Theme for February: WEALTH–the practice of discovering abundance
Questions for contemplation and conversation on your own,
around the dinner table, in your journal, with each other
QUESTIONS
- How have you understood wealth throughout your life?
- Do you struggle with feeling you have enough, too much, or too little?
- In what ways do you put your treasure (time, talent, energy, resources) where your heart is?
- Where do you feel a sense of abundance in your life?
- Where do you find abundance in our church community?
QUOTES
A monk asked Chao-Chou, “If a poor man comes, what should one give him?” “He lacks nothing,” answered the Master.
–Zen mondo
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
–Seneca
Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.
–James W. Frick
“When you are grateful fear disappears and abundance appears”
–Anthony Robbins
“Not what we have but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.”
–Epicurus
The universe operates through dynamic exchange… giving and receiving are different aspects of the flow of energy in the universe. and in our willingness to give that which we seek, we keep the abundance of the universe circulating in our lives.
–Deepak Chopra
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.
–Franklin D. Roosevelt
Giving thanks for abundance is sweeter than the abundance itself. Should one who is absorbed with the Generous One be distracted by the gift? Thankfulness is the soul of beneficence; abundance is but the husk, for thankfulness brings you to the place where the Beloved lives.
–Rumi
Authentic abundance does not lie in secured stockpiles of food or cash or influence or affection but in belonging to a community where we can give those goods to others who need them – and receive them from others when we are in need.
–Parker Palmer
Riches are not from an abundance of worldly goods, but from a contented mind.
–Mohammed
We say that time is money, meaning both are valuable…. Usually, there is a reciprocal relationship between them; that is, abundance of money seems to go along with shortage of time, and abundance of time with shortage of money. Money is the wealth of the materialist, and works miracles in the realm of the physical. Time is the wealth of the pilgrim, and works miracles in all realms.
–Ed Bury
POETRY
The Fountain
Don’t say, don’t say there is no water
to solace the dryness at our hearts.
I have seen
the fountain springing out of the rock wall
and you drinking there. And I too
before your eyes
found footholds and climbed
to drink the cool water.
The woman of that place, shading her eyes,
frowned as she watched – but not because
she grudged the water,
only because she was waiting
to see we drank our fill and were
refreshed.
Don’t say, don’t say there is no water.
That fountain is there among its scalloped
green and gray stones,
it is still there and always there
with its quiet song and strange power
to spring in us,
up and out through the rock.
—Denise Levertov
EXCERPTS
“Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend… when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present / love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure / the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth.”
–Sarah Ban Breathnach
Breathing Wealth
“Breathing wealth is a simple technique that empowers individuals with the ability to consciously participate in an energy flow in which one enters abundance and lives it as oneself.
The technique was discovered by Dhyan Vimal, and is currently being shared worldwide by Friends to Mankind. It is an effort for humanity to live in abundance, not only in wealth, but abundance of friends, abundance of happiness, abundance of enjoyment, abundance of living. The technique specifically works on creating an energy field in which one lives in a supported environment, so one is taken care of, and becomes one who cares for all.
The Technique
It is recommended that one practices the meditation for 20 minutes a day, for a period of 48 days. In order to live in abundance one has to create and enter the flow of giving and receiving. The root cause of poverty is the inability to give and not knowing how to receive. This causes one to be in an energy flow that does not allow abundance to enter one’s life and most often this energy flow is created accidentally based on conditioning or the environment that one is in. The flow begins at the heart, where the heart opens up and gives the energy of sharing to the world. This same energy is received back through the sacral or second chakra (situated 2 inches below the navel), from where it moves up and is transformed to the highest it can be, before it loops back to the heart to be given out again.
–Dhyan Vimal http://www.breathingwealth.com/#