The Mastery of Money
She who knows she has enough is rich.
In the late 1970’s when I lived in Santa Monica, I visited my local food coop one evening coming upon a flyer pinned to the bulletin board: Prosperity: a seminar by John Roger.
“Well,” I thought, “I need that.” I had been moaning about my lack of money for years. Of course, it was timely: the seminar was that very evening down in Redondo Beach. I grabbed a quick meal and went off down the Pacific Coast Highway to find the seminar location.
When I made it into the room, there were many of us there waiting eagerly for some wisdom about the bane of all our lives: money.
John Roger went straight to the point. He began with this statement:
“Ten percent of everything you earn is yours to keep.”
He told us that we should pay ourselves first, to literally make a sacred tithe to the God within ourselves. “Separate 10% of every dollar that comes your way and turn it into sacred money by placing it into a sacred stash out of circulation to be accumulated for your spiritual benefit.”
There were some added instructions that went with this.
First: don’t put it in the bank. The bank already has enough money. It is you that need the money. The bank’s job is to keep you broke so you believe you need the bank!
He added an explanation: Humans are 3-fold beings: Be. Do. Have. In those days we were learning more about Being by meditating and performing yoga postures and asanas. In our society, he said, we are human-doings constantly on the run, doing and doing without ceasing. What we lack is the experience of having something: he called it: Havingness.
So, count your money and take a tithe out of it and turn it into folding cash. Wear it somewhere on your body. Remember, by tithing to yourself you have turned that part of your income into sacred money. It is an important sacred discipline to allow yourself the experience of simply having the money.
Okay, I thought, this sounds like some really good advice. I have learned that it is important to recognize really good advice and to follow it. Serendipity can happen with that!
I went home that night, counted my money, discovered $600.00 from which I separated 3 twenties, putting them in a small cotton bag placing it behind the zipper of my jeans over my naval center. It felt warm and comfortable there. I knew that I would not be tempted to spend that money. From my early family experiences it was a serious no no to ‘spend’ money. There was something profligate in spending. In point of fact, there and then I created a distinction between “spending” and “using” money. From that day, I have never just spent money. I use it for my purposes, which is my self directed spiritual evolution through the experiences of a human life on a planet.
When we change, we make new consequences for ourselves. This is what happened. Within a couple days, people that had borrowed money from me, came to pay me back. “Oh, Hi, here’s the $20 you loaned me. Thanks!” That was an unexpected very nice surprise! There was more to come.
I was a freelance worker doing sewing and alterations, house painting and cleaning, other odd jobs around my neighborhood. More work came to me easily and quickly in a sufficiency to increase my income without making me so terribly busy and stressed that I did not enjoy what I was doing. I found good time for creativity and there was cash for my pocket and for the sacred stash which was accumulating. I soon discovered I was earning about double what I had thought. “This is fantastic,” I was learning that I was capable of earning and taking care of myself properly with diligent and worthy effort and no struggle! A key point.
The third result happened over time and has become the mainstay of my frugality: I have never been broke since. From time to rare time, I have been down to my last $100 but never without. I have always had the money today for what was needed and wanted in my life – today. Everything from new tires for my car when an old one blew, to car repairs, to concert tickets, whatever it was I required came to me exactly on time every time. Thank you very much.
There was one final piece of the puzzle that John Roger gave us.
What is the money to be used for?
The teaching he gave is that it is for our spiritual development. The first, of course, was to teach us and our body, the discipline and experience of havingness. The second was added knowledge of frugality which is not miserliness but rather the ability to use money properly to fulfill the spiritual purposes of our lives and for our righteous needs and desires. The third was that with money in a sacred stash there were options to use the money to buy books, crystals, seminars to advance our knowledge, to use generously to support others in their spiritual development and to have a wholesome good time: a special celebration with friends, or to buy travel for experiences in other places to add to our sophistication and maturity in spiritual matters.
John Roger’s teaching and my willing discipline changed my life from that day. Even though I have never been what may be called a wealthy person, I am rich. I think of my life as opulent. There is a Chinese proverb that says, “She who knows she has enough, is rich.” I have always had enough to do my life and to give when it was the right thing to do to give to another. I have learned generosity and taught myself the Art of Gratitude. I am thankful for having learned to fulfill my three-fold nature: Being. Doing and Having. Blessed Be, Grandmother.
Doing Business: This plan works very well indeed when you are working at your own business. Typically what occurs around open hearted, conscious people is that there assembles a group that enjoys working together for the greater good. I have called it: peopling the vision.
Selfless cooperation is a precious key.
So this: separate 10 cents of every dollar that comes to your business and place it in a sacred stash perhaps a private altar. Everyone shares in the generation of the money and everyone shares in the reward.
Allow it to accumulate, watching how your cooperative efforts endow your prosperity. Then at some specific date get together, have a party and create a plan for the spiritual use of that money. Believe me, this works: Imagine empowering yourselves each and every day that you work toward that amazing spiritual vision that was your motivation in the first place! Blessed Be.
