by Ana Ramos
For thousands of years, spiritual teachings have reminded us to cooperate, honor, rest and respect the seasonality and abundance of this Earth and all living beings and distribute its resources equitably and responsibly. For some, these lessons have become ancestral knowledge—a way of being and living in the world based on the teachings and lived experiences of our elders.
For most of my adult life, I have considered myself a deeply spiritual person. After years of living with depression and losing my faith in a higher power, I met a spiritual healer and teacher who reminded me of this untapped well of love and possibility. She also reminded me of my power to heal myself by tapping into certain spiritual tools and rituals. Since then, I have participated in healing ceremonies, visited many places of worship, entered and created sacred spaces, and, most importantly, found myself through my healing journey. With new tools and awareness, I began to look around and notice the deep injustices in my community. That’s when I solidified my journey as an activist, bringing spirit with me to fight for a better world.
Specifically, I began to pay attention to and question our unjust economic system. I got a job with a public health organization and started questioning why we weren’t addressing the economic disparities that create many of the social determinants of health that plague our society today. I repeatedly saw what felt like band-aid solutions to deeply entrenched and systemic inequalities. In response, I switched careers and began working as an impact investor shifting capital and power to BIPOC communities.
Last year, I had an incredible experience as a Fellow with the Just Economy Institute where I was emboldened to combine my radical hope for a just economy with my healing and spiritual practices. I realized that many of the concepts and frameworks I was learning about were very similar to my spiritual teachings and practices: being a good steward of the earth and all living things, being honest, noticing ego and greed, cooperating with others and seeing the possibility in everyone around me by honoring and respecting their individuality within the collective. Frameworks for a just and regenerative economy are based on cooperation, relationships, collective ownership and caring for the land and environment. Noticing these similarities, and reading the works of others pondering the same, drove me to consider how spiritual teachings could serve as a guide for how we manage, invest and share our economic and natural resources in collective alignment with a just economy.
Spiritual teachings and practices have always served as a reminder for humanity to use natural and economic resources for the collective good rather than individual gain. In the spirit of sharing, I wanted to disseminate some of the wisdom that inspires me on my path as a financial activist:
- Seventh Generation Principle
- The Seventh Generation Principle is based on an ancient philosophy of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) people of North America, which states that the decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future.
- A similar concept can be found within many indigenous communities or tribes across the Americas, Hawaii and with the Māori people of New Zealand who connect people in the past, present, future and non-human world in their whakapapa, or genealogy, of all things.
- Liberation Theology in the Catholic Church:
- Kira Dault states: “Broadly speaking, liberation theology is a social and political movement within the church that attempts to interpret the gospel of Jesus Christ through the lived experiences of oppressed people.” This movement was started in Latin America in the late 50s and continued through the 80s and 90s.
- Liberation theology has three levels of liberation, the first being the liberation of the poor from economic exploitation.
- The teachings engaged in socioeconomic analysis and addressed other forms of inequality, such as race, political affiliation and caste.
- Islamic finance:
- Islamic finance is banking or financing activity that complies with Shari’a (Islamic law). For example, Shari’a prohibits charging or paying interest because it is seen as financial exploitation. Alternative financing structures that follow Shari’a were created to allow observant Muslims to participate in the economy in a way where lenders can make a profit without charging interest.
- The sophisticated Islamic financing structures include models of co-ownership between the buyer and financier in Musharakah, lease-to-own models known as Ijara and deferred-payment resale arrangements called murabaja. Other concepts in Islamic finance also include social bonds, shared responsibility and shared risk.
- Debt Forgiveness and Year of Jubilee (Jubilee Economics):
- History teaches us that debt forgiveness can be a tool for reprieve and reparations. For example, the Jubilee year in Jewish scripture and tradition was a time when fields were left fallow, debts canceled and enslaved people set free (Deuteronomy 15, Leviticus 25). Jubilees were supposed to happen in cycles every 7 or 49 years to ensure that inequalities did not persist over time.
- Until recently, most people could not imagine debt forgiveness embedded into society’s socioeconomic practices. The norm today is that debt can become someone else’s asset and investors can buy and sell debt to one another to make a profit. In 2012, the Debt Collective launched the Rolling Jubilee Debt Fund, an entity dedicated to debt cancellation and public education. Through this fund, they have abolished $31,982,455.76 in existing debt so far.
- Buddhist Economics:
- In the essay “Small is Beautiful,” E.F. Schumacher argues that while the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist is mainly interested in liberation. He states: “It is not wealth that stands in the way of liberation, but the attachment to wealth; not the enjoyment of pleasurable things, but the craving for them. The keynote of Buddhist economics, therefore, is simplicity and non-violence. From an economist’s point of view, the marvel of the Buddhist way of life is the utter rationality of its pattern—amazingly small means leading to extraordinarily satisfactory results.”
- In an interview with the Garrison Institute, Clair Brown, author of Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science, shared that when she teaches her students about Buddhist economics, she uses pies as a metaphor: “In the free-market economy, the most important thing is the size of the national income pie. After that, most economists care about the division of the pie. How can we divide the pie in a way that makes it more equitable? How can we share prosperity? In Buddhist economics, there’s one more step, which is to ask: What’s inside the pie? What makes life meaningful? How do we measure it? What’s in the pie, of course, includes the natural world and our relationships with each other.”
For many of us, specifically folks from the global south, Black and Indigenous communities, these spiritual teachings have become a way of being that is passed down from one generation to another, consciously or unconsciously. When I think about the way that I want to move within the contemporary economic reality of extractive capitalism, I dig into my roots and look to my parents and ancestors for guidance.
I am awed by their ability to migrate to New York City from a small town in the Dominican Republic and open their own business. I am proud of the way they used the tools of those before them, like family and friends lending circles, (also known as susus, tandas, sociedad), which provided interest-free loans to help them start their businesses, save for a down payment and remodel their properties when needed. They hired neighbors and family members from back home who recently migrated, some of whom were/are undocumented, not as a way of looking for cheap labor, but as a way of paying it forward to their community. They provided free transportation, meals and sometimes housing to these new arrivals. They did these things because these were the teachings of their culture.
For those of us on a spiritual path who are working in the field of economic justice, I challenge us to consider how we might integrate these teachings into all aspects of our lives, including how we move within our economic system. I challenge us to notice how we are all interconnected, to remember that we have been hearing this message for thousands of years. Above all, I challenge us to uplift the ideas and ancestral knowledge of marginalized people in our work.
As I reflect on my career and the knowledge that I want to leave behind when I depart this realm, I think about cooperation. I think about the economy as a manifestation of our relationships with one another and our resources. I think about respect. I think about caring for the Earth, our collective home. I think about living my life in harmony with my ancestral spiritual knowledge. And this dream of mine, my vision for a just economy, sustains my radical hope. This dream can be realized. I know this because I am of my people, and their tools, teachings, legacies and spirits make certain the possibility of a better way forward.
Ana Ramos is a visionary dedicated to reshaping our world into a more equitable and sustainable place for all through a fervent commitment to economic justice. As the co-founder of Colectiva Clara (Clarity Collective), Ana leads a cultural asset company that specializes in Latin American healing products, traditions, and rituals. Through Colectiva Clara, Ana orchestrates transformative visioning and manifestation rituals and workshops, guiding participants through meditation, healing practices, and creative expressions to help them align their lives with their goals. Additionally, Ana serves as a consultant on local economic justice initiatives.
Previously, Ana served as the Manager of Impact Investments at Common Future, where she developed and structured innovative pilot products and initiatives focused on impact investment capital. Prior to this, she held the role of Manager of Programs and Grantmaking at Common Future, overseeing grants management and coordination processes. During her tenure at The Food Trust, Ana collaborated closely with entrepreneurs in New Jersey, leading a small retailer initiative that culminated in securing partnerships with a local CDFI and cooperative development agency. Her efforts resulted in providing retailers access to affordable capital and the infrastructure to form their own cooperative. Ana also managed the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative, a statewide program investing in new or expanding healthy food retail outlets. She also led a bi-national healthy food initiative in the Paso del Norte Region.
Ana holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Temple University and is deeply rooted in the Philadelphia community. Still, she is a true Caribbean at heart. Originally from the Dominican Republic, she is blessed to visit the islands often. When not at work, you can find her working on her social enterprise, Colectiva Clara, crafting, going on long walks in her neighborhood, dancing at home with her partner, cooking/eating, and playing and learning with her daughter/bestie.
