Prosperity Thoughts Feb. 2009

Prosperity Thoughts Feb 2009

Early each year I tend to review the basic principles surrounding prosperity to bring them more deeply into my awareness. One principle I find vital to keep in mind is that my willingness to receive my good is absolutely dispositive to my experience of life's abundance. “Dispositive” means there is a 100% correlation- the flow of goodness into my life is unlimited and the only reason I am not flush with abundance is because of my own personal resistance.

Looking into the details of this begins with the idea that Spirit gives us life unconditionally. There is nothing that any of us had to do to earn being born; our life is a gift from our Creator. It is given unconditionally because we enjoy free will which allows us to choose how to expend our life energy. We can work, play, study, rest and so forth to our heart's content.

However, it is our deepest nature to be generous, compassionate and have the desire to serve life. A meaningful and fulfilling life is derived from our willingness to be a conscious blessing to others. We often refer to this as our Christ Consciousness or our Buddha nature.

Unfortunately, not all of us act consistently in accordance with our deepest nature and, instead of serving others, seek to be self-serving. There are a variety of reasons for this. Two of the more prevalent are that some of us suffer the consequences of our childhood experience and others are ensnared by the current collective social consciousness of material values. Because all enjoy free will, any one of us can choose to override our giving nature and instead become takers rather than givers. This does not often lead to happiness, but it can lead to riches or material success.

Trying to receive without giving does harden your heart. The ultimate Law of Karma cannot be circumvented. Eventually any pursuit that is not serving the highest and best for all concerned leads to suffering. St. Francis said, in his famous prayer "….For it is in giving that we receive…."

Jesus is quoted in Luke as teaching "Whoever tries to hang on to life will forfeit it, but whoever forfeits life will preserve it." Luke 17:33. Both of these great teachers contradict the typical material consciousness embedded in cultural norms. Following their teachings activates success through the spiritual principle that when we want something, we should give it freely to others.

In the material realm we typically invest our time, energy and talent in exchange for treasure. From this framework, obviously we cannot give that which we want to receive successfully because to all appearances we do not have enough of it (which is why we want to receive it). Instead we have to give up something else of value to get what we seek. This trade off is commonly called the "Rat Race."

When Jesus told his followers with money “not to lend it with interest, but instead give it to someone from whom you won’t get it back” (Thomas 95), he was urging them to stop thinking of money in terms of what you can get for it. He wanted them to move towards a spiritual awareness and knew their attachment to money would hinder this shift in consciousness. He was telling them they can never win the Rat Race.

In the spiritual realm (which we do inhabit to the extent we are moment by moment aware that we are spiritual beings) the Law of Circulation says that what we put out in the Universe comes back to us. Thus, we can give to others that which we want to receive. We are assured success by knowing that we cannot out-give our Creator, that has unconditionally given us life.

I know this seems like a paradox, so let me share an example. When I practiced law, fairly frequently I would get a phone call from someone who would blurt out one question seeking an answer over the phone. It seemed obvious to me that they wanted free advice over the phone and were calling randomly trying to get piecemeal answers to their question. I gave a free 20 minute consultation to anyone who came to my office, (where at least the last few minutes were taken up with a sales pitch to hire me) but these folks asking for free advice on the phone did not want to make an appointment.

Eventually, I began to ask them rudely, "What you want now is free advice over the phone?" Some would hang up immediately. Others would admit this and the discussion would terminate very quickly. In either case it seemed to be working.

However, one day I had a problem with my laser printer. I did not know if it was a simple problem that just needed a minor repair or a big problem which would require me to buy a new printer. I called up a local printer repair shop that I had never dealt with before. I began asking the technician questions over the phone; I was trying to determine if it would be worth my while to bring the printer into the shop, pay the diagnostics fee or instead save myself the trouble (the time and treasure) and go buy a new printer. The technician asked me… very calmly, much more calmly than I ever asked the question to people that called my law practice…"Oh, you want free advice over the phone?" I said "yes" with some shame in my voice. The technician then continued to offer me help, for free, over the phone.

In this case I ended up taking the printer in for an inspection and it turned out that the cost to repair it was unreasonably high, so I bought a reconditioned printer from that same store. On a practical level, I could see that giving free advice over the phone might lead to some good will and good business.

I also looked at this metaphysically. In this experience, I realized that I wanted to live in a world where I believed I would receive unlimited free support over the phone. To implement this into my experience, immediately after that interaction I began giving all the free legal advice I could to whomever asked for it. Not surprisingly, this did once in a while bring me some customers or referrals, but that was secondary. What it really did was move me from the concept that I had to trade knowledge for treasure to a worldview that allowed me to receive all the help I was willing to ask for because I was giving all the help I could. (Formerly I believed that people had to pay me for advice and that I had to pay others for good advice).

Now, I inhabit a world where there is abundant good advice available for me. I accomplished this by choosing to give that which I wanted to receive, knowing that the Law of Circulation means that when I serve life, life serves me.

Affirmation: When I serve others, life serves me.