Submitted by gus on Sat, 11/15/2008 - 12:45
IT is quite a mistake to suppose that we
must restrict and stint ourselves in order to
develop greater power or usefulness. This is
to form the conception of the Divine Power
as so limited that the best use we can make of it
is by a policy of self-starvation, whether
material or mental.
Of course, if we believe that some form
of self-starvation is necessary to our producing
good work, then so long as we entertain this
belief the fact actually is so for us.
“Whatsoever is not of faith”—that is, not in
accordance with our honest belief—“is sin”;
and by acting contrary to what we really believe
we bring in a suggestion of opposition to the
Divine Spirit, which must necessarily paralyse
our efforts, and surround us with a murky
atmosphere of distrust and want of joy.
But all this exists in, and is produced by,
our belief; and when we come to examine
the grounds of this belief we shall find that
it rests upon an entire misapprehension of
the nature of our own power.
If we clearly realise that the creative power
in ourselves is unlimited, then there is no
reason for limiting the extent to which we
may enjoy what we can create by means of it.
Where we are drawing from the infinite we
need never be afraid of taking more than our share.
That is not where the danger lies. The danger is in
not sufficiently realising our own richness, and
in looking upon the externalised products of our
creative power as being the true riches instead
of the creative power of spirit itself.
If we avoid this error, there is no need to limit
ourselves in taking what we will from the infinite
storehouse: “All things are yours.” And the way
to avoid this error is by realising that the true wealth
is in identifying ourselves with the spirit of opulence.
We must be opulent in our thought.
Do not “think money,” as such, for it is only one
means of opulence; but think opulence, that is,
largely, generously, liberally, and you will find
that the means of realising this thought will flow
to you from all quarters, whether as money or
as a hundred other things not to be reckoned in cash.
We must not make ourselves dependent
on any particular form of wealth, or insist
on its coming to us through some particular
channel—that is at once to impose a limitation,
and to shut out other forms of wealth and to
close other channels; but we must enter into
the spirit of it.
Now the spirit is Life, and throughout the
universe Life ultimately consists in circulation,
whether within the physical body of the
individual or on the scale of the entire solar system;
and circulation means a continual flowing around,
and the spirit of opulence is no exception to this
universal law of all life.
When once this principle becomes clear to us
we shall see that our attention should be directed
rather to the giving than the receiving. We must
look upon ourselves, not as misers’ chests to be
kept locked for our own benefit, but as centres of
distribution; and the better we fulfil our function
as such centres the greater will be the corresponding
inflow.
If we choke the outlet the current must slacken,
and a full and free flow can be obtained only by
keeping it open.
The spirit of opulence—the opulent mode of thought,
that is—consists in cultivating the feeling that we
possess all sorts of riches which we can bestow upon
others, and which we can bestow liberally because
by this very action we open the way for still greater
supplies to flow in.
But you say, “I am short of money, I hardly know
how to pay for necessaries. What have I to give?”
The answer is that we must always start from the
point where we are; and if your wealth at the
present moment is not abundant on the material
plane, you need not trouble to start on that plane.
There are other sorts of wealth, still more valuable,
on the spiritual and intellectual planes, which you
can give; and you can start from this point and
practise the spirit of opulence, even though your
balance at the bank may be nil.
And then the universal law of attraction will begin
to assert itself. You will not only begin to
experience an inflow on the spiritual and intellectual
planes, but it will extend itself to the material plane also.
If you have realised the spirit of opulence you
cannot help drawing to yourself material good, as
well as that higher wealth which is not to be measured
by a money standard; and because you truly understand
the spirit of opulence you will neither affect to
despise this form of good, nor will you attribute to
it a value that does not belong to it; but you will
co-ordinate it with your other more interior forms
of wealth so as to make it the material instrument
in smoothing the way for their more perfect expression.
Used thus, with understanding of the relation which
it bears to spiritual and intellectual wealth, material
wealth becomes one with them, and is no more to
be shunned and feared than it is to be sought for its
own sake.
It is not money, but the love of money, that is the
root of evil; and the spirit of opulence is precisely
the attitude of mind which is furthest removed from
the love of money for its own sake. It does not believe
in money.
What it does believe in is the generous feeling which
is the intuitive recognition of the great law of circulation,
which does not in any undertaking make its first
question, "How much am I going to get by it?" but,
"How much am I going to do by it?"
And making this the first question, the getting will
flow in with a generous profusion, and with a
spontaneousness and rightness of direction that
are absent when our first thought is of receiving only.
We are not called upon to give what we have not
yet got and to run into debt; but we are to give
liberally of what we have, with the knowledge
that by so doing we are setting the law of circulation
to work, and as this law brings us greater and
greater inflows of every kind of good, so our
out-giving will increase, not by depriving ourselves
of any expansion of our own life that we may desire,
but by finding that every expansion makes us the
more powerful instruments for expanding the life
of others.
“Live and let live” is the motto of the true opulence.
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Syndicate
My Hearts Desire is Here
I sometimes don’t realize my own richness, though I absolutely realize the creative power within me is unlimited. For a long time, a very long time, it was impossible to see this. I had lost my vision and my spirit. But now, especially now (TODAY) it is my honest belief that the path I am traveling on is the right path. Through 18mind, I have found my hearts desire. How miraculous is this! I thank Gus, my coach at 18mind, for guiding me to this true “Spirit of Opulence”.
The love of money
This is so true. I see it first hand everyday. I know someone who is so very much in love with money. Sure, I like money....everyone does. But to put it above all else is no good. It is all he thinks about. In the last day or two, I have found myself trying to reach out to this person. I actually found myself feeling true compassion. How poor he really is. He can have all the money in the world but it does not bring him happiness. I find him to be a lost soul....and I am the rich one!!