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.
I've been feeling this on a deep level! I've been feeling moved to develop the things in me that both feel the closest to my true nature while at the same time (not coincidentally) are skills that can be exchanged in value for actual dollars or traded in limitless ways. Maybe this intuition has deeper roots than I thought. Very interesting, my dear Scott, very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this Scott. Such a GOOD reminder. A true yard stick of reality. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThanks again Scott for how you articulate subtle nuances of Truth in action.
ReplyDeleteAbundance is a word that presents some significant challenge for me, due in no small part to the fact that it has been co-opted by devotees of 'manifestation consciousness' - a belief system rooted in limitation, not abundance, due to their being a 'self' who is engaged with a 'getting'.
Equally, talking about 'levels' of consciousness is, I suspect, a habit of language as distinct from a clear articulation of 'what is' in your direct experience.
(of course, i may be completely wrong on both counts .....)
I respect that this is not what you're saying, however I encourage you to offer up an investigation of language in your writing, in order to minimise the potential for misinterpretation
In short, to come back to this post, what I'm reading, which is a common thread through much of my current discourse, is that we should not make 'perfect' the enemy of 'good'.
Simply, despite the current economic systems of exchange being fundamentally broken, they still serve (for now) a useful function.
Eschewing financial exchange in favour of some mythical land of unicorns where we trade hugs for apples is an abject denial of reality.
@Kristi ~ for me it's about attending to what matters...and at the end of the day, heck, the whole day, I'm the only one who can really know what that is.
ReplyDelete@Katrina ~ Thank you!
@Cameron ~ I hear you. For me, this business of writing is a three-fold (at least) art for me: 1) Exploring embodying Reality through the Creative process (touching what feels like a sort of 'current' and endeavoring to write 'with' it... 2) Sharing practices that bear fruit for me at various levels of experience... 3) Learning to have the words match and articulate the 'knowing' most accurately in a way that communicates with clarity. AND for extra bonus points, 4) to have Fun doing all of it.
Deep bow for your comments on this and other entries, that are bringing these sharings into Living Dialogues...
@Cameron....another thought as well ~ Not everyone (lol...I know you know this from your work as a consultant) is ready or 'willing' to deal with there not being a 'self' to 'get' anything...much fewer than I ever would have guessed. Shirdi Sai Baba (died 1918) was known to say, "I give people what they want until they want what I have to give."
ReplyDeleteMy sense is that another invisible through line woven into these posts is that of gaining consent for the deeper Work.