“When prosperity comes, do not use all of it.”
~Confucius
So yesterday, we talked about the fact that the richest person possible is the person rich at heart.
However, I’d like to clarify that I’m not dissolving my prosperity consciousness here!
What should have been underlined is Osho’s statement: “When ambition enters, creativity disappears. Because an ambitious man cannot love any activity for its own sake. While he is painting/writing, he is looking ahead. He is always in the future. A creative person is always in the present.”
Can you create – and not make fame or fortune your goal ?
Even an attitude of thinking “Does this better society?” pulls us out of it.
When I am creating recipes, to be honest, the last thing I am thinking about is my cookbook or my food blog. I’m creating, in the moment, because I love to, for the joy of cooking.
It’s taken Spencer a long time not to take it personally when I don’t want his help in the kitchen. It moves me from artist to teacher. When it’s a recipe I’ve worked with before, I’m usually more than happy to have him help, provide him instruction so he can feel comfortable re-creating it on his own, and to show him the tricks of the trade.
But when it’s something new, there is a buzz in the air for me, and it’s nearly impossible for me to keep my creative edge, while being forced to explain what I’m doing to someone. Honestly, it frustrates the hell out of me
But the process of creation is like that. It’s in the present. Not in the future.
I’m most fully alive when I’m living Robert Frost’s quote: “I’m an awakener, not a teacher.” This sentence helps me every day chose my offering. If something is drawing me into teaching mode, I feel tense. I am more than happy to share as an awakener. As an awakener, it’s about you, not me.
And Spencer is happiest in the kitchen, without recipes, simply working with fresh ingredients. It brings a smile to my face, because I’ve been able to awaken the joy of cooking in him, even if I’m not the bestest of teachers!
When I started this blog, the last thing I ever thought was that I’d be drawn to write a book. I started it, because knowing how to create Pages on Facebook is an important aspect of teaching Business Development. And I didn’t know how. And still to this day, social media is a bit of a debacle for me. Notice I did not create a page on providing WordPress tips. No. I created a page that’s grown into an expression of my joy: Sharing the teachings of the great masters, which has changed my life. Sharing thoughts on prosperity consciousness and spiritual philosophy.
And through this page, I’ve come to fully realize that I’ve only been prosperous all my life, because I never lost my childhood ability, my god given right to be a creator.
Only through helping you awaken to your purpose, can I truly teach prosperity! Call it business development if you wish LOL …
Even in college, I moved from law to hotel & restaurant studies, because it allowed me greater liberties of creation. My job as a CPA was 100% about creation, and helping people with real estate ventures through very difficult transitions. Offering them a financial roadmap. My computer business was a complete and total invention of the mind. I lost my love for it after the creation aspect was gone, when I was forced to assume a role as an employee within my own operation. It was time to move on, and I did. My villa offers me huge expression of creativity, from remodeling, to interior decoration, to designing websites. If it weren’t for my computer skills that I learned via my professions, I’d likely not be a “web designer” and there would be no Twisted Vegan or Reflections on Sunrise!
If I can use web design to help awaken people, great! This I’ve been struggling with. I’m capable, but I don’t really enjoy teaching it! Just as I didn’t enjoy repairing computers, or talking about computer viruses! These are all “professions”, not creations!
This is 100% what Napoleon Hill meant when he proclaims in his book, “Think and Grow Rich”: “Thoughts are things. And powerful things, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire for their translation into this material world.” This is the ONLY way that prosperity, can possibly occur!
I’m drawn to think of a story my best friend shared with me over the weekend. She is earning her time to become a teacher of yoga teachers. And one of the new students just isn’t getting it. Why? Because her sole aim is to use yoga teaching to get herself out of poverty. She doesn’t love yoga for yoga’s sake. The joy and philosophy of yoga will never find her if the business aspect of yoga is her drive.
You must have a BURNING DESIRE ! No aspirations for monetary gain can give you that! It must come from the heart. This student is likely destined for failure, and it’s been hard for my teacher friend to witness.
And you will need all the other tool’s in Napoleon Hill’s philosophy on prosperity: Organized planning, persistence, decision making, seeking expert counsel, and working with infinite intelligence to instill belief in your abilities to see your passion through to fruition!
You know I love to quote Napoleon Hill when it comes to prosperity consciousness. But the Buddha had much to say on the topic as well.
Many believe that Buddhism spurns the acquisition of material comforts and pleasure, and is only concerned with spiritual development. The attainment of Nibbana is, indeed, the goal. However, the Buddha was very much alive to the fact that economic stability is essential for our welfare and happiness.
This is why you will often see the happy Buddha atop mounds of coins.
The Buddha observed that in acquiring wealth “One should not be deterred by cold, heat, flies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, creeping things, or dying of hunger and thirst. One should be prepared to endure all these difficulties.” (M.I. 85)
In short, being idle and shirking hardships is not the best way to succeed in gaining prosperity.
“Grass is to be sought for by those in need of grass. Firewood is to be sought for by those in need of firewood. A cart to be sought for by those in need of a cart. A servant by him who is in need of a servant. But, Headman, in no manner whatsoever do I declare that gold and silver be accepted or sought for. ”
(S.IV 326)
The Buddha saw clearly that man’s natural desires and tendencies are such that wealth provides ample opportunity for us to indulge ourselves, and to become greedy. Our desires for material things can never be fully satisfied … Even the wealthiest of most men want more and more, and hoard whatever they do have ….
“Not by a shower of gold coins does contentment arise in sensual pleasures.”
~ The Dhammapada (vs. 186-187)
Create simply for the joy of creation, offering your best service to humankind. This is the paradox. It’s the only possible way to prosperity!
“The wealth of those who amass it – without intimidating others, like a roving bee who gathers honey without damaging flowers – will increase it, in the same way as an ant adds to his anthill.”
~ Buddha (D.III 188)
So what is the point of today’s ramble??
I suppose it is to ask you to look beyond your “profession” as Van Gogh so aptly put it. Where are you best at creating?? What brings you, and only you, the greatest satisfaction? Now, have the courage to bring this to humanity. And you will surely prosper.
Resources:
http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha049.htm
