LESS EGO / MORE SOUL

1. Stand on their level - the aim is to create an equal, relaxed, human-to-human connection.
2. Remove your sunglasses and look them straight in the eyes.
   
3.  Say as little as possible BUT try to answer direct questions as honestly and directly as possible – though NEVER deny or confess (without the advice of a lawyer).
4. Know your rights and declare them in a respectful manner.
5. Remember that a polite & respectful attitude can save you money.

Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,

“You owe Me.”
Look what happens
 with a love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky.
—Hafiz

Recently I have been following the work of Charles Eisenstein in his exploration of what he calls “Sacred Economics”. In his book, he explores our historical relationship to money, it’s original purpose and the now warped addiction we have to paper, metal and plastic in this “Age of Separation”.

There are three points he makes that I would like to summarise here, as these insights have really inspired me to adopt a healthier relationship with the universe…

1. We are all born helpless infants; creatures of pure need with little resources to recipricate, yet we are fed, protected, clothed, held and soothed, without having done anything to “deserve it”. This experience, common to everyone who has made it past childhood, informs some of our deepest spiritual intuitions. Our lives are given us; therefore, our default state is gratitude. This is the truth of our existence.

“No wonder ancient religious thinkers said that God made the world, and no wonder they said God gave the world to us. The first is an expression of humility, the second of gratitude. Sadly, later theologians twisted this realization to mean, “God gave us the world to exploit, to master, to dominate.” Such an interpretation is contrary to the spirit of the original realization. Humility knows that this Gift is beyond our ability to master. Gratitude knows that we honor, or dishonor, the giver of a gift by how we use it.”

2. Everything that is sold today was originally a part of the commons – included in the package of life, for all of us to enjoy. As our society has progressed into this Age of Separation however, elements of our communal wealth have been, in effect, stolen to create the commodities traded throughout the world today. You can trace all the materials used for a thing, back to its natural source. This idea of property has perpetuated the ego’s attachment to “mine” and “yours” as we divide our world into increasingly smaller fragments. This is a wound we all feel subconsciously and is perhaps most obvious in the example of property. No longer do we have the luxury to enjoy nature’s beauty like the free animals we were born to be, as our land has been divided and christened with signs proclaiming “PRIVATE PROPERTY – KEEP OUT”.

Take a walk through the country and all humans are bound by the laws of trespassing to stick to the dusty main road while a swallow may carelessly explore whatever territory it wishes.

3. “The urge to own grows in natural response to an alienating ideology that severs felt connections and leaves us alone in the universe. When we exclude world from self, the tiny, lonely identity that remains has a voracious need to claim as much as possible of that lost beingness for its own. “If all the world, all of life and earth, is no longer me, I can at least compensate by making it mine.” Other separate selves do the same, so we live in a world of competition and omnipresent anxiety. It is built into our self-definition. This is the deficit of being, the deficit of soul, into which we are born. And, because there is no apparent limit to what money can buy, our desire for money tends to be unlimited as well.”

I encourage you to indulge your mind in the brilliance of his writing, on a subject that is important for all of us to understand.

You can read Sacred Economics online for free here.

I’ve spoken before about “normal” vs. “natural” and the egoic conditioning that is thick in the western culture, motivating us to act (often without thinking) from a place of fear, rather than a place of love.

Greed is an example of this; the idea that more = better. This is the age of consumerism after all, and so it’s easy to fall into the traps of such lack mentality.

Greed, however, is not in our original nature.

How do I know this?

A simple example – I remember as a child, being confused in this instance:

My brother and I had been given five whole dollars to spend on desert in a candy store as a special treat.

By my calculations we were rich (at least in those days), with at least $2.50 each to spend. Quite normally, I set out to get my moneys worth.

My younger brother, on the other hand, was not yet tainted with greed and selected (only?) two modest candy products, coming to a grand total of 80 cents.

This left me perplexed – didn’t he realise that all the change would be going back to M&D so that in order to make the most of this opportunity he should really stock up?

Forgive my naivety, I was only 8 and learning fast from those around me without a second thought. Having more things, particularly “special” or “rare” items was suggested to be advantageous as it often appeared to equate to power over others which current society breeds us to desire. However, over the years I’ve discovered many flaws in these beliefs which have inspired me to abandon such mindsets…

They made coins round so they could roll baby.

We tend to imprison our possessions, saving our favourite things up for that elusive “special occasion” and keeping that which we value literally under lock and key. We like to think we own these things, that they are “precious” and that by owning them we are special. But this is really just an ego trip and a power game because nothing is truly “ours” – everything is just borrowed.

When we subscribe to a lack mentality, our fears and insecurities are often reinforced as the object of value gets lost, broken or stolen. This is no wonder, when at an energetic level these little prisoners are thinking, “What is this? I want to be free! All we want to do is shine and be appreciated by others, but here we are locked up, alone in the dark!” And so they form elaborate escape plans and take note not to come back. They sit there in solitude, praying for help until pirates, gypsies and thieves come to the rescue, liberating them from their penitentiary.

Reflected in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, I love how Patanjali talks to his money with an attitude of “If you want to come, come [and] when you want to go, go. Then everything will say: Why do you push me away? Let me stay with you – don’t send me away! The moment we try to hold on to them however, they become bored…and then they run away.”

After all, money, in it’s purest form is really just a physical marker of energy flow, and energy was made to flow freely. It allows us to trade and transform our own creativity and unique skill-set so that we can choose to support that which we deem worthwhile.

Like anybody, I hate feeling ripped off.

As a consumer, a client, the person who invests in your business and with the power to recommend or discredit your services I have two quick suggestions for those running a service orientated business.

First of all, don’t come on too strong. Finding and keeping customers is like dating, you need to play a little hard to get in the beginning if you want people to come back for more. Telling people that they NEED to come back again for X more sessions is totally overwhelming and transparent. I much prefer the sage who smiles sweetly as you leave, knowing that you may or may not come back again, and accepting what will be will be. Doing the best service possible will increase the chances of a return visit, while trying to get a client to commit early on is probably going to make them think twice.

Secondly, be open, honest and up front about your pricing. There is nothing that I hate more than being charged more than I expected to pay without an upfront explanation. Even more so, I despise it when practitioners offer to do a little something extra for you, making it out to be a gift, and then charge you for it later. However, I often have no problem paying the price if they are clear about it from the beginning.

Sure, one could say “it’s up to the client to check”. But, essentially we come to you so that we can relax a little and hand over the reins. We don’t want to be on guard, questioning awkwardly. If you want us to come again, it is in your best interests that you provide us with a stress-free, pleasurable experience. And honesty will get you bonus points.

I read an interesting thing the other day in an article by a yogi, about money, but his advice can indeed be applied to almost anything…

He spoke of how, most of us tend to lock up the things that we “value”, saving them for that “special occasion”. And yet, like many things, money doesn’t like to be possessed. It wants to flow freely. It wants you to treat it with trust and respect; let come and let go. He then goes on to say that when you lock money up and then finally let it go, it remembers not to come back to you. After all, you’re no fun, you kept it in a cage!

As the Tao says: Have things, but don’t posses them.

1. Retire now.
2. Understand that happiness is more important than money and money is more important than power (over). Power over separates; money is a mere vehicle and happiness is what you are truly here for.
3. Ask questions with an open and honest agenda
4. Eat when you are hungry – what you want, when you want / honour your body.
5. Don’t say “I tried” just to look like you are doing something
6. Know that being a good, decent, respectable person does not mean others will see you as weak, unless you buy into that perception.
7. Seek to tell the truth.
8. Don’t commit to engagements you may not keep.
9. Love others and let them know why.
10. Enjoy being the best “you” that you can be.
11. Be satisfied with enough.
12. Don’t complain to manipulate.
13. Enjoy your own company & make time for yourself.
14. Question the world; write your own answers.

YOU ARE ALIVE SO LIVE.

Did you know?

Hemp just so happens to be one of the most useful, stongest, toughest, longest-lasting materials on earth.

“You cannot produce a a better fiber for clothes, a stronger substance for ropes, and easier-to-grow-and-harvest source for pulp.

“We cut down hundreds of thousands of trees per year to give ourselves Sunday papers, so that we can read about the decimation of the world’s forests. Hemp could provide us with millions of Sunday papers without cutting down one tree. Indeed it could substitute for so many resource materials, at one-tenth of the cost! And that is the catch. Somebody loses money if this miraculous plant – which also has extraordinary medicinal properties, incidentally – is allowed to be grown. That is why marijuana is illegal…” (Neal Donald Walsch)

1 acre of corn = 1000 barrels of bio-diesel. Whereas,1 acre of hemp = 30,000 barrels of bio-diesel. FACT.

1 acre of hemp = 5 acres of wooded forest to make paper. FACT.

Some more facts about hemp:

• “Back in the early days Levis made their jeans from hemp, and when you couldn’t patch up your jeans or clothes any more they would recycle it into paper.”
• “If you get hemp paper and you rip it – get it wet and it bonds back together like it was never wet!”
• Benjamin Franklin who created the first newspaper printed it on hemp paper.
• The last 3 presidents elected in America admitted to smoking pot. Obama, Bush and Clinton.
• Canada and14 states in the USA have legalized marijuana.
• For vegetarians in particular, hemp is an amazing source of protein, essential fatty acids and amino acids. Yet, it is not yet made legally available for purchase in Australia. In America, you can buy hemp seeds (to sprinkle on salads for  a protein boost), hemp oil (for cooking) and hemp milk (a very nutritious dairy alternative). It can also be used in baking and to make a special tea and leaves can be eaten fresh in salads. “It’s single healthiest thing we can eat and yet, it’s illegal to grow”.
• All jokes aside, marijuana also has some amazing medicinal properties.
• Hemp oil can also be used to relieve eczema with its anti-inflammatory properties.
• “Thomas Jefferson the fourth US president on the $20 bill risked his life and the life of his service men smuggling hemp seeds from China. He wrote in his diaries that some of his fondest memories were smoking hemp on his veranda starring out to the sunset.”

Though the government tries it’s best to keep these truths under wraps, if you’re interested seek & ye shall find.

And it’s not all about the threat of substance abuse – the difference between Marijuana and Hemp is in the way it’s cultivated. It all depends on THC levels.

Some quick links continuing this discussion:

The Earth Diet – Day148
The Earth Diet – Day 114
The Difference Between Hemp and Marijuana
Wikipedia – Canabis
Wikipedia – Marijuana
Wikipedia – Hashish
Wikipedia – Hemp
Hemp For Victory
IMDB
The Economic Expert

It’s spending money on memories, not on material objects, without a second thought.

It’s coming down from the night before with no regrets.

It’s running naked and having no shame, no insecurities – and not because you know you waxed, tanned and pampered yourself the night before vainly trying to emulate the sense of ‘perfection’ the beauty industry pushes onto us.

It’s understanding the difference between fear and love and knowing that you loving someone is enough & not being fearful as to weather or not they love you back.

It’s seeing sex for what it is – self expression. There is no need for guilt, worry or regret.

It’s laughing at yourself and all the stupid ‘errors’ of your past, but, enjoying the experience of it all nonetheless.

It’s choosing what happens next, creating every moment, consciously, and relishing the results.

It’s enjoying the consequences of your actions, having no expectations and therefore choosing never to be disappointed.

It’s saying ‘I am’, ‘I will’, ‘I can’ and ‘I desire’ [rather than 'I should' ‘I want’ or 'oneday...'], and knowing your word to be truth.

It’s doing, changing, pursuing, things because you want to and not for anybody else.

It’s knowing that this is heaven.

It’s understanding that the world is just an illusion, and that it is perfectly okay to milk it for all the pleasure it provides and taking up all opportunity it gives birth to.  Money, power and happiness are not bad.

It’s understanding the importance of quality not quantity, understanding that more is not always better.

It’s speaking your truth quietly but clearly.

It’s following your dreams with no fear.

It’s believing in what you sell.

It’s never judging, but observing, keeping an open mind and seeking to understand why another has a different preference to yours.

It’s enjoying the journey as much as the destination.

It’s accepting the truth, not even trying to justify your actions -  just knowing that you are what you are and what you are is magnificent.