Why Bill Gates Plans to Donate Most of his Wealth to Charity

Bill Gates, the biggest philanthropist of all time, recently announced his plans to share most of his wealth.(Sebastian Vital/Flickr)

Gates recently tweeted he plans to donate most of his 'wealth to the foundation'

"I will move down and eventually off of the list of the world’s richest people," Gates recently tweeted, seemingly breaking the internet in the process. After all, in the eyes of most, why would Gates strive to "move off" the very list that most people dream of one day making?

Perhaps as Gates approaches 70, he's grown a bit more reflective. After all, life charges us all the same price for her pearls of wisdom: Age.

Wise indeed was whoever first said the twilight of a man's life usually goes hand in hand with enlightenment. And as Gates nears the twilight of his life, perhaps he merely serves to remind us of this: Enlightenment's true aim isn’t to realize your unity with everything but to realize the fact — you are everything.

As Gates and former wife, Melinda, strolled the plains of Ethiopia, his heart cried out. Because seeing is believing, it's one thing to hear about roughly 20 percent of Ethiopia suffering from hunger but to see fellow humans starving to death — with one's own eyes — must've truly been an eye-opening experience.

Malnourished children, starving to death in Ethiopia.(DFID/Flickr)

"I have an obligation to return my resources to society in ways that have the greatest impact for reducing suffering and improving lives," Gates wrote. "And I hope others in positions of great wealth and privilege will step up in this moment too."

Compassion is the basis of enlightenment.

What stands out most about Gates' message is his emphasis on "obligation." After all, given that Gates alone is worth more than Ethiopia's entire yearly GDP, it's understandable he feels obligated to use his resources "in ways that have the greatest impact for reducing suffering and improving lives."

In this life, because we can’t all be DJs — somebody's got to do the dancing. And the same goes for excelling in this game called "capitalism." We can't all be Elon or Zuckerberg or Gates. But just as the DJ spreads love by playing music for the entire party, perhaps Gates has decided to do the same.