Paper Clip Buys a House
July 28, 2006
The Internet announced this news item. Someone who wanted a house had a strange inspiration. He was unemployed. Taking a look at a red paper clip on his table he said to himself that it could be traded for a house. He went on the Internet, put up his clip, announced his aim. Someone responded not with a house but with a pen. Perhaps he was mightily encouraged and he continued his trading. A handmade doorknob, a stove, a 100-Watt generator, an illuminated Budweiser beer sign, a Bombardier snowmobile responded successively. It continued and became a paid role in a Corbin Bernsen movie called Donna on Demand. Now, the town of Kipling, Canada has offered a farmhouse in exchange of the role in the movie.
This is a young man of 26 years named Kyle Macdonald. It was from July 12, 2005 to July 12, 2006. It was done in 14 trades. The Internet published the pictures of all the articles. The whole procedure defies rational thinking and yet it is a fact for anyone to see on the Internet.
How is it possible?
The world accepts the results. Macdonald says this is not the end. What has happened? Where does the phenomenal result arise? It can be explained to meet the requirements of common sense or offered a philosophical explanation. Both are possible and desirable. I would want to go further and offer a method by which this can be practised in our lives. The pity is it is happening daily in our lives and we are unaware of it. We find journals at our doorstep every week or month for which we have never paid. We speak to the USA today for a nominal fee or fees. Banks offer loans upto Rs. 15 lakhs without security. Car comes to the door with car loans for the mere taking. We have accepted them as desirable, but have never given a thought to how it happened. Material benefit is welcome and it shows the booming prosperity in India. The rule for material prosperity, psychological prosperity and spiritual prosperity is the same. The higher ones include the lower versions. One can rise as far as he wishes or as far as he can.
A young man was learning tennis using an old racket from another person. It was broken and mended. Against him was playing someone with a few years experience. His racket was brand new. He found the young man playing well and suspected that it was the racket. They exchanged their rackets for one game and it was found to be true. The new one was exchanged permanently for the old one. The old racket had a value for the other player and he honoured it. Every person or object has unseen values which is sometimes recognised. The truth is each object is a miniature of the entire universe. It is seen by spiritual vision. The Internet takes one's news to the whole world through cyberspace in the course of which, one of the many thousands who see it sees a value which is abnormally out of all proportion. Thus in 14 trades the clip became the house and it is made possible by the Internet. Banks, when they started a few hundred years ago lent three times the money they had. Now bankers say money multiplies in the banking system nine times. For an uneducated servant, a Ph.D thesis is weighty waste paper that can fetch some money. Russell's servants often acted thus. The Marwaris often pay earnings worth 5000/- rupees one or two thousand more when they see a diamond in it. In the jewellery trade it often happens precious stones get mixed with cultured stones. What the owner does not know, the professional knows. In politics we see the phenomenon of today's Nobody becoming tomorrow's VIP. A volunteer is a Nobody to us, but life sees a hidden value in him and raises him.
One who knows that his mind is more valuable potentially can bring those potentials out. One who knows he is a Spirit knows all. He need not bring it out. It is enough he KNOWS it. It is Self-awareness. The best way to bring OUR inner potentials out is to recognise in others talents they are unaware of it. Developing that faculty one will see his own inner talents emerging. Socially it is considered as being generous or helpful. Psychologically it encourages the other person. Spiritually such an act awakens the inner Spirit. Teachers who are in charge of many students have this opportunity. Teaching is the lowest paid profession all over the world. Should the teachers become capable of bringing out the inner talents of the pupils, very soon they will be the most sought after and offered the greatest price in the market.
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