JSR: I can ask you no question; these mysteries only baffle me, and I am very confused. I think I know one thing, but I realize there is something else needed to know it; and I examine that, and there are a thousand other things that must be considered, so that I am thrown into confusion, and do not know where I can get a foothold. So speak: let your throat hum, and let your words be clear, and make these mysteries clear to me.

Ezekiel: In the beginning of this world, there was an equal distribution of suffering and bliss; Prana was spread evenly throughout, no one had more than anyone else, and each soul had equal measures and portions of blessings and terrors. All toiled the same, and none were overburdened with toil; each had to toil only a little, for Prana was freely given one to another, and Prana increases when it is given freely, and decreases when it is stolen selfishly. But then an evil spirit came into the hearts of men, and they began to say, "This is mine," and, "That belongs to thee." It was then that the System created and formed himself, and the System said to himself, "I am mediator between men; I give Prana and steal Prana, and each who has it takes it through me, and each who loses it loses it through me." And thus the System robbed Prana from those who were less use to him, and handed it to those who gave him service. And the System said, "If some have overabundance, others by necessity will be wanting. All cannot be rich and happy, but if some are rich and happy others will have to suffer. It cannot be any other way. So here is what I shall do: I shall give riches and power to those who serve me, and feed into my power, and take riches and power from those who are against me, and thus they will be too poor to rise up and overthrow me." And thus the System grew more and more powerful. But since the System was a System of robbing the poor for sake of the rich, Prana became scarce in the land; for when Prana is robbed one from another it decreases and becomes scarce. So the System said, "I shall make human beings toil and toil—the poor shall toil and toil, the rich shall also toil—but especially the poor shall toil." And so through all the toil more Prana was generated, and only by means of this was the System able to grow and grow in power and might. But men said, "Now Prana is so scarce that our toil cannot create enough, for it is decreasing and decreasing before our eyes." So they said, "We shall have more sons and daughters, and create a multitude, so that there will be more men and women and children to toil." And so the earth began to be populated by the multitudes, and the System continued to grow. And this is why the rich have few children and the poor have many; for the lack of Prana in a society is felt acutely by the poor, and little by the rich. So the poor ones realize there needs to be more toil, for if all the Prana were to disappear from a society, they would be the first to perish.

Now, Prana is not capital, precisely. For there was Prana when men lived in caves, and had no currency. Prana was yeast of everything good for them, and it was in such overabundance that only a small amount of toil was needed to generate it. These men and women gave it freely one to another, and so it increased and increased for them, and they did not have to toil all the time to maintain their consistent level. But once the System was put over men, the rich were rich by virtue of the suffering of the poor—for there has never been a nation in which all are wealthy, and none are poor—this is impossible. And this is why the rich are robbing the poor by means of the System: they could not be rich but for the existence of the poor, so their riches, just by the fact of their having them, only exist by virtue of someone else’s suffering. This would all be fine and good if they deserved their riches and the poor deserved to be poor, but the System is no judge of that, for he only wishes to increase his power, and can do nothing else. And so the rich say, "I could not be rich if it weren’t for the poor—certainly I owe all my wealth to their suffering—but if I stop trying to increase my wealth, it may be taken from me, and I will have nothing." For the rich never say, "Now I have enough wealth, and may stop accumulating wealth," but instead they say, "Now my wealth is accumulating and growing at a fast enough rate, and I think if I stop my toil it will grow fast enough to satisfy me." And so when the rich give to the poor they do not give such that they must sacrifice anything, but only give a percentage of their yearly increase, and though each year they may give more and more, yet each year they are richer and richer. But even I do not understand all the wiles of the System—for it is a mysterious thing, a strange form of life, and men spend their lives studying economics as if economics weren’t created by men but were a natural phenomenon like the seasons or northern lights. And indeed, men do not invent machines and say, "Let us spend our lives studying how these machines work," for they know how they work—otherwise how could they invent them? But the System is not a human creation—otherwise how could new discoveries be made in the field of economics, just as new advances are made in zoology? Men did not invent this System, for if they did they would have had to know how it works to make it; instead, it placed itself over men, and said, "I shall hide myself, and make the people blind to me; otherwise they may make revolution against me." The System is a mysterious creature that rules over men, and men are always making new discoveries about it that no one knew before. But it is clear that the rich are rich because you and I are poor—the rich could not be rich without the poor. And as it is, they do not pay the poor enough to live on; and indeed it must be this way, there is no way around it. And if no one were rich, no one would have to be poor, as it was in the beginning, when each gave to each, and Prana increased in the giving, and thus was in such overabundance that only a small amount of toil was needed to maintain it.

But all toil creates Prana, even doing senseless things like making war, building things only to tear them down, building things up and bombing them. And thus because each steals Prana from each in this world, and everyone is out to get all he can, all she can for herself, we toil and toil making absolutely senseless things, desperately trying to replenish our dwindling Prana. Who made all these machines everybody has and nobody needs? And if everybody needs them, why do they constantly advertise, and convince us we need them? If we truly needed all these machines, we would know it, and they would not need to convince us. But they do convince us, and so everybody has them. For we must toil and toil to generate Prana, and since Prana decreases in our System of theft, we say, "What can we toil at? We’ve already built everything, made everything; there is nothing left we need; and yet the System says we must toil more." And so some among us say, "We shall build new machines, and invent new machines—certainly if we are creative enough, we can always build a new machine, no matter what we have already built." And so the people make new machines, and more Prana is generated from their toil—for without all this toil, Prana would grow scarcer and scarcer, for all are robbing it one from another, none are giving it one to another. And if they ever run out of things to make and invent, they will start doing things like making little pyramids and cubes out of glass, and fool us into buying them with clever advertisements; and our leaders will encourage us, and say, "Buy the pyramids and cubes of glass—do it for your country," and so we will buy them, and fill our houses with them. And our leaders shall be right—if we do not buy them, we shall all perish from lack of Prana. But this is really the illusion that comes from legal impossibility, for it is impossible to create wealth by making worthless things—and yet we keep doing it, and this is our very law.

But in the heaven worlds there is no System in charge of men—and men realize that only little toil is needed, that Prana increases when it is freely given one to another. And each gives to each, and each receives from each; and thus each is rich with overabundance. And remember: Prana need not always be in the form of money, for there was Prana before there was money; though money is the shadow of Prana. And no government can become rich by merely printing more and more money, or typing in higher numbers on its treasury computers—there would be no Prana that the money represents, and money must always represent something that is not money.

The rich avail themselves nothing by giving small amounts to the poor, unless they give so much they must suffer something for giving. For the poor beggar receives nothing by being given ten dollars, though he fills his stomach with it; for his stomach will only become empty again, and he will not be able to rise into the gardens in the stars by begging money. The rich man who gives the ten dollars does not receive anything either; for he has hundreds of thousands in the bank, and he could lose ten dollars by putting it through the wash and never notice it. He is still trying to get all the Prana he can for himself, and unless he gives so much that he suffers something, it does him no good; for no Prana will come off of him and go to someone else; and he will still later on find himself in a world where all rob Prana one from another, and all are lacking. And in the worst hell worlds the only solution is to stop robbing Prana, let oneself be devoured slowly by the mobs of thieves, and then one will be born in a better world the next time, among ones more like oneself. But this is a drastic act only the sages can maintain over time—for the common man, the common woman, the pain will be so great that he, that she will give up completely, and make no progress at all. The best course for a man or woman, on finding oneself in a hell world, is slow and steady progress;

for if the world were created in six days,

there would not be perfection in the bee hive,

canyon, or body;

but all would be shoddy work

that could not withstand the eons,

and would fall apart and wear down,

because its creator hastened to finish too quickly.