or destiny of the spirit within us is completely overlooked and trampled upon when we direct our love to our body as if it were our actual self, which it is not, as can be clearly seen if one has understood the above. Otherwise, just read it again. 

This means that the energy that we are, our spirit, exists before the matter that now inhabits my body. We speak of a life before, that is, before physical existence, and in the same way we can speak of a life after. This is holistic, because it alludes to the life that is sacred and does not come from matter, which is not sacred but corrupt, because it has a very great trend to decay, decompose and turn to dust. But we hold on to this thing with our hands and feet, and we call it our life. 

Yes, I need to nourish my body, give it rest and protect it from the elements so that it remains useful for my soul and its higher purpose. But if I identify only with my body and construct my self only as something that arises from matter, brain, neurons and genes, I am not looking at myself as a whole, as a holistic self. To return to the parable of the box and the plant, which is the content that we need to water and make it grow, I say that our spirit or soul is the content and our body is the shell, alluding to the above. 

Since many people only see themselves in relation to their body, the shell, on which they focus all their attention, like cats on a cardboard box, I present them here with a hard nut to crack. Hard, because their soul is so immersed in the body, practically forming a single being, due to how much they love their body, that they fear any attack on it and interpret it as a threat to their lives. And I am not referring to a sensible sense of protecting one's own life, being prudent, but to exaggerated fears about one's health, phobias about viruses and bacteria and internal and external threats, even from space, from the sun to asteroids. 

Fears lead these people to take excessive care of their health - those who can afford it - with absurd diets and all kinds of prohibitions based on trends and little science. They do not trust life; they perceive it as something dangerous on the outside and fragile on the inside. It is extremely easy to lead these people in the direction desired by the sellers of 'remedies', which is a manipulation of their love for their physical selves, but above all to control them with the fear of death or pain, because they do not understand that life can go beyond the physical, beyond their existence here. Here, ignorance, love and fear form a combination that turns these people's lives into a nightmare. This is what leads them to want to keep themselves safe by using their money to create a bubble that will protect them. I can only feel compassion for their misguided souls, lost in the darkness. 

The idea of everything they are as an individual is so tied to their physical body, which they consider to be their life, that it is not surprising that talk of the soul, of God and of eternal life on the spiritual plane sounds to them like a children's fairy tale or a religious hoax. What happens is that their soul is so much in love with their body that it has merged with it and become blind and deaf to anything spiritual. Their love or affection is purely material. When we tell them that they are wasting their life because their life is in the soul and the body (the box) is disposable, they look at us strangely or with pity because they see us as people who do not have their feet on the ground and their heads in the clouds. They are not able to think or feel the spiritual as part of them, as their very being, a holistic one. All their thinking is spatial, three-dimensional and material. They say holistic and mean the material because they are trapped in where their love once took them, perhaps out of envy of those who "had it all" or because they were born into a life of prosperity, which is a tremendous trial for the soul if we remember the words of Christ who said that a camel would rather go through the eye of a needle than a rich man enter the gates of heaven. We have to let them go their way, which will be a little longer and more painful, so that the truth in their soul will emerge. Death will have the last word. 

But let's try to understand the parable of the packaging and the content even better, because it is about ourselves and, like all parables, has a deep meaning that concerns the future of our souls, but also because ideas need to take root in the heart so that the heart gives them its love and so they rise powerfully to the mind, which ferments and processes them, creating indestructible neural connections that bring the soul closer to the truth. Turning our lives around is no easy task and there is no big corporation in the world that has a solution or a manual for it, I swear. 

We have said that our spirit is the content and our body is the box, the packaging. And we talked about love. What does all this have to do with love? We are not talking about romance here, but about love as an attractive force that leads our will in a certain direction. Our love defines us and shapes our lives, what we have and what we don't have, because love is such a powerful force of attraction. In this sense, everything that serves us as comfort and pleasure and comes from matter is equivalent to our packaging or living shell, i.e. the body, which only exists temporarily. This is the love of matter and forms bonds that are not permanent. In contrast, everything that serves our spirit is spiritual or immaterial and belongs to our inner life and further to the life that awaits us on the other side, because when we accept that we are spirit (soul), we understand that there is life after death as the destiny of our spirit. The spirit is the plant and now we have been smart for once and don't play with the box as our favorite love . So let's take a look at how we can nurture the plant. This is life that is permanent, indeed immortal. 

The question is: where is life; where am I alive? The answer is: in the spirit, which is energy, and we all know and believe that energy cannot be destroyed. So our soul is our dear life and each of us should nurture it with our greatest love. 

Our souls are alive, they are the living part of us and they are immortal, but they have needs and also need nourishment to be strong. What is this nourishment? It is not material, that is certain and easy to understand. So where does the soul get its nourishment from? We have said that love is the force that creates connections between related things, between which there is affinity, that is, which are the same in being. The food for the soul consists of a series of stimuli that can come from the beautiful, the harmonious, the wise and above all from the good, because the good is always the true and vice versa. The good and the true is the best food for the soul, because it makes it happy. But what is good and true? Everything that comes from love or inspires us to love, that which is good, that which makes us generous, patient and compassionate. 

And this is not achieved by any luxury in this life, but results from harmonious connections with other people, with other living beings and with the cosmos as a reflection of what we can understand as creative power or God, a God who loves us. 

All this is expressed in the soul as happiness, peace and security arising from connection with the source of spiritual nourishment which is God or heaven, as the promise and destiny of the soul where it receives its just reward for not becoming too lovesick with the material life here or with itself and its above-mentioned apparent and external achievements and possessions, all too many of which have been obtained  through morally and even legally questionable means.  

None of this is possible if I don't look beyond matter, beyond my physical self. I have to go deeper into myself. We already stated in this meditation that the whole issue is a matter of not knowing ourselves in a holistic way; that it is a psychological-spiritual problem, one of limited perception of our life and being. But if I stay on this three-dimensional plane, I will inevitably try to give my physical self as much pleasure as possible and prolong my life here as much as possible, accepting any solution if my money allows me to. In this, the wealthy always have an advantage over the less wealthy. And since every foot finds its shoe, there appear immediately foxy people who offer them almost miraculous treatments to live longer in exchange for a good sum of money. It's all about psychology again. The providers know only too well the weaknesses of their customers. They simply exploit the love their clients have for their physical lives and themselves in their limited perception. Here is an example (translate in the browser) : https://www.traveler.es/hotels/altea/zem-wellness-clinic-altea 

Jesus told many who asked him what they should do that they should leave everything and follow him. That is what his disciples, the apostles, literally did, but each of us can "leave behind" the material and turn to the spiritual without giving up everything, but looking within ourselves for what the self really is; then realizing that this life is transient and the answer is not to get the most out of it, but to know ourselves deeper and better and reflect on Christ's message of love and on our own death to feel that there is something about us that never dies, and that something is our soul. And it is the soul that needs our attention, because through so much pandering to our outer self, which is connected to the body, our soul is almost dead. A person's level of selfishness is a true reflection of how dead her soul is. 

So I can continue to live for the box, in love with the packaging that will end up in the trash, on the cemetery, or I can start to see what the contents are and what they need to thrive, because the soul is not something static, finished, but it is our intelligent and sensitive self that has a long journey ahead of it, while the body's journey is just to become worm food and dust. 

Thus, more than one person feels completely empty at the end of his life and already only feels the horror of death. The satisfactions he has given himself have been of no use to him; he takes nothing with him when his body, as a biological machine, can no longer carry his soul, which wonders in confusion what will become of it and why there is so much darkness around. 

To neglect myself, my inner self, so much throughout my life while pampering and adoring my body and outer self is spiritually unforgivably short-sighted. If I believe neither in God, nor in the soul, nor in eternal life, there is not much to be done with me, because it is pointless to explain to a blind man what light and colors are. But if there remains in me a glimmer of faith and the will to make my life something other than dreaming of a better car or a bigger house, then I can ask God to help me understand what my life is, what there is after death and what I need to do to better prepare myself for this journey that I have ignored so far by living as if I would never die. 

For centuries, heaven was the reward for those who followed the rules dictated by religion. Whatever suffering we had to endure was compensated in the afterlife, unfortunately under distorted conditions on earth. But enlightened humanity got fed up with the priests and their lies and abuses and decided to create a paradise on earth, a paradise that now fails on several fronts and so it should be, because yes, it is true that the prize is in heaven and it is true that it has certain conditions, but we can all fulfill them by being brotherly, peaceful, supportive and compassionate and that even sounds logical, because we already said that the soul is nourished by goodness, harmony and beauty. What could be more beautiful than sharing, helping, understanding and supporting others in the inevitable hardships of this life? All this has its reward and that is for the content, the soul, which will live on when weeds have long been growing on the shell. This is how God recycles matter so that biological life can take its course. 

If we remember to give more and not to receive more, then we will receive in heaven and forever the reward that exceeds all our expectations, because we do not have to insure it or put up cameras or walls to protect it from theft. The goods of the soul are the acts of charity that we could make. It is these goods that count in heaven and are multiplied to us, like the gold coins in Matthew 25:14-40. The kingdom of God gives us talents, because everything we are is given to us by God, and these talents are to be multiplied, that is, we are to use them for the common good. Here we are put to the test and when we return, we are asked to give an account. And what do you imagine they will say to the person who answers? 'I was just trying to live as well as I could without paying too much attention to how my brothers were doing, because my motto was that everyone should take care of himself'. They will tell him that his love has confused him, for nothing remains of all he had on earth, and nothing means that his book of life is empty. If he has done no harm to others, he can start from a humble starting point and help other souls who are worse off than he is. God gives opportunities for improvement. 

We are seeds of love and light. What does that mean? In the Bible, there is a parable of the mustard seed in Matthew 13:31 that illustrates that God has given us something valuable to plant and grow. It speaks of the benefit the mustard tree gives to the birds that nest in it. It means that we all have a talent, a strength or an ability and that we should use it for the common good, not according to the communist, state-controlled model, but voluntarily and freely, because we understand that it is the right thing to do. Doing the right thing for the benefit of those in need is also based on a feeling that many successful people today often forget: Gratitude. Those who understand that their life does not belong to them because it was given to them by a higher power also find it easy to understand that everything they have is not due to their own merit, but because God has provided them with the resources and is even the source of their intelligence, the light in their souls. 

He who does not forget this will thank God for all that he has and will have compassion for those in need, the sick and the oppressed of this world. Only a foolish arrogance based on spiritual blindness is capable of thinking that we really possess what we accumulate and achieve in this life. We can take nothing with us into the hereafter and will end up spiritually empty, a content without content! 

But if we act in solidarity, we will soon find the kingdom of God and the rest will be added to us, as Christ said. It's about gathering inwardly, not outwardly; it's about growing in love, not in financial capital. And above all, it's about securing my spiritual treasures, which are made up of truth and love. Here on earth, where lies have the power, I must make sure that no one comes to steal them from me and replace the truth with a false dream, like that of a paradise on earth. If I am rich in material goods, I need to use what I have beyond my basic needs to do good in this life. It's not always about giving money, but about investing in projects that improve the lives of others, not so that they have luxury, but so that they no longer have to suffer and can also develop their talents, which will later be used to help others, because there is too much work and not enough workers in this vale of tears. 

But if I use my intelligence for my own benefit or for the benefit of a group that only seeks to dominate a market or the world; if I try to reward myself here for how smart I was, then I stifle any possibility of true happiness and will in one way or another oppress someone, make them lose heart or despair. And what's wrong with living a simple life and being generous at the same time? 

Finally, a brief comment to invite the reader to reflect on the time in which he waits for his rewards for compliance and effort. In contrast to the immediacy with which we expect to receive rewards (likes) for what we do nowadays, God offers us eternity to increase our happiness thanks to the rewards that His wisdom and love have in store for us in spiritual and celestial spheres, where the good and the true know no limits. It is not a question of waiting for an eternity to receive recognition and rewards for our behavior, but of understanding that the rewards have no end, so they are eternal like our life over there! 

In the pursuit of happiness, it is good to proceed slowly and control ourselves so that the external stimuli of the world do not seduce our love and make us rush into empty boxes. Taking time to reflect on life and existence is fundamental to discovering what we need to do to be happy and to achieve an inner state of peace and strength that comes from knowing ourselves as spiritual beings living here on Earth united in good times and bad. 

God does not ask for much, for he knows that we are weak and are exposed to many temptations or seductions here, for death is at our heels and every day brings its pain, whether small or great. May this not tempt you to immerse your soul in the goods of the world and its pleasures. Let the suffering, yours and that of those around you, make you a sensitive, compassionate person. You can start with a little compassion for the less fortunate; you can even help with your money if you have any to spare, but do it with love, for heaven will only measure your love, not the amount of money you have thrown at the poor. And this love is already a good reward here on earth, because you will feel much better. Do what you can, as best you can. Then perhaps you will discover the true happiness that comes from giving, and you will be a premium class human being! 

Benidorm, 01-03-2025.  renebijloo@fastmail.fm