Austrian millionaire Karl Rabeder has decided to give away all of the $6.7 million fortune he amassed in the furniture business because he said it made him miserable.
"My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing," he said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. "Money is counterproductive – it prevents happiness to come."
He's getting rid of everything, alpine retreats, farmhouse in the south of France, glider fleet and all the rest, and giving the proceeds to micro-loan charities that serve Latin America. His plan is to live in a studio apartment in Innsbruck on an income of just $1,260 a month. As anyone who has ever been to Austria will attest, that's a pittance.
Rabeder says everything changed for him while on a Hawaiian vacation with his wife. At the five-star resort where they stayed, everyone, employees and guests, played their roles perfectly, and no one was real.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Radeber's wife left him after that. And one can only assume that she helped devolve him of some of his wealth.
Not an uncommon outcome when the awakening process begins with this sort of dis-identification from ego (embodied by the trappings of wealth in Radeber's case), says spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle, in his first book, The Power of Now.
Writes Tolle: "You will then either separate--in love--or move ever more deeply into the Now together." It appears Mrs. Rabeder chose the former.
While Tolle would be in favor of his transformation, Radeber has more detractors than just the wife.
Jesus may have advised the Rich Young Ruler to sell all he had and give to the poor so that he might have treasure in heaven, but the religious editor of one of the UK's most respected dailies, Anglican Priest (yes, you read that right) George Pitcher doth tisk-tisk.
As if to pass off the views of some itinerate Judean preacher as "so last-milliniem," writes the Right Reverend: “If you use it for the benefit of others, employing your time and skill as well as just dispensing the dosh, then you’re probably of more benefit to the world [as a rich bloke] than [as] a former rich bloke in a hovel halfway up a mountain.”
Jesus also said, "The poor will always be among us," but then again, who is Jesus to disagree with--wait a minute, let me check his name again--George Pitcher?
But there are also those books like The Secret and Creative Visualization that seem to paint a different picture of material wealth, a quite pleasant picture, and want to teach us how to go about making it happen. Are they opposed to Bedekar's crazy notion too?
And of note in the blogosphere are the satirical comments posted on allvoices.com, meant to (gently) ridicule Bedekar's altruism. Writes Wordslinger, "A message from Karl Rabeder: Dear working stiffs and other people who have no money: Stop trying to be rich and get ahead in life. You don’t know how good you’ve got it."
Who's right? The smart money is on Jesus and Tolle. And books on wealth building are not in conflict.
Books like The Secret and Creative Visualization are meant to teach working stiffs as described what guys like Karl Rabeder already know, namely, how to turn ideas into food, shelter and clothing for themselves and their families.
What the Right Reverend Pitcher apparently doesn't understand (probably because he has lived on the church/government dole all his life and doesn't have an entrepreneurial bone in his body) is that guys like Karl don't need money to make money. They know how to do it and they can do in their sleep if they have to.
If I were to venture a prediction, Karl Rabeder will either decide to spend his life in prayer and contemplation of the Divine Mysteries (which, unless he has lost all faith, Rev. Pitcher should view as beneficial), or he will soon get bored with living in a studio apartment in Innsbruck. He will then begin tinkering with an idea that comes to him, probably something that arises out of the micro-loan programs he's sponsored, and he'll end up bringing the idea to fruition.
And he will probably make more money than he did before, only this time around he will know what to do with it and he will enjoy it.
Good for you, Karl.
You might also like: When the Tao is on the Move
Photos courtesy of Telegraph.co.uk.
does karl rabeder still have an intrest in giving money to help people in hardship?
ReplyDeleteI don't know. Why don't you ask him? You can send him a message on Facebook.
ReplyDelete