Generosity...October 2008

Affirmation: My Commitment to my prosperity is measured only by my generosity.

Generosity arises in two ways, spontaneous and intentional. Spontaneous generosity arises when we feel enthusiastic about something in the moment and decide to be generous. Since it is the result of how we feel in the moment, it is conditional. The generous impulse arises out of our current set of emotions coupled with our innate nature to be generous. This is why, in most churches, the offering is taken during the weekly service just after the music and the sermon. Time honored practice has established that optimum donations occur when the congregation’s impulse towards spontaneous giving is heightened after an uplifting message and inspiring music.

Spontaneous giving is a worthwhile spiritual practice. It activates the law of circulation and the law of cause and effect. It is however, conditional giving which is far different than unconditional giving.

Intentional giving arises not from momentary passion but from a sense of commitment in support of a project or endeavor. Thus, it is unconditional. It is an investment in the mission that drives the generosity and not a temporal condition of momentary enthusiasm. In the example above, if a guest speaker gave a poor talk, those spontaneous givers might lessen their donation, whereas a dynamic guest speaker might increase donations.

Unconditional giving is also a strong spiritual practice. Like spontaneous giving it activates both the law of circulation and cause and effect; however it is also a tool that can help the intentional giver with surrender, release, trust, unconditional love, commitment, and many other powerful spiritual disciplines.

One way that some congregations work on this practice together is through an intentional giving campaign.

Here is our story on intentional giving. We have been raising the prosperity consciousness of those attending Unity of Corvallis each year for the past six years. At that time, only a few donated any money to the church and the two main donors were highly conditional in their giving. If things went the way they liked then they donated, if not, they withheld their financial support. You can see thus, that this was a power and control dynamic that was designed to condition the system to align with the values of the two large donors.

Over time, the large donors left and the community as whole had to begin taking ownership of their ministry. For several years we drew down on our reserves because people were just not ready to invest in co creating a sustainable enterprise. Gradually trust began to build and people began to realize the value of commitment to an authentic community that by definition had to be larger than their selves. This is a very profound change, and one that is very difficult to take alone. Most people instinctively resist being the most committed; it means they have the risk of disappointment if people do not join them and they have risk of being responsible to carry more than their share of the load. You can see this is still a conditional giving experience.

The intuitive solution to this is to consciously share the risk, and that is what spontaneously happened two years ago at a town hall meeting. Members actually requested that we offer a “pledge drive” to facilitate a co commitment process. This allowed each interested member to pledge financial support knowing that they were joining directly and simultaneously with other like minded souls in support of their own spiritual growth and the success of Unity of Corvallis. This was far better for people than committing individually and the result is that many people pledged and honored their pledges for the 15 month pledge period.

For the first time many experienced unconditional giving by honoring their intentional commitment no matter how they felt each week or each month. It was to the larger enterprise that they were investing in. By not relying on their emotions to drive their donations, and instead relying on their intention, it activated a powerful growth spurt for many.

We have offered a renewed opportunity for intentional giving ever since. This is a tricky process because for those that are not ready to try unconditional giving, it “triggers” many of their fears concerning "lack", trust, commitment and so forth. Many people resist intentional giving for many reasons and this process helps each get in touch with their own set of fears.

The idea behind an intentional giving campaign is to allow you to experience the joy of unconditional love and to tangibly experience your resistance to being in the flow of unconditional love. You see, money is only a form of energy just like love is a form of energy. It is often hard to measure love, especially unconditional love, but it is very easy to measure money. Thus, in a holographic universe such as ours, the consciousness that circulates love unconditionally is identical to the consciousness that freely circulates generosity and prosperity. If someone is fearful and withholding about giving money, they will be fearful and withholding about receiving love as well. These same principals apply to giving your time and talent. It is all the same law.

Make no mistake about it, Unity of Corvallis needs your financial support to keep on track with our mission of being a thriving authentic New Thought Center. And, under the laws of circulation, if you are part of this mission, if you resonate with its values and if you appreciate how it improves the quality of your life and the life of those surrounding you, then it is imperative that you give generously.

“Generously”, in this context, means your fair and reasonable share. Some have more financial resources than others and so can offer more cash. Yet when you give from your heart, that which is yours to give, then there is no order of magnitude for generosity. As Jesus taught in the “Widow’s Pittance”, (Mark 12:42), it is the intention of the giver relative to their overall circumstances that does all the work, the amount given is immaterial. Rich people giving large amounts with a stingy attitude will result in a life experience of a stingy consciousness, whereas a less wealthy person giving a much smaller amount with a generous consciousness will activate the law of circulation and create a generous world experience.

October 2008 Prosperity Thoughts

Prosperity Thoughts October 2008

Affirmation: My consciousness, and only my consciousness, defines my sense of well-being.

Isn’t the key to experiencing prosperity rooted in consciousness? Let’s look at this idea. I think we all we know of people with wealth and material possessions who feel empty and impoverished. Since we also all know of people who are fulfilled and content even though they do not have much in the way of material goods I think it stands to reason that the actual fact of money or things does not predicate an experience of prosperity.

Moreover, I have known people that believe that acquiring some thing that they have been lacking will bring them a sense of prosperity. Then they get that new thing- a new job, a new relationship, a new house, or whatever, but within a short while they are still feeling that same sense of emptiness and impoverishment.

Thus, I think we can conclude that the experience of prosperity or poverty does not arise from a thing. Therefore our experience of prosperity and/or poverty must transcend the thing itself and come from our thinking about the thing. This is another way of saying it comes from our consciousness.

This leads to an interesting conundrum. Say someone is experiencing an impoverished existence. The question is, is it more productive to focus on changing their circumstances or to leave their circumstances alone and focus on transforming their consciousness? You see, I have found that many people are not even open to changing their consciousness about money and prosperity until they are feeling desperately impoverished. Yet, even in this state of desperation, they want to focus on how to make more money or to get a new relationship or some other strategy to get them out of the feeling of lack that is so painful. The thinking that got them into the experience of poverty retains its hold on their choices. Due, I think to the very desperation that leads them to be open on the one level, also leads them on another level to a life of struggle and stress. It seems to me, that for many, the only options they can see to get out of their financial predicament lead to more hard work and struggle. They are so attached to the idea that if they work harder and smarter then they can get out of poverty using external things to alleviate their sense of lack that they are almost totally resistant to a different approach. Our attachment to money and other things as security and as a manner in providing us with our good is just about as all encompassing a belief as we have.

It is, in my experience, a rare person that is feeling desperate for money and work who is willing to step back and examine all their thinking that led them to that desperation in the first place. In my own journey, I was once out of work, having been fired from a series of jobs and desperate. Instead of searching for work, I searched for truth and I spent about six months not looking for a job at all. I was committed to transforming my consciousness first because I did not want to repeat the same pattern of thinking that got me into a desperate jam in the first place.

It was during this period of intense pain and deep reflection that I first learned of the idea of “right livelihood”. I first began to look at how I could serve and support others on their journey rather than how I could make money. I began to notice that my well-being and happiness did not depend on my paycheck or how well I did in my job because I did not have a paycheck or a job.

Once we understand and integrate the idea that our consciousness determines our sense of prosperity, then we can intentionally use our consciousness to expand our sense of prosperity. We can focus on spiritual growth as a tool to fulfillment and abundance rather than continue to try and achieve prosperity by acquiring ever more things.

Generosity and Gratitude are the two classic tools we can use to shift our consciousness away from impoverished thinking and into abundant thinking. I will write more about them over then next few weeks.

Bless you