Robert Sachs

Dear Friends,
I recently had a conversation with visionary, Edgar Cahn, the founder of Time Banks - where communities of people share services with each other, not based on the prestige of this or that service, but solely on need and the value of one hour of time being shared. This gets rid of high and low, me versus you, pecking orders and the like. It just looks at what you need, what I need in the most altruistic, compassionate way.

In The Buddha at War, I mentioned communities of like-minded people of consciousness and conscience coming together. In the past I have seen how money and power to influence have sabotaged groups and their efforts to really make a difference. TimeBanks seems to be one way of creating the kind of equanimity needed to support the efforts of such groups.

More often than not, we can agree on a doctrine or philosophy in the abstract. When it comes down to practicalities is usually where everything unravels. I encourage people to go to www.TimeBanks.org to check out this concept and see how and where it can be applied in your community.