THE SECRET OF ENOUGH

Here is a Post from Freeacre that is on a subject that we discuss peripherally on a frequent basis.

Murph

The Secret of Enough

freeacre

A couple of weeks ago, I caught an Oprah show devoted to “The Secret” of creating an abundant life. On it, James Ray and Rev. Michael Beckwith were discussing the pretty classic teachings of Abundance Consciousness or the Law of Attraction. In a nutshell, they teach that “like attracts like”. The energy that you put into the world, both good and bad, is what comes back to you. You create the circumstances in your life with the choices that you make every day. Another way to put it is “what you put your attention into, you get more of.”

Personally, I have benefited from this type of thinking. A minister of mine once asked me, “Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?” in reference to relationship difficulties I was having with my late husband. Most of my focus had been on in depth analysis of what was “wrong” with him, down to the bitter detail. But, when I chose to look at what was right, and go for the good, the relationship substantially changed for the better.

The idea that we come from an abundant universe and that we are limitless spiritual beings having a human experience can be somewhat misleading, however. In fact, it can be downright destructive and annoying, as portrayed by Matt Savinar on his Life After the Oil Crash website. He writes concerning “The Secret”…

“…it makes negative thinking almost heretical. As though there is something fundamentally wrong with you for being upset that your children's' futures have been mortgaged to die in the Middle East so that bloated Oprah viewers could drive their Urban Assault Vehicles from their McMansions to the movie houses at the shopping malls they've been so lustfully attempting to manifest themselves.

Turning positive thinking into a religion while making negative thinking heretical is great for the interests who don't want you getting upset should you realize there's a connection between the giant McMansion you've been visualizing and the dead bodies coming back from Mesopotamia. This is the real "mark of the beast." Bullsh-t propaganda designed to get you to smile as you sacrifice your freedom, your sovereignty, your children, your neighbor's children, etc for the gratification of your own beastly nature.

Of course they've got your son watching "300" so he can't wait to go die in Mesopotamia so I guess it all works out in the end. Wow, what a coin-inky-dink.

The really sad thing is even if you do figure out what the game is, most of your neighbors will not as they've been totally suckered and atomized themselves. That's the whole point, as long as they've got everybody visualizing their own personal aggrandization, nobody is going to band together. After all, why should I care about what is happening to other people when I believe it's just a matter of time before I manifest myself a career as a rock star or business mogul living in a giant home, driving a giant car, wearing a giant fake hair-piece and married to a blonde bimbo with giant fake boobs?”

Lololol… Matt pretty well summed up my own objections to “The Secret” as it is portrayed in the popular media. If one is a shallow narcissist, then one’s idea of their greatest good will most probably be status symbols – big cars, fancy houses, designer clothes, etc. etc. They’ll have no thought of the consequences of their purchases or of their actions. With that outlook, it is easy to blame people with less on their own sense of lack and let them stew in the products of “their own limitation”. It’s easy to discount our own complicity in the culture of corruption and greed which brings death and destruction to the millions who are systematically denied the prerequisites for “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” while they labor in sweatshops or mines to produce our trinkets and toys. Or fight or die in our resource wars.

But, on the other hand, I have been able to manifest my dream of relocation and preparedness for the coming meltdown in a way that I would have thought to be a miracle, even though it is admittedly small potatoes compared to others that are more financially endowed. In fact, living in our forty year old mobile home in Central Oregon, on less than twenty thousand dollars a year, with a flock of chickens providing our main source of entertainment, would be considered pitiful by a lot of people’s standards. And yet, in many ways, I feel rich.

I have a loving and supportive relationship with the Murphman, who is my husband and best friend. Our place is paid for free and clear. We have a year’s worth of food stored up. And, I have been able to manifest FREE TIME and not have to be gainfully employed so I can take care of my health until I can collect social security in a couple of years (hopefully). It is enough for me. In fact, it is plenty.

When I started on this quest to cultivate abundance consciousness, I was dead broke. I began Science of Mind classes at the United Church of Religious Science back in 1985 or so. I figured that if the class worked, I’d somehow manifest the money to pay for it. Surprisingly, it worked. I took the classes for five years, and it was truly transformational. I became a licensed practitioner and practiced for twelve years at the Carson City church in Nevada. During that time, I was also in a women’s spiritual drumming circle for eight years in Tahoe. I studied “A Course in Miracles”.

In that time, in my own way, I did experience miracles. I did open up to a sense of personal power and the loving support of an intelligent and responsive universe. But it wasn’t quick or easy. It did require self discipline. It required being in integrity and not lying at all. Not cheating on anything. Not going back on my word. And, that was just for starters…

Now, I am no Deepak Chopra or Neale Donald Walsch, that’s for sure. But, I think I have something to add to the mix that is missing from the greater New Age culture: the concept of “enough”.

If one truly recognizes the beauty and integrity of this limitless universe of which we are all a part, then one will also note the balance and connection that keeps it all functioning. Our system of unlimited growth to support capitalism and our lifestyle of more and more to sustain that cancer-like growth of money or goods, is what is killing us now. Our land, air, rivers, and oceans are polluted, dying, and making us sick. There are too many people for this planet to sustain.

But, it is almost “un-American” to say “enough.” The very dollars that we use for currency are loaned to us with interest. So, right there, we constantly need more of them just to stay even. The struggle for more is the fabric of our culture. More products, more services, more buyers, more sellers, more profits, more dividends – and all these require ever more resources. But, there are a finite amount of resources on this planet. So, until we have the ability to exploit additional planets, we better begin to get our minds around the concept of “enough.” We don’t have a “Miracle Max” (Billy Crystal in “Princess Bride”) to pull us out of this one.

I have a ways to go in terms of wrestling my own consciousness around this issue. I think it is the challenge of our generation to come to terms with “How much is enough?” How much money is enough? How many things are enough? How much food is enough? How much recognition is enough? How much power is enough? How much control is enough? How much time is enough?

At this time, for instance, many Americans spend more money on medical drugs and procedures just before they die than in any other part of their lives. This is in order for them to extend their lives for a few extra months or years while the medical industry picks whatever they can get from their pockets, savings, pensions, or estates until they are finally allowed to croak and their families are disinherited. What if people decided that it was not necessary to have that open heart surgery at 85 or that colostomy at 90 or a lung transplant at 50? What if they just decided to be grateful for the life that they’ve led and move on before the big transfer of their resources to the medical establishment took place?

What is enough? How does it feel to have enough? What will I do differently when I have a sense of enough?

These are questions that need to be addressed if we are to prepare for the scarcity that is to come or make plans that are sustainable. We won’t be free until we can create a sense of what is enough.