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abundance
May 2008 
ssshhh, the open secret, or the tao of money
Posted on Feb 15th, 2007
by 
evelyn
evelyn
Thinking about the ongoing discussion on the popular film, The Secret.
So I wonder, hmmm, how does a Master deal with money and material wealth? The excerpt below is from Byron Katie's new book A Thousand Names for Joy (my favorite book this year) which in totality are spontaneous discourses that her husband Stephen Mitchell transcribed after he'd read her passages from the Tao Te Ching: "I'm the only live person he's ever translated," she quips. Enjoy:
The Master can keep giving So I wonder, hmmm, how does a Master deal with money and material wealth? The excerpt below is from Byron Katie's new book A Thousand Names for Joy (my favorite book this year) which in totality are spontaneous discourses that her husband Stephen Mitchell transcribed after he'd read her passages from the Tao Te Ching: "I'm the only live person he's ever translated," she quips. Enjoy:
because there is no end to her wealth
We think that because Jesus and the Buddha wore robes and owned nothing, that's how freedom is supposed to look. But can you live a normal life and be free? Can you do it from here, right now? That's what I want for you. We have the same desire: your freedom. And I love that you're attached to material objects, whether you have them or not, so that you can come to realize that all suffering comes from the mind, not the world.
A material thing is a symbol of your thinking. It's a metaphor for desire, for "I want," "I need." We don't have to give up our things. They come or go; we have no control over that; we may think we do, but in reality we don't. Whoever started teaching that we need to get rid of things, or even to give them all away, was a little confused. We may notice sometimes, after the fact, that if we lose everything we're much freer [in an earlier chapter, she spoke of joy after burglars cleaned out their house], so we think it is better to live without possessions. And then we notice that we're not free anymore. But when we work with our thoughts, having great wealth equals having no possessions. A mind that loves reality is the only freedom.
Abundance has nothing to do with money. Wealth and poverty are internal. Whenever you think that you know something and it feels stressful, you're experiencing poverty. Whenever you realize that what you have is enough and more than enough, you're rich.
For people who enter the inner world, the world of inquiry, jobs become secondary. Your job is not about making money, or working with people, or impressing friends, or getting respect, or having security. It's a place for you to judge, inquire, and know yourself. Everything - every man, woman, and child, every tree, every stone, every hurricane, every war - is about your freedom. Jobs come and go, companies and nations rise and fall, and you're not dependent on that. Freedom is what we all want; it's what we already are. And once you understand, you can be as excellent, as creative as you like in your job, you can give all your energy to it, because there's no longer any possibility of failure. You realize that the worst that can happen is a thought.
Money is not your business; truth is your business. The story "I need more money" is what keeps you from realizing your wealth. Whenever you think that your needs are not being met, you're telling the story of a future. Right now, you're supposed to have exactly as much money as you have right now. This is not a theory; this is reality. How much money do you have? That's it - you're supposed to have exactly that amount. If you don't believe it, look at your checkbook. How do you know when you're supposed to have more? When you do. How do you know when you're supposed to have less? When you do. Realizing this is true abundance. It leaves you without a care in the world, as you look for a job, go to work, take a walk, or notice that the cupboard is bare.
The heart can sing, can't it! That's why you wanted money in the first place. Well, you can skip the money part, and just sing. It doesn't mean you won't have money too. Can you do it for richer or poorer, as the world sees it?
I love having money, and I love not having it. To me, spending money is nothing more than passing on what didn't belong to me in the first place. There's nothing I can do to keep it away, as long as it needs to be passed on. If it doesn't need to be passed on, there's no need for it to come. I love that it comes in, and I love that it goes out.
When I receive money, I am thrilled, because I'm fully aware that it's not mine. I'm just a channel, I'm not even the caretaker. I get to be an observer of it, to see what it's for. The moment I get it from over there, a need for it pops up over here. I love giving money. I never lend people money; I give them money, and they call it a loan. If they repay it, that's when I know it was a loan. - Byron Katie, A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Ways Things Are
Update: "But just because you realize the truth and awaken spiritually doesn't mean that your life is going to be an unending ascent of good fortune. That would not be the peace that surpasses all understanding. As long as our lives feel good, it is easy to have peace. But life does what it does, like an ocean moving. Whether the waves are high or low, it is just as sacred, and, as nobody, you are not harmed by it. Within this awakeness is the peace that surpasses understanding, and your life doesn't need to be doing better. It can just do what life does; it just flows. You don't care." - Adyashanti, Emptiness Dancing
A material thing is a symbol of your thinking. It's a metaphor for desire, for "I want," "I need." We don't have to give up our things. They come or go; we have no control over that; we may think we do, but in reality we don't. Whoever started teaching that we need to get rid of things, or even to give them all away, was a little confused. We may notice sometimes, after the fact, that if we lose everything we're much freer [in an earlier chapter, she spoke of joy after burglars cleaned out their house], so we think it is better to live without possessions. And then we notice that we're not free anymore. But when we work with our thoughts, having great wealth equals having no possessions. A mind that loves reality is the only freedom.
Abundance has nothing to do with money. Wealth and poverty are internal. Whenever you think that you know something and it feels stressful, you're experiencing poverty. Whenever you realize that what you have is enough and more than enough, you're rich.
For people who enter the inner world, the world of inquiry, jobs become secondary. Your job is not about making money, or working with people, or impressing friends, or getting respect, or having security. It's a place for you to judge, inquire, and know yourself. Everything - every man, woman, and child, every tree, every stone, every hurricane, every war - is about your freedom. Jobs come and go, companies and nations rise and fall, and you're not dependent on that. Freedom is what we all want; it's what we already are. And once you understand, you can be as excellent, as creative as you like in your job, you can give all your energy to it, because there's no longer any possibility of failure. You realize that the worst that can happen is a thought.
Money is not your business; truth is your business. The story "I need more money" is what keeps you from realizing your wealth. Whenever you think that your needs are not being met, you're telling the story of a future. Right now, you're supposed to have exactly as much money as you have right now. This is not a theory; this is reality. How much money do you have? That's it - you're supposed to have exactly that amount. If you don't believe it, look at your checkbook. How do you know when you're supposed to have more? When you do. How do you know when you're supposed to have less? When you do. Realizing this is true abundance. It leaves you without a care in the world, as you look for a job, go to work, take a walk, or notice that the cupboard is bare.
The heart can sing, can't it! That's why you wanted money in the first place. Well, you can skip the money part, and just sing. It doesn't mean you won't have money too. Can you do it for richer or poorer, as the world sees it?
I love having money, and I love not having it. To me, spending money is nothing more than passing on what didn't belong to me in the first place. There's nothing I can do to keep it away, as long as it needs to be passed on. If it doesn't need to be passed on, there's no need for it to come. I love that it comes in, and I love that it goes out.
When I receive money, I am thrilled, because I'm fully aware that it's not mine. I'm just a channel, I'm not even the caretaker. I get to be an observer of it, to see what it's for. The moment I get it from over there, a need for it pops up over here. I love giving money. I never lend people money; I give them money, and they call it a loan. If they repay it, that's when I know it was a loan. - Byron Katie, A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Ways Things Are
Update: "But just because you realize the truth and awaken spiritually doesn't mean that your life is going to be an unending ascent of good fortune. That would not be the peace that surpasses all understanding. As long as our lives feel good, it is easy to have peace. But life does what it does, like an ocean moving. Whether the waves are high or low, it is just as sacred, and, as nobody, you are not harmed by it. Within this awakeness is the peace that surpasses understanding, and your life doesn't need to be doing better. It can just do what life does; it just flows. You don't care." - Adyashanti, Emptiness Dancing
Access: PublicTagged with: freedom, enlightenment, money, wealth, the+secret, tao, tao+te+ching, byron+katie, manifestation, abundance
Thank you so much for sharing this, Evelyn. You've made me want to read Katie's book even more … and even more than that, to write, which for me is an even greater gift. Thank you.
Ironically, Joe Vitale, one of The Secret teachers, recently posted in his blog that he's teaching The Work to his Secret students as a way of combatting thoughts that would keep people from getting what they want. Even though this is using The Work with a motive (which is, ultimately, unsatifsying), I love it because when these folks tire of their stuff, they'll have the inquiry.
The Secret relies on viral marketing. A Thousand Names for Joy is truly viral; infectious, maybe deadly. I highly recommend it if you want to get the “how” of the Tao.