January 5, 2014

Samuel: Hello dears.

Hello, Samuel.

S: Greetings. Very, very important time in your life. Are you already ready for it? Good. Good. Do you feel sort of like a Bedouin? We’ll sit in the tent together, have just a little bit to eat and drink.

On your calendar, this is the start of a new year, and a new year represents new beginnings. On the other hand, in your life you see that just a little bit differently because you know that every day is a new beginning. Every moment is a new beginning.

This is the year that you are going to be changed. And my message tonight is starting along the lines of a series of discussions about “Practical Spirituality,” as the Sunday nights are going to be called from here on. I love that, don’t you? You know, if it’s not practical, it’s not worth it. Spirituality should be practical. And if it’s not practical, it’s not spiritual, because spirituality is how you live love in your life, how you exhibit Source in your life, how you allow the spirit you are to live. So it must be practical, because it’s about your living.

I’m going to be talking about finances partially tonight, but I want to start with talking about the change in yourselves because that’s going to be . . . hmm, what would you call it? Maybe the lead of everything going on in your life this year. Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, the things you do that you have control of and the things you don’t have control of. Change is the word this year. If you don’t like change, get over it. If you don’t like new, get over it. If don’t like chaos, get over it. This is a year in which all that you have been working toward is going to show itself in one way or another. Now, by that I don’t mean the things you have been working toward spiritually, although that is in there. I mean the things that you have been working toward in your life as a whole.

What are the kind of things you’ve been working toward? It might be a goal you have at work. Or it might be a dream you’ve had. It’s going to show itself one way or another during this year. That should scare the pants off of some of you, because some of you have been sending energy toward things you don’t want by giving attention to things you should not be thinking about.

Can anybody tell me what I mean by that?

Okay, say for instance you might want to create better health for yourself, but what I’m thinking about instead is “My arm hurts, my muscles really hurt, oh, my joints really hurt. What kind of medication am I going to have to take next?” That kind of thing.

S: Constant, constant, constant, beating into the brain—into your energy—what’s on your mind all of the time. What’s on your mind all of the time. What you obsess on is what you create. That should scare the jingle out of your bells.

And I need you to take a very serious look at what you have been thinking about over the last few months, over the last few weeks, over the last few days, and even the last few hours. You draw to you that which you are thinking about. Your thoughts are an energy with a charge, and that charge looks for a like charge—thoughts—until you have enough energy brought together to bring something into being. So what you focus your mind on is going to show up in your world. And that’s dangerous because, if you’re not controlling your thoughts, if your thoughts are unhelpful, if your thoughts are not yours—-that’s the big three—you’re going to be living a life that makes you very unhappy. If you’re not controlling your thoughts . . . How do you control your thoughts?

Catch how often you find something going through your head,

S: Catch it, catch it.

And then change it. Say “I’m going to give you one more second, then that’s the end of it. If you come back up again, I’ll do the same thing.”

S: Recognize it, replace it. Recognize, replace. Recognize, replace. You catch it and that means consciousness. You stay conscious about your consciousness. You think about your thinking.

What was the second one?

Unhelpful.

S: Just working on it. What’s an unhelpful thought, and why did I work on that word particularly. I did not say a negative thought; I said an unhelpful thought.

One unhelpful thought is things I can’t control, things that are outside my reach.

S: Very good, very good. Yes.

Blame others.

S: Yes.

I think you used the word unhelpful because, like everything else I realize everything is there for me. So they either help me to do what I’m here to do or . . . Unhelpful thoughts are those that keep me from doing what I’m here to do.

S: That’s good and they do. I used the word unhelpful because you have a tendency to let your mind rest by listening to music or watching television or going to a movie or having . . . I was going to say having inane chit chat, but that’s not a very nice thing to say, is it?

Heart-directed thinking removes the possibility of worthless action. Heart-directed thinking removes the possibility of worthless action. When your head is filled with “You deserve a break today”—is that even used anymore? Give me a jingle. Maybe you don’t have much worthless thinking going on in your life.

How do you spell relief?

S: Those sorts of things, where it’s just taking up space. You don’t have enough space to rent out. Nobody does. Nobody does. Somebody else’s thoughts—do you ever hear your parents in your head? And sometimes that’s kind of nice, isn’t it? And sometimes it’s just a little irritating, isn’t it? How many things in your life do you do because somebody else wants it? How much of your life is being lived based on someone else’s thinking? “This is what would look good on you.” “This is what this family does.” “A successful person does these things.” How much of your thought is not yours? How many of the goals that you have are the goals somebody else wanted for you?

And I want to give you a kick in the head. Think about your house right now. If you have many things in that house that are not particularly you but you’ve had them for many, many years, or they were a gift from somebody dear but still aren’t you, then you’re leasing your real estate to somebody else, and I can guarantee you lease your thoughts to somebody else, because those go together.

What is it called when somebody keeps things, like a little squirrel? A hoarder. You might be a thought hoarder, piling in everybody’s advice and information and ‘how to do’ and ‘why to do’ and ‘what life is about’—including mine—never running it through your heart and making it yours, keeping it in a little pile. I guess so you can bring it out if they ever come to visit?

You must, you must, get ahold of your thoughts, because the way you think is the way you live your life. “Well. Samuel, if that’s the case, there’s a lot of blank spots in my life, ”a lot of spots that somebody else has control of, a lot of spots that are ruts, a lot of spots that are not helpful. And a lot of thoughts that just create chaos.

Nearly everybody does it, so I’m not just pulling out one or two of you with this, but if you wonder what your mind does, go back to the last time you woke up at two in the morning and could not go back to sleep. What did your mind do? Did you start planning out the redecoration of your house? Did you write a speech or get your to-do list together? This is how your mind works. You need to be able to turn it on when you want it and off when you don’t, and that takes control. The control requires consciousness, and the consciousness requires the desire.

You must be in control of your mind this year. I’m shouting it from the mountain top here. Write it on your forehead. The most important thing you can do for yourself this year is to have your mind under control. You are going to see on a very regular basis why that’s so important. Situations will be coming up that you need clarity. You’re going to be hearing things. You need to know how to let go of what does not work for you and keep what does. Control your mind.

The next big thing that’s going to be showing up, probably for another few weeks anyway, is going to be financial issues, so I wanted to take a little bit of time tonight just to touch the top of dealing with finances. By chance, can anybody give me a condensed version of what finances are about in the life of a spiritual being? Sure, give it a try.

You’ve mentioned numerous times that our relationship with money is influenced by, and reflects, our relationship with our father. And looking at that relationship might give us some insights into how we deal with money, how we view money, how we function with money.

S: Good.

You’ve also taught that money is energy, so think of it in those terms.

You’ve also talked about how financial issues are the first and the last issues that somebody who is looking at it spiritually has to deal with it.

S: That’s right.

Energetically you’d say money was masculine, because it’s out in the world, so it’s not only your relationship with yout father, but how you perceive . . . your notion of God when you were being raised.

S: Good, good.

I believe that you said the first part on that spiritual path was about how to make money, and the second part was to know what to do with it.

You said that because money is energy, it’s neither good nor bad. It’s how we use that energy.

S: Right, right.

You also said in the practical aspect, the application, clarity is important. Know what it is you have, what it is that you need, how much you need for that, and budget yourself appropriately so you can manage that.

S: Very good, very good. Yes.

One thing I remember is that it’s something that needs to be taken care of. In addition to that, money is also an energy that flows in and out and needs to be in balance.

S: Balance. Right.

Gratitude is an important part of the flow of prosperity.

S: Very good.

Responsibility, being responsible for knowing how it comes in to you and how you’re spending it. You encouraged spending journals to know where you’re spending, what your financial landscape looks like.

And when we were talking about the relationship with the father, it’s also the relationship with Source. But if you didn’t have a father figure; it was who handled the money that you had as an example.

S: What is the giving/receiving connection with prosperity in finances?

It’s important to support things that are feeding you, because what you’re putting out comes back to you.

S: Good.

When you . . . it’s important to give where you receive, but also giving . . . lost my train of thought.

You’ve often said in the past that because money represents energy, that if you hold onto it and hoard it, you stagnate it, and it doesn’t flow freely and it will not flow freely back to you if you do that.

When you receive something, it’s important to acknowledge it with gratitude, because it completes the cycle of manifesting, and it’s an important part of the process.

S: Does the Universe want you to prosper? You sure? Why?

It wants us happy.

It allows us more easily to do what we’re to do here.

S: Because the Universe always has that at the root—what’s going to allow you to function at your best, what’s going to allow you to more easily fulfill your compact, to serve as you’re here to do. Not having money issues helps . . . sometimes.

Does money make you happy?

It provides opportunities.

S: Provides opportunities. I like that. Happy is a choice.

Particularly in this society, but maybe in many others as well, you’ve talked about love and fear, and how fear oftentimes comes from a place of insecurity. Having a certain amount of money affords us a certain amount of security, which allows us to move out of the security mode for survival and to focus on other things than heat and where our next meal is coming from.

S: Your money is a very, very personal thing. In this culture, you are—sometimes in these actual words—taught that your value is based upon how much of it you have, that it is security, and of course you know it’s not; it is happiness, and of course you know it’s not; it is the way to make others like you, and of course you know it’s not. It is the answer to most any problem; and of course, you know it’s not.

It is, as has been said, for a spiritual person, usually the first and the last of the major issues that you’re going to deal with. The first because you’ve got to figure out your relationship. You’ve got to determine who you are, with and without it. And I promise, you get the opportunity to experience it both ways, don’t you? And that doesn’t matter if you woke up when you were fifty or if you woke up when you were five. At that point, you’re going to start becoming very aware of financial issues.

What money is is opportunity. It is a choice, it is a challenge, but always it is opportunity. And until you turn it inward toward yourself—an opportunity to file off the knots, smooth out the ridges, the opportunity to better know yourself and your issues—it’s going to keep coming up until you have learned that it does not rule you, but you rule it. That you do not need it, you simply use it. I did not say want it; I said use it. That when you use it wisely and well, things flow more easily. But the attitude of money making it flow more easily is incorrect. It’s when you are flowing more easily, you see things in a more easy flow.

Money is the biggest hindrance, justification, excuse, roadblock, “Topes!” You’re driving along the road and there’s a little sign and it says, “Topes!” Right?

[. . .]

S:You’re driving along and whoop! And then you keep driving along. “Topes!” Slow you down right now, that’s what they are.

Money is a gift. Money is a help. Money shows you what your character is. And so in that case, money is a mirror.

Money is not the answer to your problems. You are the answer to your problems.

So, in your spiritual awakening, you realize that it sure would be nice if you won the lottery, and then you could do what you wanted to, and you’d be able to help others, and “Of course, I would give Phoenix a huge amount of it.” You always say that when you’re nagging me. And then when you don’t win it, the Universe has let you down. Precisely. You come into a windfall, yes? But that sounds like it should be a pile of leaves. So you come to a windfall, and what are you going to do with it? Well, some of you will stash it away for winter. [Makes a squirrel face] I forget this is recorded. “I’m going to put it aside because that’s the responsible things to do.”

All right, I’m going to tell you a story on the form, all right? You know these little socks, aye? I like watching this kind of thing happen. So the form has these socks with little golden stars on them, glitter stars. They’re just perfect, lovely little things. And she’s kept them for a special occasion. And so I guess tonight was going to be that special occasion. So she opens up the package and for some reason there’s large pieces of cardboard in these things, she pulls out the cardboard, and she pulls them on, and the elastic . . . they fell right back down. The elastic was gone. Do you know why? Because nothing [no occasion] was good enough to use it and so it was wasted.

Now, one of the biggest issues around money is creating a balance between having what you need and using what you have. When I say having what you need, I mean if the car breaks down tomorrow, or if you’re going to stop working next week, or if you get sick and you’ve got to have to have one of those big machines run over your body—boom , boom , boom. What’s it called? Costs a lot of money . . .

MRI

S: Thank you. That’s it. And balance that with what you need for right now. What’s the key to that balance? Wait. I don’t want anybody to get stuck on this one, so I’m going to just tell you. The key is realizing it’s all perception based upon cultural ideals that may or may not be your own. And here is what I mean by that. How much money do you need to live? And the answer is it depends upon how you’re going to live, doesn’t it? And that’s my point. In your home, you probably have many beautiful things, don’t you? Do you have “the good china?” Not anymore? Gave it away, good for you! Not using it, so got rid of it. What about your closet? Anything you haven’t worn in a year? Anything you couldn’t wear if you put it on now? Anything you would not wear even if it fit? The holidays have just passed. Did you get anything you wish you did not and still wondering what you’re going to do with this?

Extra pounds.

Hairspray.

S: And it’s all Greg’s fault, right? Holds him down . . .

When you hold onto the socks for the special occasion, hold onto the china to use for special times only, you’re telling the Universe nothing is good enough for you. You’re telling the Universe you don’t need any more because you have so much you can store it and not use it. “But Samuel, it’s sentimental.” Then look for a way perhaps to display it. Take a picture of it, then give it away. That’s an interesting thought. It’s your baby’s first shoes, yes? So, display them. Don’t put them in the back where they’re never seen. You’ve had a great treat given to you. Occasionally the Form cooks—made a treat, gave it to you. So you’re just eating little bits and pieces off of it so it will last longer because you like it so much. And you go to it one day and it’s moldy, or the squirrels got it. You’re telling the Universe that you don’t need more.

Now, does that mean spend everything you’ve got? Absolutely not! But know what you need. Don’t hoard. And if you find you have tremendously more than you need and tremendously more than what you think is right to save for emergencies or your retirement, consider making use of it. Travel. Check off your bucket list. Give to where good is being done. Change your perspective.

Is there anybody in here who has had their financial perspective changed—perhaps by someone you’ve met or something you’ve seen?

I don’t know if it’s by that, but when I was teaching at UK, there was the retirement fund—the perspective was you worked until you were 65, and you put as much money in the retirement fund as you could, and then you had as much money as you could, so then you could live off retirement. And I just couldn’t wait that long to live. So, by getting out of that I had to, in order to be happy, I had to change my perspective on a lot of things. I don’t know if you know these advertisements, but these people carry these big numbers, like 1,670,000, which is like their number for retirement. I just laugh at that. Because if I had done it that way, Inever would have gotten there or would have been so unhappy. I don’t know if you want to know my perspective, but my perspective changed because I could not handle doing it that way.

S: Good. That’s good. You realized that the status quo was not your quo.

Two things I’m thinking of. One is through this work, I’ve gotten to know a lot of people over the years, some that had very little money, some that had a lot of money. It made me realize that the amount of money people had had nothing to do with how happy they were or their families were. And then what really hit home was on our trip to India, where we saw so many people that by our standards seemed to live in desperate poverty, but they didn’t act like they were poor the way I’ve seen people act when they were poor. They seemed very content with their lives and very happy. They went on with their lives just as if they were rich people. It was really mind-changing for me to see the love and the joy of people who had nothing materially but had so much spiritually and with their families and with their community. That’s what really mattered to them.

S: Does being poor guarantee your happiness? And it does not take your problems away, but there is something to be said for living at the level of your needs instead of struggling toward the level of your wants.

Prosperity is a function of mind. Financial prosperity can be Gwendolyn’s income, or Sally’s income, or Lilibeth’s income—wait a minute, you don’t have one—but you see what I’m saying. It’s here [points to head]. If you do not have what you need to cover what you need, take a look at your needs. Ask yourself, “Are these my needs? Is this a need because it helps me become a better person? Is this a need because it’s something that I’ve run through my heart and I recognize as a worthy thing, or is it somebody else’s version of what I should want?” Is it a need that is disguised? It’s really a want.

If you can live at the level of your needs and then make sure that your wants work for your greater good—work to help you become a better person, which is your greater good—help the world you live in, you’re going to find that place of balance.

Your finances teach you how much judging you do. Your money teaches you the kind of judgments you make in this world. Stay conscious. Pay attention. Learn from them. Take care that you do not squander. Pay attention. Spend as freely as you wish, but stay aware of what you’re spending. Keep up your checkbook, credit card, bank account, whatever it is that lets you know how much you have and how much you’re spending, because doing that allows you to bring in more by spending less. Let me change that—to have more by spending less. Prosperity is absolutely a mind game that you let control you—judge you—and it should not. Money is a thing, an energy for exchange.

In this coming year, I am going to be hitting on this topic here and there, because it’s so important right now. I know, I really do know that when you feel financially secure you feel better about yourself and that ekes out to others. But I need you to remember that that whole definition of financial security is perception. It’s different for every one of you. There is not a level that says, All right, you’re secure now.

Issues surrounding finances will fool you. They’ll pull out the best in you and the worst in you.

You are in a year of great creation. Powerful creative changing energies going on right now. It’s a year in which your financial outlook can improve markedly, and I want you to be there for it. When that ship comes in, I don’t want you at the stable, or in the garage, or eating lunch, or anything other than being at the dock.

And the very last thing: When I asked you to remind me what I’ve taught about finances, one of the things that came up very clearly was the issue surrounding masculine energy and money. Now, there’s really a pretty involved talk that goes with that, but I want you to just take a moment and think about how masculine influence in your life—and for most of you that was a father—used money, and how does that show up in your life. And I want you to think about that relationship. “Samuel, my daddy is dead. There is no relationship.” All right, what was the relationship? Was it a healthy, easy, love-filled relationship? Was it kind of up and down, war and peace? A little stiff perhaps? Or maybe it was just an out-and-out dysfunction. Now because the mind likes to work this way, humans have a tendency to work at extremes when something begins, way off on this end or way off on that end, before it finds balance. Which is to say that if you had a tough relationship with your father, you might have a tough relationship with money. You might have a really great one because of that tough relationship because you chose to do things exactly the opposite. So those extremes show up. Balance is the key.

This is a very masculine year you’re coming into.

Year of the Horse.

S: That seems fitting. The Year of the Horse, she said.

Money is going to be on people’s minds a lot. Enough, not enough. It’s really important that you take a look within and you get the issues worked out by which you judge your sense of prosperity.

Money often comes with the word deserve. A really great relationship with masculine energy usually eradicates that. That sense of “I deserve” is a direct relation to an abuse of masculine force. So think that through.

It’s a really big year. There is going to be so much good in it, so much promise, so much hope. If last year you were learning to trust, this year you’re learning to accept. Do that.

Suzie and Mary, I am so dancing with delight for you two. I will be there. With or without the Form, I will be there.

Glochanumora.