B"H

Moral/Spiritual Aptitude Test - Possible Answer

I posted this on a board originally. Someone there posited that there is
no antonym for the word 'alms'.

I answered:

I posit there is an exact opposite of alms, if not an antonym or an
antithesis.

The opposite of any given phenomenon or state is nothing. Efes (in
the Hebrew meaning of the word, i.e., Eyin Mamash., not zero).

What happens if we stop thinking of any given state as the presence
or absence of factors in another state? What if we stop thinking of
any given phenomenon or state not in contradistinction to another
thing or state, but on it's own merit, as an alternative to absolute
nothingness?

The opposite of being poor, then, is not being rich. The opposite of
being poor is not being at all. Similarly, the opposite of being rich
is not being at all. Being poor and being rich are absolute states in
and of themselves, and they are not opposite states any more than
round is the opposite of square.

When we begin to look at phenomena this way we being to get an
appreciation of those states in and of themselves. When we think of
states as being relative to one another negative thought patterns and
emotional patterns are the inevitable result. We are pitiful because
we are poor if we think that there is an opposite state that we can
be transformed into by the addition of money. We are filled with
both hubris and fear of being reduced from our present estate because
we are rich if we think that our state can disappear by losing money.
This may sound strange at first, but if we consider the number of
beggars who were found to have fortunes when they died and the number
of millionaires who lived in ascetic frugality, we understand that
poor and rich are not opposed states. Consider those who live the
high life but are in deep debt. They appear rich, but by any accepted
definition of wealth they, are in fact, poor. Moreover, there is no
clear point upon which a person becomes poor or becomes rich. Rich
and poor are states of mind, and states of mind, how we think about
others, all phenomena and ourselves are reflections of our level of
moral achievement.

What happens to the poor person who considers her/his state as an
alternative to never having been at all? I think that the person
suddenly begins to realize that their state is a universe of
possibility, including learning possibility.

What happens when two people, regardless of what their respective
estates in life are meet, if both are aware that their states are the
alternatives to absolute nothingness?

Notice how very different this thinking is than is the type of
thinking required to solve the typical IQ test questions that show a
number of figures being added to other figures to produce a third
figure, and then asking us what the resulting figure of a simple
addition or subtraction function will be.

Now, try the question again.

Doreen