Excerpts - Wealth

Excerpt from Consciousness, Health, Wealth, and Love
(*Audience participation is in parentheses--notations in brackets have been added for clarification )

[Each day we're barraged with suggestions from the man-made world that we must invest our money to combat inflation. As a musician, when I book the band, I hear, "We don't have much money, what's your lowest price." And on the other side, I receive bills from property insurance and taxes and find they have increased very much. It is very easy for me to get "caught" up in the worry, anxiety and wonder what's going to happen with finances. When it gets worrisome enough, I return to these ideas and remember my source------X. I can remember that everything has always been all right and that I have enough for today, and begin to clean the garden of the weeds-not I's. That is also the reason that I transcribed this part of the workshop from Consciousness, Health, Wealth and Love. It's here for us to use when we discover that we are being suggested to from without and from within that there won't be enough……………… ……..Marsha]

Talk covers:
Violin Story
Watching a day in the life of a conscious contributing person

Now, I'm not going to talk and tell you that I know how for you to have millions of American dollars in your pocket because I don't; and if I did, I might do it, who knows. I have enough to take care of today and that's about it; but each day that's the way it is; so that, to me, is wealthy.

I defined wealth one time to somebody, if I saw something I wanted to buy I could do it without counting the money in my pocket-is that enough? And I don't see a lot of things I want to buy, so that helps a lot. There's a reasonable degree of wealth there because I know if I just wait around a while somebody will give it to me, so I don't have to buy it. So I don't see too many things to buy.

So, again, we will go back to our levels of consciousness. We have two. Now it has been stated by many teachers that one's outer state is very similar to the inner or they say the HIGHER and the LOWER (which is the higher states of consciousness and the lower everyday affairs)-tend to be very very similar, ok?

Now if I talk all day long about how hard it is to get a dollar, how hard I have to work to get any money, how inflation is eroding away everything that I touch; and I see all kinds of impending economic doom just over yon hill-maybe it's already on this slope; and I'm making preparations so I can get along with "head to the hills and have my dehydrated food and etc. so I can survive the shock", what kind of a state of consciousness would you say that I was probably in?

(fear)

One is down here on the tone scale, or one has said "What's the use if I store up food and put it someplace, somebody will come with a gun and take it away from me, huh?

(that would put you down from fear to apathy)

That would get me down to apathy-there's no use even doing it.

Or I resent all the people who run the government and I find out the trilateral commission should be hated-and I find another group over here I should chew up and spit out-the Rand Corporation probably should be cooked. The Broken's Institute is probably planned all this jazz.

Now if I'm in this state of being, I am obviously down here, is that right? Now of the things that I set out to accomplish each day, what would you say would have anything to do with our economic situation? Would you say that if I was constantly fretting about being broke all the time or that I was seeing an impending economic situation "no matter what I did, all my funds would suddenly become worthless, runaway inflation"-it will probably take one-hundred thousand dollars in the morning to get a loaf of bread, and in the afternoon it will take two hundred thousand because it goes up that much. Do you think that I am existing in a higher state of consciousness or would you say that I was existing in the low levels? What would you say?

(pretty low)

Pretty far down. OK. Now this is what you mostly hear. Now how long have most of us here heard somebody talk about economics--maybe some of us read newspapers or magazines or listen to television programs. Incidentally, I haven't listened to the television or read a newspaper in quite a while and I don't think I've missed out on anything. Somebody seems to come along and tell me they had an earthquake in Africa or somewhere or other; but it hasn't changed anything [in my life] that I can see. I've tried it both ways-I read them every day and then I do without-I can't tell any difference, huh?

Now let's say that you have these lower kinds of states; and your outlook was that you're concerned because you feel money is the source of happiness. Does anybody here disagree with that idea-"money is the source of happiness?" We got two or three that disagree, the rest of you all agree that money is the source of happiness.

Now I'm not contending on doing without funds. It's very nice to have money in your pocket here and there; but nevertheless, the greatest thing you have is your attitude or state of mind-your level of consciousness. Money does tend to flow to those that are happy, peaceful and pleasant or at least enough of all the worlds things, so if I can have it without money, what difference does it make?

(Well, money is freedom.)

Is it? I wish you'd come talk to some people that come in my office frequently, They have a bunch of it and they're very concerned. They're worried that it's deteriorating every day and they don't know where to put it to keep up with inflation. Honey they're in an awful bondage. You know what I told them to do with it.

(They at least have enough to come see you.)

Well, that doesn't cost anything. You see I don't charge fees for people to come-they just come. Some of them leave me a little contribution-we always check to see if they really like it or not. I really don't charge any fees. I'm there and people come in, so that's not the point.

Some of them are doing some awful heavy frettin' about the money they already have. I don't see it as a freedom. Now if you could see it totally as a tool, you may be able to do that. I enjoy having it. I don't knock it one iota-I love it. However, that's not the point that I have to have it in order to feel good. I'm going to feel good whether I have it or not. You know somebody usually leaves something for me every day or two or three. I really don't run without-whatever comes in, goes out, so I don't accumulate any. I also don't have any worries about what to invest it in. It just works out about even-and so as long as it works out even, that's all right, huh? It's enough to go to the store. It's enough to eat on. It's enough to have clothes or the clothes come in the mail, what's the difference. So income comes.

(The guy that watched you work one day said, "It sure scares the hell out of me.")

Right. That's the guy that asked how did I get along everyday; so when I showed him, he said it scared him to death.

A Conscious Outlook

So let's say that if you started with a level of consciousness that you were vitally interested, that you saw you already had everything that you need. You have food, clothing, shelter, transportation, a delightful companion, what-have-you If you are seeing that, then you could contribute without any idea that something would come your way. In other words you're not trading with anybody, you're just doing something. You're not doing something because you read that if you're cast your bread upon the water that it returns to you sevenfold after many days. I know people who are always throwing it out; and then they're sittin' there watchin'. Seven days goes by and it hasn't come back and they're pretty upset. They decided there was something wrong with that story. But they said, "Well, I've done it and nothing happened." So this is done so frequently that fortune teller psyches all have a standard line. They say, "When it's been your turn to do something, you've always done it; but when it comes the turn for somebody else to do something for you, there was nobody there." That's standard-all readings.

(I'm glad I'm not ……….?)

Well, they can dish it out and get along pretty well. So that comes out pretty solid from the fortune tellers because that's the way most people feel--I cast my bread on the water, but after seven days, it didn't get back, huh?

(Might have been moldy.)

Probably was soggy. So when one begins to see that you already have everything, then you can give as a way of saying thank you. Now giving is not necessarily the right word-I'd say contributing to Life, not to you, nor to you Dorothy, nor to you, nor to you or anybody else, just you're making it to Life because Life has provided us with all these things.

There is seemingly to the best I have been able to observe (and I have been checking it for many years)-always enough-and there is usually a little to spare for a few luxuries. Has that been the case Dorothy? Every once in a while you can have a luxury, is that right? But it has been that somewhere the loot came in. You haven't gone hungry. You haven't slept on the street, huh?

When I was a kid back in Kentucky, they used to go by and sell burial insurance. So there was one nice little old lady about 70 or 80 years old and some salesman was trying to sell her burial insurance. He said, "Now who's going to take care of your burial expense." So for only these few cents a month you can be assured."

She said, "I don't need it."

He said, "Well, do you have any money?"

She said, "No, I just live every day."

He said, "Well, do you have rich relatives?"

She said, "No, I outlived them all."

He said, "Well, who's going to bury you?"

She said, "I don't know and I don't care; but I've been around here a long time and I haven't seen any dead bodies laying on the street smelling up the place yet." So she didn't buy; and have you ever seen that situation the old lady said? But you go buy into all that.

So when there is confidence that you have everything, that you are in a state of awareness or consciousness that is vitally interested, obviously you're going to be making enough contribution to Life; and somewhere it seems that there's always some comin' back.

Has anybody here ever been really destitute and hung out? Even you Michael?

(Oh yeah, I've been without.)

Well, I know, you've been down in the dumps because you forgot to contribute-you were waiting for them to bring it to you. Michael was like the man that one time found a fox out in the woods that didn't have any paws. He lost them through some reason or another. I don't know how it came to be, he may have gotten into a dogfight or got the paws entrapped; but at least he had only four stubs of legs. He had no paws on them.

The fox was very well fed and looked very comfortable in spite of the loss of the paws. The man saw him and he immediately wanted to find out what this fox knew that he didn't know. So he watched the fox for a while. The fox waddled out with his stubs to a certain place every day where there was a lion that would go out and make a kill. bring his prey in, lay down and eat it in quiet and peace near the fox. When the lion got through, he got up and left it, and there was gobs left for the fox.

The man said to himself, "I got it."

So the man went to see how he could live like the fox with it's paws cut off. He went down to the local the bank and parked himself waiting for some very wealthy man to leave him all he required from the wealthy man's leftovers.

Well, obviously he sat there for a good many days and nobody left him anything. He was getting very weak, losing quite a bit of weight, and he was feeling very miserable. He began to have somewhat of a hallucination or a passing out from his hunger and his weakness.

In one of these hallucinating episodes he heard a voice say, "You are not a crippled fox." "You are able bodied-go be the lion and leave something for the one's who can't work. "

Since you heard that, you've been eating, haven't you Michael? Michael tried it as being the crippled fox a long time and it was very hard on the intestinal track being full, is that right? It got very lean, did it not Michael?

(Very lean.)

So there is a little story for all of us to hear that out of our abundance, we can leave a little bit for something that has it's feet cut off-but we all got feet and hands so we can be the lion that leaves things laying around so others can eat off of it a little bit. That's when you realize you have everything. You can be the lion and afford to leave a whole bunch just laying there, is that right Michael? At least a little bit.

So let's see if we could instead of saying that "we would be happy if we had so much money", whatever the amount we have set--you know if you should ever get that amount, it usually turns out that that's not enough. So we never get to the point that we could say, "I am happy and that I am now free to contribute to Life." I can always give a pleasant mood. I can do something here, there, and elsewhere that is a contribution to Life as my way of saying, "Thank you" not as my way of getting something.

Now the mind is very subtle" and it will play little tricks on you very quietly that says, "If you will do this, then it will come back to you many fold." Now, if it's trying on that one, then you're only casting your funds out and nothin's gonna come back because you're trying to horse-trade just a little bit. So you watch the tricks of the not "I's" because they will try to "do you in" if at all possible and then they'll say, "Look, nothin' came back--that didn't work-so you'd better get out there and start scrounging and get with it. But if you really see that you have everything-you're vitally interested in Life and you're not stopping to think, "What if I don't have enough tomorrow, next week, next month, but you do have enough now, is that all right?" Everybody got enough for this moment, huh? You're getting along fine. The higher state of consciousness attracts and provides whatever is needed. It will probably never come in the form you had anticipated.

So would you say that wealth can only be measured in American dollars, or is there a good many other ways to be wealthy.

If you feel real good, it's a whole bunch of wealth, is that right? That kind of wealth is much more than a few jillion dollars. A person with a million dollars who is very sick will happily spend the whole mil to feel good--the last dollar of it. And when we are feeling good, we take that for granted, but we can remember to see that I'm very wealthy with it.

If you were practically blind, you would spend anything and everything to get your sight back, is that right? So you've got sight. You've got hearing. You got taste? All of these things. So you have all of these things that money could not buy, is that right?

Now if you started thinking of those things in the terms of wealth, would we all have a wealthy consciousness right now. We'd be aware we were very wealthy people, and the whole idea of wealth depends on how you feel about yourself.

Violin Story

I heard of a family one time that was never concerned about money-at all no matter what was happening) because they had a violin that one of the old ancestors had left to the family. It was always handed down from generation to generation. It was supposed to be an extremely rare, extremely valuable violin. So if they ever got in a bind, they knew they could take the violin and convert it into cash and get along fine. But never was there an emergency enough to go take the violin in because it was worth more than that. So they always worked through every little difficulty and came out just fine because they always had the violin.

Well, after a number of years one of the sons of that generation graduated from a business university with an MBA degree. So the first thing he did was took the violin down to have it appraised, so he could really evaluate the estate properly. Well, the appraiser said it was probably worth $15. if you could find a buyer for it because it was the cheapest copy that he had ever seen and very improperly made and was near worthless as anything could be. It would probably be better to use it for a flower pot.

So the whole fortunes of the family suddenly changed because they now had no further backup. The whole family went bankrupt in a very short order because they didn't have this great violin for back it up anymore. Consequently, the first little emergency that came along that they would have ordinarily said nothing, "We have the violin so we can work thru this" Now that they knew the violin was totally worthless, they were panic stricken and being panic stricken they were all very broke very very quickly.

So we have something far better than the violin, it would appear, huh? We have the ability to have any degree or level of consciousness that we choose to have. We can do it now, we don't have to wait. We don't have to wait for some magical moment or after I've attended so many talks, or read so many books, or any of these things-we can just do it now. I can be vitally interested right now just as much as I ever will be able to be because I have the interest in you, or you, or you or anybody else-it's right now. I'm interested in what's going on in the world, what's happening in every place, and lots of interesting people to be around, so I can stay in a state of vital interest at least all the time, and it is very serene and peaceful to be there--you might even go flipping up to an even higher state of consciousness.

Now would you say you had a consciousness of wealth? You have the idea much like the people that had the violin. You're a wealthy bunch of people. And if the money's short, you're still wealthy because you have the violin, huh? So we always have the violin. We have everything that we might need at the moment, is that correct?

We've talked enough on wealth, now lets' have discussion not a lecture series.

(What about a husband making money for a family, he can't just cast bread on the water. You've got to have a salary. You can't go to work and say, "Well, I hope they pay me today." Doesn't he have to go and put out work and expect something in return.)

I go to work every day, ok? I have heavy obligations as far as paying things out, ok? And I don't expect to make a dime everyday. I don't have a job and no assurance of one-I do go to work. I don't know whether anybody who walks in is gonna pay me or not-most of them don't. And still the bills are all paid, dear. I'm not behind on anything, ok?

(Sounds great.)

Does that answer your question or not?

(Well, it answers it for you.)

If I had this lower level of consciousness, I obviously couldn't do that. If I was fearful when I go down of a morning, I sure better be figuring out how much I can charge and whether they're going to pay it or not-and I'd have to have somebody out there to say, "It's better to pay in advance, before you talk to him because you might get up and walk out." But I happen to live up here somewhere, I'm not telling you where. I'm being what, to me, is a good guest; and I go do my thing, and somewhere there is always enough to take care of all the obligations--and some of these obligations extend all the way from the east coast to the west coast, ok. But I have no assurance that when I work all day that I'll make a dime-many days that is the case. Sometimes it's four or five days in a row that it's that way. So what. I'm making a little contribution because I'm eating every day and I have a place to sleep every night, and I have all the clothes I want to wear. I always have enough to get on, and delightful people to be around, a delightful companion, everything that one could hope for, ok? And I have no assurance I'll make a dime-and many days don't.

(Would it be wrong if you went into a business.)

I'm in business, I suppose.

(You're in business, but not a business too many of us are in. But if you were in business and you said, "Well, I'm just going to contribute, I don't care what I get in return," you'd really be lying to yourself.)

Am I?

(I would be.)

Well, all right, then you don't do that to start with. Wait until you could do that, but I do not think of what I'm going to make any day in the week-I really don't.

(And you really feel that anyone going out and who truly felt this way would never have to worry.)

I don't think you have to worry even if you didn't feel that way, but certainly there would be no need to worry, no. As I told Miss Eunice one time, there was a guy came to me one time and he said, "You always seem to have a dollar or a hundred dollar bill in your pocket, and you never seem to work." Well, of course, he didn't look very far, because I do work every day. Now maybe I play every day, I don't know.

But at any rate I sit down and make myself available to whatever comes along. So this guy came in and he said he wanted to know how to do that. I said Ok?

Story of the guy watching my teacher work

It so happened that morning that somebody came in and needed some money so I gave them $200 or $300. A little later in the day somebody came in and they needed something, and I gave them more to take care of that. So before the middle of the afternoon there was about $1,300. had gone out. And late that evening somebody came in and gave me $3.300. Now it was a gift, and I said, "Well, that's the way it works." And he said, "I see how it works but that scares the hell out of me."

So he better not try it, ok. I wouldn't suggest he try it under any circumstances because anybody who tried that with the lower levels of consciousness, Miss Bonnie would be inviting disaster-is that clear enough?

(Yes.)

(Remember in the Bible where it said something about be like the lilies of the field.)

Well, he didn't say be like them, he just pointed out that they didn't do any great struggling and that the lilies were more grand than Solomon was in all his glory-that the birds ate in the fields and he said what to look for first, is that right? So look for a higher level of consciousness first, and then these things like what you're going to wear and what you're going to eat and etc. will all be taken care of. But now, as Miss Bonnie so aptly brought out-don't jump out there with a low level of consciousness and say, "I'm gonna try this, and see if I'm fed." That's like the guy who watched the fox and tried the method at the bank.

(It's a matter of faith.)

I'm not sure what you mean by faith. What do you mean by that?

(Faith is ………….couldn't hear the rest of the sentence…..)

Well, I wouldn't have faith------I feel fine and I don't have to think about faith. So I know that if I feel/see and really know it-it's knowledge to me not theory. I am vitally interested, and see that I have everything, that I can make a contribution to Life, and in some way or other, I don't have to fret about it, ok? I'm not going to fret about it. And in that state of consciousness, you don't even think about it. I really don't even think about all that stuff. I'm busy doing my little thing of making whatever contribution comes along.

Now I've run into people that are down here in these lower levels of consciousness who tried this. A young guy came into the restaurant we had in Texas one night. He told me he had decided to cast himself upon the waters-that he wasn't going to work because he was like the birds and God was going to feed him. I said, "Well, I think that's wonderful, it's delightful-good luck."

He continued by saying, "Well, I haven't had any dinner today, and you have a big restaurant."

I said, "That's true." "What would you like to order." "This is the menu, and these are the prices."

He said, "I have no money."

And I said, "Well, that's tough." "The Lord's gonna feed you, well let him do it." "This is a restaurant." "I'm running a business." "Let the Lord feed you." "That's what you said you set out to do." And he got a little disturbed.

Then he went over and asked one of the kids if he could spend the night in their house, and they came and asked me about it.

I said, "Well, tell him the Lord's gonna provide him a bed-that's what he said."

Now he was out with a very low level of consciousness trying to act like he was up in the higher states.

So now people in the lower levels of consciousness read something and they try to take it literally-like the fox story. The man hearing the story was not a crippled fox, he was able to work. So we said to the man, "You know the Lord's gonna do it." "You didn't say we were gonna do it." Now you're saying that we should work and support you in your low level of consciousness when you're out here saying take care of me.

Now the next day we did buy him a bus ticket and sent him back where he came from so he could start over again. But we let him sit out there all night without eating to get a point across to him-not contributing and expecting a handout was not the point we had in mind, and wasn't what he was working on.

Now it says, seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and then all this stuff will be added unto you. It didn't say, you can stop off with the lowest level of consciousness and the Lord's gonna feed you-it didn't say that at all.

(I get attitudes daily………)

Well maybe they're very much the same-so a state of consciousness is maybe a state of faith. Now what a lot of people call faith is gullibility. A lot of things that people call faith is merely gullibility. And real Faith is the ability to make up your mind, singly-that's simple enough.

Now he obviously hadn't made up his mind singly-he was hopin', wishin'. He didn't want to work. Now he was able bodied as the lion, but he thought that the rest of us should support him. He wanted us to go to work and support him where he could sit around and do nothing and just play around up and down the road, eat good meals in fine restaurants, and stay in nice apartments with no effort on his part. But we kind of felt that maybe he could raise his level of consciousness a little bit. We did get the point across; and he did listen the next day. We did buy him a bus ticket back where he came from and told him to go back to square one and start studying the teachings again. We didn't say you have to get back there by yourself because he was getting pretty hungry by the next day. We don't mind feeding anybody, but we also say we don't want to be harmful. I don't want to contribute to anybody's delinquency. Ok?

Next question, comment, point?

(One thing that I find that whenever I …………….inaudible……..be beautiful is by taking the soil which is an effort to do, if it were a piece of concrete and not taking substance from the earth…………)

I was out in the woods the other day and I saw a plant growin' out of a solid rock. We have a photograph of it.

(but the evidence is that………)

right, right, right. So we will bring out your points when we get through bringing out ours, would you please. I enjoy you being here, the people came to hear me talk, and maybe they'll pay you to come hear you talk, but I'm doing mine now, ok?

Ok, next comment. Next question?

(…….lower level, you do have to worry about ……again inaudible)

Do you have to worry about it, or do you just do it.

(well, we do it I guess.)

……because it's the nature of it. Yes, you will worry and you will fret, and you will stew. Now, how long do you want to stay there.

(I've been there for an awfully long time.)

And so by the habit, you wish to remain there, is that right?

(No, not really. I want to get out.)

Well, is there any reason to prevent you. We give you a perfect roadmap where you can step out, ok? Do you want to stay or do you want to get out, or do you enjoy you're worrying and fretting and so forth.

(It's the only way I know how.)

I sure have wasted the day. I've wasted the day, is that right? Huh?

(Not really.)

Haven't we described in rather clear detail-the way to do it.

(Yes, you have, very definitely.)

Then can you sit there and tell me you don't know any other way?

(No.)

Well, you just did. You could if you wished to.

(I can see what…………..)

So if you're down here in this level, yes, that is the level of consciousness you're going to remain in; and you're going to stay in your worry and your fret, and your anxieties and slowly deteriorate over the years, is that right?

Now here's a gift that you could be in this level of consciousness. Now I will ask the question. Why would you neglect so great a gift.

(I don't know.)

I don't know either.

(Well, self-remembering would be………)

Remembering what you are, where you are, what's going on and you would be there-if you would do that. Do you know anything that keeps you from doing it.
Not a thing in the world?

(I forget.)

Well, let's just don't forget it for a change. Let's just say you're not forgetting for a bit and see. You can choose what you're going to do. I believe one of the tenants around this part of the world is that everybody has free agency, is that right? Did you ever try it out? It might even be valuable. Do you propound that everybody has free agency?

(Basically. They just don't use it.)

Well, I know. You can have anything and not use it. You could have a car and never take it out of the garage. That wouldn't keep you from saying you had the car, is that right? So you have it-may be rusty because you've never used it-but the point is that theoretically, you have it. Would you like to see if you really do?

(Yes.)

and make up your mind that you are going to exercise your free agency that you're going to remain in a higher state of consciousness at all times rather than delving down here in the cellar, is that right? Now, then let's use it.