(This interview is based on questions about financial issues, particularly in regard to a Guardian’s spiritual life. Samuel was eager to answer these questions, which were sent in by Jennifer Little, but he wanted to answer with more depth than a “straight” answer to the questions would allow. Not wanting to miss out on that opportunity, the editors at Samuel’s urging read the questions and then let Samuel rearrange them to reflect what he wanted to say. The results of this interview are below. We are grateful to Jennifer for providing the start to this interview, and we hope that you enjoy it)
These are very good questions because they involve very specific issues that some people have. They indicate blindfolds that some people put on themselves, or filters which everything they live and breathe and do goes through.
They’re disempowering issues.
And personal responsibility issues, which is empowerment of course. However, some of the questions are written in such a way that it would be very easy to bypass the point that I know is being made, and I want to try not to do that. So I’m going to work to answer the spirit of the question or maybe even go beyond what’s actually asked in order to make sure that this issue can be dealt with as fully as possible.
The questions seem to fall into three groups. One of them is manifestation, particularly of the ability to take part in an abundant life until the day you die. “Is manifestation different in 5:3:2 from in 4:3:2?” “Are there rules? How do you follow them? Why do Guardians have to follow them?” And then you have, “What about long-term financial planning for a group of people who aren’t even really sure if there’s a long term to plan?” And finally, “How do you differentiate between being responsible for what you have and doing the work that you’re here to do, and being able to do the fun things—that are ‘holy,’ of course—that put me in the group of Those People Who Are More Spiritual because they do all of this stuff?” These are all good questions.
And, “Can I be doing your work and still not go on trips and retreats?”
And, of course the answer is?
Yes, you can.
There are people who don’t like to miss anything. It’s not just that they want to be involved; they actually feel slighted if the opportunity isn’t there. A friend tells them, “I bought this wonderful cup. It’s on sale at Macy’s.” Well this type of person would then say, “Oh no, I cannot go to Macy’s, so I’m missing out on that great deal,” whether or not they really wanted the cup. You see? So I’m going to try to show what the issues are underneath the thinking expressed through these questions.
The first question is, “How are the security issues that Guardians have different from those in mass consciousness?”
They’re not—and they are. They’re not any different because, as long as you are in a human body, you are going to be prone to the instinctual security responses that are required for that body to stay alive long enough to do what it’s here to do. There’s no difference there.
However, with the activation of Guardianship, there is a point where you realize, “I do not want my instinctual humanness to be what guides me. I choose instead to be conscious of the spiritual function of being here, and to direct my actions into responses, rather than security reactions.” That makes for a very different set of behaviors, and ideally becomes a new set of trained instincts.
Now, that’s an oxymoron, and yet it’s more than trained behavior, which practice, practice, practice will bring to you. It’s more than establishing a neural pathway that constant visualization will do for you, because it’s specifically designed to balance—counterbalance, actually—a survival instinct. Instead of “keep the body alive at all costs,” it’s “learn to live.” Do you see that difference?
So if all of a sudden mass consciousness said, “I’m going to be consciously aware of my spiritual existence,” what would you have?
The completion of Sacred Status.
But since that hasn’t happened yet, you can pretty well say that the survival mechanisms, the attitudes and beliefs, the security needs of typical humanity are at a different level than those of Guardians, which are, hopefully, filtered through conscious spiritual behaviors rather than automatic just-stay-alive behaviors.
“Other than being involved with your work and living as consciously as we can, how are Guardians’ lives different from those in mass consciousness?”
Being a Guardian does not mean you’re not human. In a very real way, that could be the answer to this question; it says a lot. Unfortunately, as often as I have said that, those words seem to disappear once they go into the brain. There seems to be no lake—known or unknown—that holds the awareness that Guardians are human, Guardians have a human nature; form rules. But the reason for that is that it is so hard in this culture, and in this world, to accept that every issue is spiritual. There are no actions that are just actions, there are no words that are just words; everything is spiritual.
Human nature wants to set up rules that say, “If you do these things, you will be spiritual, and if you do these other things you will not be spiritual,” instead of moving above that and seeing that when you are functioning consciously as a spiritual being, everything you do is touched by that spirit. It has a lot to do with the individual’s need to have a microwave spiritual life—instant mastery. That’s what rules are for. “If I do this, I am spiritual. I can do it.” Poof! But the reality is: I do this, and everything in my life that is not spiritual raises up its nasty little head and says, “Woo-hoo! Let’s stick our foot out and trip her up!” or, “Let’s show him how this belief from his childhood should be fearing this.”
The more Guardians become able to function in an attitude of oneness, the more the form’s security needs come up, because it begins to fear losing its usefulness.
So, with any major spiritual shift, the physical is going to sound an alarm by showing you all of the ways that spiritual shift is only a beginning and not an end, and the physical will therefore keep you off balance enough that you must constantly give attention to it. And that’s life, that’s life. That’s not bad. That’s not good. Some of you have specifically worked on developing ways to deal with that, and some of you are blissfully oblivious to it even being a problem.
The paradigm you’ve created—the frame of reference which you’re using—suggests that the human, the physical, is the devil within us, trying to trip us up.
It goes back to the nature of the questions thus far. Because the physical experience has survival needs that have to do with functioning in this world, it would seem that the spiritual self would also have a counterbalancing technology, so that by following the spiritual rules you would be balancing the physical with the spiritual. But in reality the security of the physical has its own great purpose, and it should be listened to and paid attention to, because its needs really amplify what’s going on in the spiritual. But you’re never going to know that as long as you have bought into the thinking that things of the world are bad and things of the spirit are good, and never the twain shall meet. When you look at things that way, that seems to be exactly what it’s saying: You reach this pinnacle of bliss, and the physical pops up and says, “Wait a minute! What about me?” Well, the response from bliss is “Thank you for being a part of this so that I am here to experience this bliss.” But what it more often gets is, “Oh my gosh. What about you? I’d better get out of bliss, and . . .” and you let form not just rule but take over and keep you away from that place of bliss.
Would you say that dealing with the physical needs in this scenario is a part of the purpose of the spirit being here, or is it just a necessary fact of life due to our using form in order to work out spiritual things?
I don’t want you to separate those. It’s not this or this. Try to see how they enhance each other.
I’m thinking of an example: My physical form is not a spiritual thing, so I’m going to ignore it. So I don’t exercise and I don’t pay attention to what I eat. But then my body starts failing, and so my spirit has no vessel. By not keeping them together I really have taken the spiritual out of it because the spiritual has no way of operating any more.
That’s true, but what do you do where you have a situation, such as with the Form [Lea], where “out” is not only written into the compact, but the very nature of the work itself would cause the physical problems, no matter what she did to stay totally fit and healthy. No matter how spiritual the work, that physical is going to continue to degrade. What do you say in those situations? And the reason that I bring it up is because there isn’t a single answer that you can say “this is how it is for everyone,” and you run into problems when you’re trying to do that.
Your example was perfect but there are exceptions. You should base your life on something other than the exceptions, and a lot of these questions are looking at the exceptions. The point I’m making about gaining awareness is that you don’t just want to develop awareness. You want a firmly established knowing that everything in your experience is spiritual and everything in your experience is physical and that there is no conflict there, even though either one of those will rub you until you give it the attention it needs. It all has to do with what particular direction you are taking at the moment, rather than the view of life as a whole at any given time. By recognizing that there isn’t any separation except as it is needed for the moment, you are more likely at that point to be living in the wholeness, the spirit, of what’s being said and what’s being given, rather than the exceptions that will show up around it.
“Are your teachings from 4:3:2 about the manifestation process and how we relate to money still appropriate in 5:3:2? If not, what are the differences and how do they impact our spiritual lives and daily focus?”
Remembering that generalities are not totally accurate, but they work—you might say that 4:3:2 is about connecting with Source, and 5:3:2 is about being Source. So 4:3:2 was about dealing with money, and 5:3:2 is about understanding prosperity. The behaviors needed in 4:3:2 would lead you to understanding prosperity. The behaviors needed in 5:3:2 will lead you to understanding money. Can you see why that would be?
Money is an element of prosperity, prosperity is an element of money—but it’s all about which hill you’re on as you look at the valley, the broad view of it all. If you’re on one hill, you’re going to look into the valley, and you’re going to say, “Oh look, it’s all about growing soy beans.” And if you’re on another hill, you’re going to look into the valley and say, “It’s about keeping the crops fed and watered so that they are healthy all the way through.”
The spirit of that question is, “Can you tell me what the rules are now that’s it 5:3:2 so that if they’re different from the ones in 4:3:2, I can quit doing them, and if I need to establish some new ones in 5:3:2, I will know what they are and can begin working on them?” That is really sweet, but it misses the point.
It’s the doing versus the being.
Yes, but there’s another paradox: Until you’ve been, you really can’t do; and until you do, you really can’t be. I would love to say that the key is just to do your best, just put in your brain that you’re going to live love, you’re going to be on to you, you’re not going to resist looking at yourself to recognize your part in all that’s going on around you. You’re going to constantly work to release the old and what isn’t working, and accept the new and develop more loving habits, more loving functions. You’re going to do the best you can with what you have at the time, and everything will be all right, and you’ll never ever have to worry about anything and only at midnight will your life turn back into pumpkins and rats. But it doesn’t work that way.
It sounds to me like equilibrium has more to do with attitude.
Except where you need to be specialists. What I’m really saying is that there’s not a nice little box that is the greatest prize you’ve ever won, that you can just open up that box and have all the answers. I’m not even going to blame it on free will that you don’t have that, even though that has a lot to do with it. But the personality that wants that box is the personality that is going to constantly be seeking what’s over the next hill and missing the point about working through what you need right here where you are—seeing the beauty, the power, and the prosperity available in that.
I guess that’s why there are no rules of mastery, because mastery is each individual’s pathway. It’s their mastery; it’s not the mastery.
That’s right. You know the Buddhists and the Hindus, since they’re both from the same root, get that, but if you look at cultural ideas of prosperity across the world and how they relate to religion, you’ll find that those Buddhists and Hindus tend to be the poorest of all cultural groups, they who have that real handle on the knowledge that it’s an individual path. Is there a reason for that?
Well, in a lot of societies money is seen as status.
Yes.
Whereas to them, if it’s an individual path, the status isn’t what’s important; it’s an individual’s pathway to where they’re going.
Be sure that gets in the interview, because that is a hugely important point. That little piece of wisdom carved out of lifetimes of observation, which is what that is, is the crux of a personality problem that shows up in times of transition. It’s related to a survival mechanism.
It’s the desire to be accepted by the group and feel secure in that.
Yes! Yes! You know that, within the leadership of my work, I encourage working together, functioning as one, merging, no “Lone Rangers.” But that’s totally different from a group path, a group mastery. I think that people don’t necessarily recognize that sort of difference, maybe because they’ve never been told there is one, but there is.
“You have said that financial issues are the first and last things that a Guardian must deal with. I understand why that is when we are first on the earth plane, as we must learn to live here by cause and effect and social procedures, but why is it also our last issue?”
Remember, even an unawakened Guardian has a sense that doesn’t ever go away that says there’s more, more than this [patting chair arm]. And no matter how masterful and conscious and clear Guardians working at their absolute highest and best can be, there’s always going to be the needs of the human self that has to take a very high priority.
The nature of a mammal is survival—an instinctual behavior—and everything is about survival to begin with. And very early on, everyone recognizes that survival in any culture on this planet requires an exchange of value, be it “I have grown this food. I will trade it to you for this lesson,” or be it “This item will cost you ten dollars.”
If you’re worthless, you’re kicked out and you die.
Yes. Yes. They put it upon themselves. Even babies know early on, “I have a value.” Can you see the pathway that opens out of that instinctual self-statement that can create havoc for the rest of your life? “I have a value and it’s not being met. I’m either really wrong, or the world is really sucky to me.” Neither one of those is a very good attitude.
You come into this world and it’s about value. Money is how this society translates that. That’s why you go into the department store near the holidays and a child so young it has to be pushed in a stroller is screaming bloody murder because it wants that thing, and isn’t being allowed to have it. It knows “I want this, and it’s going to cost money, and I can’t get it, so I’m going to try to figure out how to get it! I’m going to do all of the tricks I know to get the attention I need of those who can give it to me.” Bad habits start early.
As you grow and as you change and as you become adept at figuring out how to get what you want, you move from the security of the physical form itself into the security of the mental and emotional state, which is, in adulthood, about going to work so you can buy status. Finally there comes a point when every human realizes, “The status really isn’t giving me what I bought. I’ve paid too much for this. It’s not working.” That’s the place a Guardian might start at. But it’s tied into that original security stuff the whole way. And you’re going to have individuals who tie their ability to spend money to their worth in the world. That’s what a lot of these questions are dealing with.
When you begin, it’s security of your physical self. At the end, when you’re at that point that it’s not about the money but it’s still about security even at the end of mastery there is that little twitchy part that says, “Now, I’m going to be learning about my self-worth based on what I have done, and what I have done has been based on the career I have been able to maintain, and the things I have been able to do, which is based on”—hello, we’re back at the very beginning—”the security needs that established those beliefs, that put me on to that track of value.”
I’ve spent all my life doing Samuel’s work. How come I’m poor?
Yes. And one has nothing to do with the other, and everything to do with the other.
“I can understand that if we are returning home to Source, our attachment to and perspective about money would change from the way we manifested through our old security issues. It seems to me, from this new place and time of consciousness, we should be functioning with a more fluid system of manifestation. So why does it seem hard to manifest the money we want, not just for our basics but especially for our spiritual needs, like going on trips?”
I’d like to deal with this question by breaking it down to show the traps I see in it. I’m going to not answer it, but show you the places where the thinking doesn’t work and, therefore, leads to such questions. Give me the first few words of the question as it is written.
“I can understand that if we are returning home to Source . . .”
Stop. Nothing in this world should be based on “Ascension is tomorrow,” because you live in today.
“. . . our attachment to and perspective about money would change from the way we manifested through our old security issues.”
Why? That’s a trap right there. Why is it you think there should be a change? Why?
“To me from this new place and time of consciousness . . .”
Stop. It’s very good to say “to me,” but the question is still asked like a universal truth. “Here is something that always happens . . . to me. It is a general statement of truth for everyone in the whole world . . . to me.”
“. . . we should be functioning with a more fluid system of manifestation.”
Why should you be? Why? Do you still have human form? Yes. Do you still have free will in this world? Yes. So why is it you think so? Well maybe it’s because your expectations about what it must mean when you are functioning at a high enough level that you have an absolute knowing that Ascension happens tomorrow are throwing you off a bit.
I guess it’s also a judgment that because I haven’t done it I must not be that spiritual.
Yes.
“So why does it seem hard to manifest the money we want . . .”
Why does it seem? And the key word there is “seem.” That’s recognizing that it’s illusion, while the very next part of that sentence shows that, in the spirit of recognizing the illusion, there is a very strong trap there anyway.
“. . . not just for our basic needs, but especially for our spiritual needs, like going on trips?”
Especially our spiritual needs.
And one of our spiritual needs is going on the trips. And paying the electric bill isn’t spiritual.
Exactly, and those comments should go in too. As I’m pushing on that question, can you see what I mean by its being filled with traps? The good news is, it’s possible to see it; the bad news is, it’s really hard to do that when it’s your question, your issue. This is one of the reasons why a very profitable thing for anyone to do with regard to their finances is keep a financial-issues journal where you ask yourself a question, just as though you were asking me, “Today I am going to ask Samuel about this. I can’t go on the trip and I want to know why. So here is question number one.” Then break it down and look at the issues that are behind that wording, and write about it a little. When you break it down, you will automatically start getting, “Oh, well, of course, there’s this and there’s this.”
You have everything you need to do everything you’re here to do. You do not earn all of it. However, it’s all earnable, and when you reach a point in your spiritual life where you are able to see that you don’t earn it all, but on the other hand, all of it is earnable—with no judgment on either of those—you are able to ask questions like this and start giving yourself the answers to them.
On one level, this question is sort of sad, because it represents a hard life. On the other hand, when you’re able to step back and take a look at it and see the self-made traps and issues that it represents, it’s a real gift. A financial journal could be useful for everybody, because you’re going to learn more about yourself through it. Theoretically. Hopefully. Even though there is a certain amount of blindness that comes with things that have to do with your security.
The bottom line to remember with everything that has to do with security is that it’s meaningful to you only. What are absolute security needs for Paula are not necessarily so for David. And it doesn’t mean either one of you is wrong. You both have to eat and feed the body, and that’s an absolute security need, but the way you do it has a lot to do with your choice. The fact that you do it with nothing but brown rice for six weeks and you get weaker and more emaciated does not mean that brown rice is bad, it means the way you made use of it was going against what is known to be realistic for the circumstance of human.
You used the word issues several times during that, and I kept thinking belief.
There is not a time that you could not substitute the word belief for issue. Yes, and that’s probably another very important awareness.
“Responsibility for all aspects of our lives seems to be a constant theme for us. We are constantly learning to do for each aspect of ourselves—physical, mental, spiritual—on a daily basis. The hope is that by taking the short-term view the long term will be taken care of. How appropriate is this attitude when considering the effects of aging on our individual blueprints?”
The long-term view may not incorporate the short-term view, but the short-term view always incorporates the long-term. You cannot get away from that. “I am being the very best I can today in this now, and it’s going to have an effect on me tomorrow. Tomorrow, though, there’s not one thing I can do about what I did today.” The long term may not incorporate the short, but the short always incorporates the long. And as is the case in so much of Fusion, as is the case in so much of 5:3:2 as opposed to 4:3:2, you’ve got to be careful about trying to separate those things.
If security means financial security—money—to you, I can guarantee that you are looking at a very limited part of your current circumstances. It involves much more than just “how much money am I getting for what I need tomorrow?”
It seems that you’re saying, “If for me living in the now means I’m going to spend my money on what I need now, and I’m not going to be able to eat tomorrow, I’m not really living in my now.”
That’s absolutely correct.
That would also be, “If living in my now means I need to spend my money on this, but I can foresee that ten years from now I’m going to be starving, I’m not living in my now either.”
Correct. The question isn’t, “Am I supposed to save for retirement? Am I supposed to save for next month?” The question isn’t that, even though that’s how it’s disguised. The question is, are you afraid that there is going to be a time in which you are going to be destitute? What defines that? What’s the problem with that? What’s the reality of that? Have you ever been?
There’s so much tied up in that, and yet if you stopped and looked at your reality, there have been times in your life when things have been much easier than they are now, and times in your life when things have been a lot harder than they are now. And for a whole lot of those nows there were pieces of fear that said, “Am I going to be a bag lady or man? Am I going to be homeless? What am I going to do? How am I going to make it through tomorrow? What if something terrible happens? What if I get cancer and have to have surgery in order to live? Should I care about this?”
And the fact of it is, you just kept putting one foot in front of the other. Sometimes it’s easier to do that, and sometimes it’s harder to do that. It’s not your attitude about money that had to do with getting that foot out there. It had a lot more to do with the other parts of your life and what mattered enough to you to motivate you to put that foot out there. A single mother has a child that she must provide for, so she will work two jobs—so what? A farmer is used to the vagaries of politics and of nature having a profound effect on what he can and cannot do, what he can and cannot grow, what he can grow and get nothing out of. It gives you a very odd sense of predestination that leads to saying, “Well, take a risk. It’ll work or it won’t. But make that leap, give it time.” Sometimes you’ve got to grow the crop three years in a row before you ever see it produce. There are very different motivations for taking that step. It’s not about the money; it’s about what else is going on in your life to motivate you to take that step.
There are people within this work who live on so much—so much—money, yet they don’t go on trips. Then there are those who have so little money but go on the trips, go to retreats, who even take on a second job to be able to pay for them, even though that second job is menial and not particularly pleasant, and certainly not something that in any way honors the years of education they’ve put into their specific purpose—so they think—in life. And although they go to every event, they’re not one bit better than the one who has very little money, doesn’t get the extra job, isn’t motivated to do something even menial, because doing all of that isn’t worth the effort required. What motivates is different for everybody. If your motivation is, “get rich, have luxurious things,” fine. Do the best you can where you are with what you have with it. If your motivation is “go on trips, go to retreats, fly back and forth across the country to be able to come to first Sundays and become a very active part of the work in any of the cities,” fine—as long as you’re not neglecting your other responsibilities to do it. You will personally feel that that is or is not worth it based upon your conscious awareness of what your motivations are, what matters to you, what your priorities are. If you don’t have much money but want to go to the retreat or vacation in the Caribbean, or live a more expensive lifestyle, you’ll do what it takes, what it’s worth to you, to make that happen. Or you won’t. They’re both choices and both are okay, and both are about action based on personal motivation.
And that leads into the question, “How do we stop judging ourselves and others about that?” You practice non-judgment constantly. And that’s yet another reason to have a financial-issues journal, because when you get, “Oh my gosh, I am judging that having money makes me spiritual and not having it means I’m not, that going on a retreat means I’ve got something I should have and I’m doing it right, and not going to the retreat means I’m not doing it right,” and on and on and on, when you get that and you can write it down and you can look at “What are other things I do in which I also recognize this behavior? How do I control that in other areas of my life?” you’re going to gain from it. You’re going to grow out of the idea that money is the right means for defining your spirituality. You have money because it’s providing you something you want. Do you know what that is? If you don’t have it, it’s because there is something else you want more. What is it?
If you can say, “Well, I do everything I can to have money, but I can’t get work in this economy, and somebody with my kind of training . . . and I have an obligation to myself to be happy with what I’m doing.” Why can’t you just say, “It means a lot more to me to be able to play with my grandkids and have a more simple life than it does to play with my grandkids and go on trips and be able to have a new car every year and . . . and . . . and . . .” And I’ve gotten on a soapbox and quite off of where the questions are. Think it’s an issue?
One of the key questions that usually comes up in financial planning is “How much is enough?” And when you start looking at the fact that you can’t predict the future, that you don’t know what’s down the road, and then you ask yourself that question, you start seeing how insecure you really are.
Oh, yes, and that can be quite shocking.
And you see you’re afraid of being destitute. But why would you assume that you can’t handle being a bag lady? You might be really happy being a bag lady.
And that’s not giving you permission to be irresponsible, because you’re supposed to be doing the best you can.
But it’s also saying that you’re not trusting your ability to handle whatever comes along the road.
I believe that in this country the aged are not respected and cared for as they are in some other cultures, where you know you will always have a home. The idea of a future with nobody in it is what really frightens people, and that has a lot less to do with money than with creating relationships that are going to last. Again, ultimately it becomes about what motivates you to take that next step.
If, for you, success is being able to doggedly pursue one dream—”I’m going to write a book no matter what”—to doggedly pursue “I am a lawyer, and my life should be a reflection of that,” if you are going to pursue something that requires money for fulfillment, then you need to realize that everything in your life is going to be about fear of losing that thing. As was said, you should not make a rule that says, “I must be at this level of financial security or this place in my career or I’m not successful,” and then do nothing to get yourself there. Nor can you, as I just said, spend all of your life in focusing on getting there and then be surprised when you find that that really wasn’t worth it.
“Length and quality of life issues remain a concern, and income is necessary to keep us fed, clothed, doctored, and sheltered. People in society expect to retire and live adequately on a pension or Social Security. This raises a number of questions: a.) Many Guardians seem to have planned less or been less concerned than those in mass consciousness for retirement. Why? b.) Is there something that we need to do to change this situation for ourselves before we get any closer to “retirement”? c.) Is it responsible or irresponsible for us to deplete whatever retirement and/or savings we may have had in order to pay for trips and retreats? d.) Is there a guideline that we can use that will help us determine where our responsibility to ourselves ends and to do the trips begins?”
These questions are fraught with traps because they are so general. It’s not true that in this society right now most people have a retirement they are counting on. In fact, think about all of the Enron people, the many, many people who worked hard all of their lives, putting money into pension plans that have gone flat broke. You cannot say generally “people in society.” Generally in this society people work until the day they die. Now, that’s a whole other issue, but the fact of it is, there aren’t a lot of people any more who have your parents’ social security—the retirement nest egg—”we are going to build a house by the ocean and grow our own vegetables and travel around in an RV and . . .” That’s not most people’s experience, because, within this country as with every other country in the world, eighty percent of the people—although now it’s more like ninety percent of the people—are working to support the other ten or twenty percent. These ten or twenty percent are not “most.” And you cannot say that about Guardians either. You cannot say that Guardians seem to work for today only, and most of them do not have any sort of plan.
You have those who are happy to do whatever is needed to take part in what they want, to do what they want. You have those who are not willing. You have those who are afraid they are not capable of dealing with whatever is required to get where they want, so they would rather spend a whole lot of their time kicking themselves and licking the wounds that result from it.
You two are excellent examples of that. You’ve had times in which it wasn’t about what you want to do. It was all about doing what’s needed for next week. You can look around and see many different examples of how people approach their financial situation. I am thinking of one person who has never in her life been in a particularly easy financial situation. However she has had a certain amount of security so that she did not have to work her fingers to the bone to literally survive. But when she moved to Lexington, her security system broke down, and ultimately she was pretty much left out in the cold. All of those years of working at what she loved to do suddenly wasn’t going to be enough. She had to change her ideas about how to use her talents to bring in an income and become willing to take on extra projects and menial work, as well as accept being unable to go to trips or retreats. Sometimes she couldn’t even go to tonings, for instance, because she would come home so exhausted she just couldn’t make it. And I believe she would tell you, because she tells me, that her attitude has more to do with her sense of safety and success than what she’s earned from all that she’s done.
I’m also thinking of two people who are together but who have really different attitudes towards money. For one, it’s all about fear of poverty, whereas the other approaches life with an attitude of “I’ll do whatever I need to do to do what it is I want to do.” The first I mentioned created havoc in the life of everybody she was around for several years until she could have it her way. In the meantime, the other person, who was the only one who was working, did absolutely anything he could to earn money. But you see, both of those people were doing what they wanted to do, even though sometimes what they wanted to do was toxic and not in their best interests. But in the end it’s about what provides the motivation to get that one foot back out there. Sometimes what you need is the “willing to do anything” attitude because it ‘s a lot easier to direct a rock that’s already moving than it is to move one that is not.
One of the images that has always returned to my mind is on some street near downtown Lexington where there used to be a small nursing home with a very tiny yard. We used to drive by there and see six or eight old people sitting in this tiny yard doing nothing except letting the day go by, at which point they’d go back into this little hovel and spend the night, and then come out the next day. I would think, “That’s got to be the worst existence. And there but for the grace of God go I. Wouldn’t that be horrible!” And I’ve worked a lot through my life at doing what you’re talking about, saying, “Would it be horrible? Does it have to be horrible? Could I make that okay?” and thinking, “Well, there’s not really any reason I couldn’t make it okay. It’s not predestined to be terrible.”
And what that does is it takes the resistance energy out, allowing a more pure flow of energy in. You draw your fear to you, because of the intensity of that energy. But when you’re able to say, “All right, what exactly is it that’s so bad about that?” and you don’t let that fear determine what you think, you’re opening the door to allowing one more experience of life that you will succeed at, bringing whatever is needed to it and knowing it will work out okay. That’s a very lovely example.
You can be poor and be happy. You can be poor and you can be miserable. You can be rich and you can be happy. You can be rich and you can be miserable. You can have money and spend it on things that you consider spiritual. You can have money and not spend it on that. And it’s not going to make a bit of difference if you’re not different. It’s not about the money. It’s about security: “Am I going to be alive tomorrow and what will I need to stay alive?” all the way up to “I trust that I’m a co-creator with Source and I’m going to be receiving experiences that help me better understand that.” It’s not the money. The money for some makes it easier, but for a whole lot more it just makes it harder.
