Each soul who wants to be saved lives in the same world as those who concentrate on amassing more and more programmed entities. We see them, flying overhead in private planes, driving alongside us in expensive cars, and living in huge houses. We see magazines stuffed full of pictures of their houses stuffed full of furniture, statuary, art, and various collectibles. Other magazines and media report on how much money they have, how many investments they own, how rich they are, and how they say they intend to get richer.
All such possessions are programmed entities. They were either programmed by God, like the vast landholdings some of them like to buy, or programmed, like watches and perfumes, by men and women in the business of producing things that provide status, comfort, and at least a few moments of joy to those who obtain them.
All programmed entities have two types of unavoidable impermanence. First, as Jesus pointed out, the programmed entities themselves either break, rust, are somehow devalued, or thieves break in and steal or, if governmental, confiscate them. Secondly, the owner of the programmed entities is going to die, no matter how many programmed entities he or she has accumulated. We were warned of that inevitability, again by Jesus, in the parable of the man who came into sudden riches. He planned to replace his old barns with bigger ones to hold his newfound wealth and spend the rest of his life “eating, drinking, and being merry”. “You fool!”, he was told. “Tonight you are going to die, and who will get all this (these programmed entities)?”
Those who do not let themselves fully understand the two truths about the impermanence of programmed entities were, themselves, programmed with the intellectual ability to understand them. But, they would rather amass more programmed entities than work to save their souls. So, they are basing their activities on the lie that the things He and we have programmed are more important than our souls. Each new possession is accompanied by repeating the same old lie: “I need/want/absolutely have to have/deserve/have earned/ this particular programmed entity. So, I’m going to get it!”
Postscript: Those who believe in accumulating more programmed entities are, themselves, highly programmed entities. Like us, they were programmed by God, but they are also operationally programmed by cunning people. Thousands of clever advertising and public relations campaigns are going on right this minute. Those susceptible to the desire for programmed entities are also vulnerable to programming that makes them seem desirable. They do not realize that they are being manipulated as their own CPUs begin to learn about, evaluate, desire, and finally purchase that which has been produced and publicized by those who’ve paid for the advertising/public relations. Those most vulnerable to the need for increased status (society’s most famous are often the most insecure), are most easily convinced. In that way, many of the rich and insecure are the neediest among us.
Those of us able to get beyond such things increasingly focus on our souls and their eternal residence. We work to love God and our neighbors. We actively seek to please He Who will pass final judgment on how well each one us has determined our priorities on earth.
