A Beatnik's Guide to the Galaxy V

Religious Advertising
By Brother Beatnik
March 22, 2004

The 'goods' that people seek are spiritual - goods like peace, wisdom, happiness, confidence, contentment, certainty, security, courage, patience, truth, love, joy etc. But they think that they can get these 'goods' through indirect, external means that is through material possessions. What they don't realize is that this imaginary inner lack, this imaginary inner poverty, cannot be filled by external riches. You already have everything you need - the Kingdom of God is within you! You already innately possess the perfection of Tao. All you have to do is realize this by looking within.

Religions advertise (in their sacred scriptures) spiritual products like peace and wisdom. This is okay but when you have the 'goods' already, it makes no sense to devote the rest of your life to studying the advertisements. Nothing compares to actually having the goods in your hand. Why be just satisfied with advertisements? Don't spend all your money (your life) on studying, memorizing and writing commentaries on advertisements. Leave that to theologians.

Watch out for spiritual fraud. Many religious evangelists of all creeds are just waving about banners and advertisements - they've never seen the goods themselves. What they're selling are the advertisements themselves. Ask for the goods and they'll say study the advertisements and the goods will magically appear. This is just like handing a menu to a hungry man and saying to him, 'Focus on this menu fervently and the food will appear'. If the food fails to appear the 'chefs' (imams, lamas, vicars, gurus) and 'waiters' (their disciples) accuse the hungry man (the seeker) for not trying hard enough and not having enough 'faith' in the process. Just believe in the adverts, they say, and don't questions about how and where to obtain the goods.

For an explanation of who Brother Beatnik is go here.