Inviting Abundance

I just had an epiphany in the bathroom.  Why so many of my 'a ha' moments happen there is still a mystery told only to the toothbrush by the razor in the dark of night while my breath is subtle in the warmth of my bed.  Nonetheless, a lightning bolt around abundance.

I've heard over the years that to have more flow, you must put more in flow.  I'm speaking primarily of money at the moment, and generally about any form of Grace that reveals through objects, food, needs met, money, love, and so much more.

All of these manifestations are made of the same stuff as Consciousness.  In this great big bank account of the Universe, it's loud and clear this morning that the branch manager doesn't see any difference between love, money, or CREATIVITY.  Output is output.  Giving is giving.  Expressing is expressing, and expressing is giving and output, and these are means of being in fluid exchange with the Universe.

There's a particular outlay of cash coming up that I've been secretly worried about.  There, I said it, worried.  Yes, I can be a closet worrier.  This probably comes as no great shock to anyone who knows me well.  They're just kind enough not to bring it up in conversation too often.  I'm laughing out loud here as I write this.  The chuckling is the irony that my ego would really earnestly try convincing me that I'm the only closet-worrier, when I know for a fact that this plague is flung far into the four directions of the globe.  It's a human thing.  It's a control thing.  Or rather a fear of no-control thing where the threat seems real, the threat of great loss in the face of no control.  Outcome?  Worrying.  Needless, pointless, fruitless frittering, twittering, and worrying.

Creative output in any and every form is a giving.  This is recognized by the Universe as a part of circulation; participating in flow.  And it responds in kind by sending flow back around to the giver.  This flow can come in any number of ways, and noticing and acknowledging the return is as valuable to being in flow as the initial giving.  As I write this, I feel lifted up, I feel energized.  These are some of the immediate ways I'm being given to, exchanged with, and part of the Divine Circulation.

I could've easily kept on shaving, enjoyed the initial 'Eureka!' thought and intended to write something about it later.  Something nudged me to sit down now and do it.  This is another form of giving from the Flow.  Sitting down to write it is me giving back, acknowledging and showing gratitude.  Posting it on the blog is circulating the wealth with anyone who reads it.  From there, someone may re-post it, have their own epiphanies, circulate some or all of this energy flow into their circles.  It keeps moving.  It's a Divine Commerce.

I feel abundant.  And I am.  Again and again, I come back to that line in the Yoga Vasistha, "The world is as you see it."  What I focus on, I experience.  It's so simple, I need to remind myself of it to keep it fresh and active.

Have an AWESOME day wherever you are!

Sunday 1/24: Breathwork @ The Hub ~ The Circle Part 2, 5:30-7pm

the CIRCLE: Giving & Receiving Are One ~ Part 2

Next Sunday night, we’ll move into Part 2 (**don’t worry if you missed Part 1, Part 2 can stand on its own!).  We’ll connect with a deeper experience of Wholeness...the felt presence of Fullness and Completion in which Love is freely and abundantly exchanged; Where giving and receiving are One.  This is an area in which I’m making deep personal study a focus...in exchanging with You, the Breath, and Awareness, we’ll all go deeper.  As a support, you might consider ordering David Elliott’s newest book Healing (copies will also be available Friday night).  It can be found in hard-copy or MP3 versions at http://davidelliott-healing.com

When:       Part 2 ~ SUNDAY night 1/24/10  5:30-7pm   
                    ((Arrive early to avoid being late))

Exchange:       $35

Where:      The Hub (http://thehub-la.com)
                    2001 S Barrington Ave, Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90025-5363 US
                    { S Barrington Ave between LaGrange and Mississippi }
                    Entrance for the Hub is located on street level at the ground floor of the
                    parking structure located on South Barrington Avenue.
Bring:          Yoga mat and/or blanket-we'll be sitting on the floor at first then lying down
                     for the breathwork.

RSVP:        You can reserve your spot through The Hub  310-575-4200

Love,
Scott
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com

What are you Investing in? Wealth Pt.2

Picture by Gregory Colbert from the Ashes and Snow series

How do we price goods and services if the metric is no longer scarcity and uniqueness?  Can we still seek to thrive through short-cuts?  Will we have to be more conscious of everything involved in an exchange at an awareness capacity beyond mere industrial 1950's linear rationalization?  Are we willing to be as clear and grounded as that type of economy would require for fluidity and mutual benefit to all involved?

These are just handful of the many questions coming up for me as I study the money system alongside my exploration of Self-Love and Exchange.  As I write this last line, it's just fallen dark outside and a hummingbird is poking his beak through the screen at my window repeatedly, and buzzing in his characteristically George-Jetson-car-like way.

After my last blog piece on Wealth, my Mom emailed me, commented, "Losing our way with financial discipline does not get resolved by bartering, as we still must deal with the history of making financial choices that hurt us." 


I let her know that I wholeheartedly agree.  One of my biggest concerns with the various local currency systems and barter groups that are proliferating is with the repetition of the same dysfunctional self-images re-creating similar patterns around exchange.  Rules can only do so much to guide the unfolding of a project.  The awareness of all the people involved intimately shapes the emergence from and through the group.


Number one ~  I must know myself.  Not just my address, or my favorite kind of cheese, but who and what I really am; independent of thoughts and emotions.  Who and what am I?  I if I don't know myself, I'm liable to be unconscious at the wheel of life and make blind decisions detached from their impact on the world I am integrally a part of.


Number two ~ I must honestly value myself as a beingness.  This is where the self-love comes in.  Self-Love stems from true Self-Knowledge.  Self-love doesn't come from a number of standing ovations from large crowds (though it can help break up a person's distorted negative self-image by having his gifts witnessed and appreciated).  Self-love comes from intimately knowing that I am not my past, I am not my psychological wounds, I am not the thoughts in my mind.....moving into the realm of knowing ~ I am Nothing, and I am Everything, and I am right here.  I am perfect, whole, and complete in every moment.  Nothing I can do, say, think, or feel can change what I truly and already Am (though these things can hide it from my conscious awareness).


Number three ~ I must value You!  And see that you also are Nothing, Everything, Perfect, Whole, and Complete.  I can't do number three fully without first deeply engaging with numbers one and two.  If I try to value you without knowing and valuing me, my perception of you is only a projection.  As soon as you do something I don't like, I'll withdraw my valuing of you.  What about that makes sense?  Either you're valuable, or you're not.  


Number four ~ I must consider the impact of every footstep I take on the whole of which I am a part.  I'm not suggesting shredding your mind with a infinite number of new thoughts for policing your actions.  I'm suggesting that when you begin to know yourSelf as you Are, you won't have to go to the mind for that kind of Awareness.  It'll arise spontaneously in the moment, fed by your intent and willingness.


In a competitive paradigm driven by scarcity and uniqueness, someone must lose.  Someone goes hungry and without clean water.  We have the resources on this planet, for every human to have enough to eat and clean water to drink.  In an "accumulation" paradigm, the competitors have no time to look out for the welfare of anything outside their sphere, unless it's a public relations attempt at throwing a "glamour" over their image to gain more resources through a short-cut.


It's time for what Buckminster Fuller calls a You AND Me world....a world where everyone matters.  But if this paradigm is imposed it won't last long.  Resistance will buck that like a mechanical bull on rocket fuel.  For a real and grounded You AND Me world to emerge, awakening must dawn in more humans.  A powerful pathway?  Self-Love.  It's only a matter of time and focus before Self-Love reveals Awareness of One-Self....even if it's like a flower fluttering open and closed throughout the day, a little goes a long way.

WEALTH

I am one of the wealthiest people I know.

I have unlimited access to Abundance.

My Abundance can not be even minutely reflected by a number in the current monetary system.

"Contemporary European author, Bernard Lietaer, former senior officer of the Belgian Central Bank and one of the chief architects of the Euro currency, in his book, Of Human Wealth, says that greed and fear of scarcity are programmed; they do not exist in nature, not even in human nature. They are built into the money system in which we swim, and we've been swimming in it so long that these shadows have become almost completely transparent to us. We have learned to consider them normal and legitimate behavior. He concludes that Adam Smith's system of economics could more accurately be described as the allocation of scarce resourses through the process of individual greed. The whole process of Smith's "modern" economics actually has its roots in primitive fears of scarcity, greed, and the implementation too -- the process by which this became real -- was money."
~ from THE SOUL OF MONEY by Lynne Twist

I have an abundance of time, Love, Awareness, and Healing...all of which are valuable commodities that can be exchanged without limit. On more directly observable levels are all the skills and talents I have been blessed with and continue to uncover, develop, and expand.

As we inch and perhaps eventually sprint into what will be the new economy of Exchange inside of a circle without beginning or end, you and I will have an ever expanding community with which to exchange our abundant resources for food, clothing, shelter, learning, entertainment, health & fitness, and so many other commodities.

This form of exchange requires that I develop and expand Self-Love, which allows me to clearly recognize, honor, and value the abundant resources I steward and share. As I have authentic awareness of the value of these gifts, they become recognizably valuable in the marketplace of Exchange.

When I let the status of my debt-to-income ratio in the current monetary system become the metric for my self-worth, I can not and do not perceive my innate abundance and the profound abundance of the natural world, and reflexively obscuring this value, rendering it unable to be exchanged within the world at large.

Perhaps this is in the direction of what Jesus meant by teaching his students to "Be in the world but not of it." For it's not about pretending the current monetary system doesn't exist. At the moment, I can't walk into Whole Foods and ask the cashier to exchange a cart full of groceries for a healing session. That, however, doesn't confine the scope of exchange solely to the current monetary system.

For example, there may be one or more people who have services I would need or want, and who see great value in experiencing my work. By exchanging outside the monetary system, money I would have spent on those services now becomes available for purchasing that cart full of groceries from Whole Foods.

So I'm not presenting an "either/or" scenario. Rather, a complementary relationship between the two systems...a way to think, step, and act outside the box that so many of us have found ourselves at one time or another confined by.

As I have more and more successful exchanges in this type of barter system, where all parties are uplifted by through the entire process all the way to completion, each of us leaves these exchanges with a deeper awareness of our innate Abundance, Value, and Worth...bolstering the whole system.

I do believe that developing the musculature for these types of Awareness and Exchange is crucial if we are to thrive in the times ahead. My intuition tells me that we've only seen the beginning of the crumbling of the current economic structures, an appetizer for a potentially very unpleasant meal for those dependent on the current system.

And let me be crystal clear here; I don't think this crumbling is some form of retribution or punishment for past deeds as such. I am being shown that it is part of our collective Awakening to the Truth of Who and What we Truly Are.

In the process of Awakening, illusions are exposed. Any and all illusions. The current monetary system is no longer backed up by gold. It is mere printed paper based on indebtedness. There is very little, if any, reflection of the true abundance of the natural world, and what you and I truly are. This neither makes the monetary system good or bad. It is simply a reflection of our collective conscious awareness. We are growing and realizing more expanded levels of consciousness, so our systems will mirror this phoenix-in-the-flames movement.

What's the key? The main key I see for myself is to deeply, viscerally know what I am, to honor, value, and steward This in myself, and all of life through the ways I take each and every step in my life.

Starting at the Beginning...

I have been challenged by money in my life. I'm the only one, right? Ha ha ha! The flow of abundance (or not) weighs on nearly 99% of the people I know. And so many of us have avoided really looking at it, for fear that looking at it might conjure a nasty beast whose only interest is to consume us into non-existence, or worse yet, prolonged suffering. Yet avoiding this area is actually what's prolonging the suffering.

The flow, or lack thereof of money, at any given time, has historically held more weight over my self-opinion than the Truth of who and what I am. Over time, this has shifted, and in particular over the last few months of working with the principles in my friend and mentor, David Elliott's, new book HEALING. And there's still tremendous room for me to grow and develop in this area.

I've been revisiting beginnings. If it's true what David has said, "The approach determines the landing," then paging back through time to my beginnings in the areas of my life that are important to me now has given and will continue to open rich veins of insight into how things are playing out, and how to work with them differently.

However, if I'm not clear about how I got where I am, then I'm fairly likely to repeat the past.

The source of any and all of it, will continue to come back to my relationship with myself. My relationship with all of life is a perfect mirror of my relationship with all the aspects of myself. As I study myself, a sacred merger can happen and I become intimate with all of life. As I avoid myself, I become alienated from all of life. It's that simple.

I'm starting today with educating myself on the origins of money in a book by the same name, ON THE ORIGINS OF MONEY published in 1892 by Carl Menger.

As I bring myself up to speed on the beginnings of money, I'm simultaneously bringing myself up close and personal on my relationship with money by revisiting with fresh eyes, my beginnings with money and exchange.

May my studies be fully guided by Living Wisdom that has been purified by the sacred fire of Truth, Wisdom that goes far beyond intellect and words, and through its clarity, hones, sharpens, and aligns all my thoughts, feelings, and actions with Truth.

On the heels of writing all of that, this came in through Intuition, loud and clear:

You are endeavoring to master 'perception', namely your own. As you Master perception you can alter the perceived value of any goods or services with which you are involved, and lift exchange to its rightful place as a Sacred Act; that is an act which is fully aligned with the Truth of Spirit, the Truth of Reality.

Exchange

There is only Love.
This I know.
And yet the
thousand and one
things shiny or bright
can still
cast their glamour,
steal drops of attention
until I return.

And returning is a
precarious teeter-totter
of a walk
at times,
coyotes chasing rabbits
across the sandy desert road
winding through Joshua Trees
and chapparal,
captivated by my senses
until a large rock
knocks against the steely wheels of my mind.

Infinite Grace
always extending
not one hand
but two,
nothing held back,
for Grace doesn't wait for
guaranteed returns before
opening the coffers wide.
So why should I?

Scott Patrick Schwenk 9/24/09

Exchange

When you try to exchange
all your wants and needs for
perfect happiness
through the illusions of
this seeming world
block the Reality of
His exchange with You
always unfolding itSelf.

Let go of this dance
with empty calories,
words without meaning,
work without fruit,
and dances without joy.

Let Him whirl
through your Imagination,
pulsing, throbbing, expanding
his Dance of Creation
in every wink of your
beautiful eyes,
every beat of your
gorgeous Heart
drenched in the nectar of
Love for no reason,
Rollicking laughter with no punchline,
Wild warm embraces empty of need.

You, oh yes Dear One,
You
are His Beloved
Her Beloved...
And you don't have a vote in it!

Scott Patrick Schwenk 5/27/09

No More Breaks

No More Breaks

No more breaks in the Circle of Life.

Can you
Will you
Ever release
The Fort Knox lockdown
On your identity as
stuck, broken, alone, not-enough?

How many years
dollars and ears
will you use with
no exchange
to fix something that has
no existence?

A free ego
isn't freedom at all...

This gasping
rasping and grasping for
air
is ridiculous...

How many meatless
old bones
will you add to your collection
sucking on them for some hope of
sustenance?

You ask for compassion
but won't let this
balm of Gilead
permeate your
aching
thick
dry skin...

You plead for time
while running down
pedestrians
on the hunt for
the next great latte
to invigorate the
lifeless listless adrenals
whose lifeforce
you've gambled away on
one too many nights of promise
with no delivery.

When will you
and can you
ever
Wake up?

No more breaks in the Circle of Life.

Oh Great Spirit

Oh Mother of All

Light of Fire

Spirit of Water

Lift of Air

Strength of Earth

Knowing of Truth...

Release the
knot of the Heart
so the ocean of infiniteness
can know itself in
all form and formlessness

No more breaks in the Circle of Life.

Scott Patrick Schwenk 6/23/09