A Spiritual View

Photo: Colourbox. Why do we work at all? Once I was at a job interview at the furniture sale Ikea. On that occasion, a young woman in a blue T-shirt interviewed me. "Why do you want to work at Ikea?"  she asked. "I've found that Ikea pays its employees more than other chain stores,"  I replied. She then said that  “Salary is a matter of course. What can you offer us that will make us an even better company?” I was not prepared for that question. Maslow's hierarchy of needs. It's a question that is only asked in societies where basic needs are being met. We have, so to speak, already moved up from a state where life is about mere personal or family survival, as it is known from Maslow's pyramid of needs. It gives reason to also consider how money is made in business. In certain parts of the business world, the black numbers on the bottom line are given an almost absolute importance.  The greater profit, the better – and that even when a person watchin...

Faster than his own shadow: The Sheriff, U.S. Marshal, or Christ-Self. The one who chooses the higher over the lower—symbolized here by the cartoon character Lucky Luke—triumphs over his own shadow. When I was a child, I read about a comic book Western hero called Lucky Luke. He was a gunslinger of the noble kind—one who never killed anyone but lived as a solitary cowboy, acting as a sort of freelance or volunteer unofficial U.S. Marshal. He was illustrated by the Belgian artist Morris and written by Argentinian-French writer René Goscinny. One of Lucky Luke’s defining characteristics was his incredible speed and skill in drawing his revolver. He was said to be faster than his own shadow —so fast, in fact, that he could shoot his own shadow before it had time to react. Quite astonishing, in a way. A Spiritual Interpretation – The Dweller on the Threshold or the Shadow One could interpret this in a spiritual sense. Various mystical and esoteric traditions speak of what is known as...