Abundance

Dawn Gaskill, Abundance
Dawn Designs

Sun in heaven.
Abundance in great measure.
Supreme success
In the midst of impermanence.

The midday sun in summer is the hottest and brightest of all. It symbolizes a zenith, a fulfillment, a period of great brightness. In the affairs of people, it stands for the combining of strength and clarity, which yields brilliance. When the times are in accord, abundance cannot be opposed.

The period of abundance is a time for vigorous action. Bright light shines not only on the good but on the bad as well. Therefore, when evil is revealed, all good people must oppose it. Pluck in out by the roots and energetically promote the good.

Abundance is a cause for celebration, but followers of Tao also remember to be cautious. No zenith can be preserved forever. In fact, the time of abundance just precedes an inevitable path of decline. Nothing in life is permanent. Therefore, the wise person enjoys and is gladdened by abundance. But while they take advantage of the time, they also prepare for what will follow.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

The more you learn what to do with yourself,
and the more you do for others,
the more you will enjoy the abundant life.
— William J.H Boetcker

Happiness is not simply having material needs met. Thus, society has set up a system of rewards that go beyond material goods. These include titles, social recognition, status, and political power, all wrapped up in a package called self-fulfillment. Attracted by these prizes and goaded on by social pressure, people spend their short lives tiring mind and body to chase after these goals. Perhaps this gives them the feeling that they have achieved something in their lives, but in reality they have sacrificed a lot in life. They can no longer see, hear, act, feel, or think from their hearts. Everything they do is dictated by whether it can get them social gains. In the end, they’ve spent their lives following other people’s demands and never lived a life of their own. How different is this from the life of a prisoner or slave? . . .

In the short time we are here, we should listen to our own voices and follow our own hearts. Why not be free and live your own life? Why follow other people’s rules and live to please others?

— Yang Chu , Lieh Tzu

A psychology of abundance flows naturally from the Tao, the way of life. Moving from the unity of the Tao, from the experience of oneness with all of life, we receive the natural abundance of the universe with ease in a spirit of gratitude and joy. Thus, the energy flows freely in our lives, and we fulfill our innate destinies. Recognizing the innate power and dignity of all of life, we live in harmony with it and its natural cycles. Respecting our humanity above any outer goal or reward, we cultivate the sense of leisure and peace necessary to appreciate the beauty and order inherent in life, and thus, allow it to express itself through us in all we do….

While no individual can single-handedly change the global economic system, each of us can transform our own experience of abundance. Where once we saw lack, debt, and conflict, we can begin to see gifts, opportunities, and mutual support. We can each, in our own way, challenge the widespread belief that we live in a world of lack.

— Laurence G. Boldt, The Tao of Abundance Excerpt at Spiritwalk

“Not what we have, But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.” — Epicurus

“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

We went through several years of not having much money and being heavily in debt while my kids were small. I had made the decision to be home with them while they grew up, in part because I came across the phrase, “The work will come again, but childhood won’t.” I also went back to school to get my MBA, which added to our debt, but I needed to invest in myself, so we sacrificed other things. We didn’t have much money and at times it was stressful, but I felt blessed to be able to be there watching my kids grow up and furthering my education.

Now, we have plenty. And yet, we didn’t move up to that bigger house I had once imagined, we still drive the used cars we bought then, and while we’ve spent a bit of money to fix up this house, we haven’t made the choice to go deeper in debt and buy something bigger or fancier. What we learned while we were broke was that the things that were most important to us were not material things. What made our lives abundant was our family, our friends, and the feeling of taking care of what we had rather than abandoning it to pursue something else.

We had lack, and debt, and conflict – when you are struggling financially, it certainly creates conflict! But now, we do have gifts, opportunites, and mutual support. But we had to trust that those things would happen. We had to believe in ourselves and our ability to create abundance.

So if you are in abundance, celebrate. Stop stressing about what you lack and celebrate what you have. And if you lack something in your life, trust in yourself to be able to find it. Trust in those around you to help you find it, and ask for their help. If you have abundance, share it with others, don’t be selfish about giving, because what you give to others will return to you in ways you least expect.

Realize that when you have abundance, you can plant the seeds that will grow in the future. What seeds do you want to plant? What future do you want to leave for the next generation? Are the fancy toys or big house or car so important that you must have them now, or can that energy and abundance go to energizing the seeds of the future? Another quote that struck me in those difficult times was,

“One hundred years from now, it will not matter what your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of car you drove, but the world may be different because you were important in the life of a child.”

We reap the rewards of our harvest, but we also need to store some away to sustain us through the lean times that may be ahead and preserve some seeds to plant in the future as well. Only in that way can we sustain the abundance we enjoy today.

Namaste.

[ This is a repost of an old Tao posting of mine on Abundance from last August. Interestingly, I just ordered “The Tao of Abundance” on paperbackswap.com last week – talk about synchronicity!]