Topic 1.3 Prosperity

We are what we think.

All that we are arises from our thoughts.

With our thoughts we make the world.

The Buddha

Prosperity, a multidimensional concept, is always a timely subject because most people want to enjoy financial freedom and abundance in their lives.

What does prosperity means to you? Is it having a particular amount of money? Generally, how do you feel about yourself and money? What is the difference between money and wealth for you?

If you think about it, we all have different definitions of wealth: what may be considered wealth to one person, may not be regarded as sufficient by another. With the cost of living and average earnings varying enormously across the globe, the amount of money you would need to buy a home, feed yourself (and your family) and live would not be the same in a less well-off country as it would be in a more affluent one. Additionally, while we need money on a practical level to live, understanding and creating true wealth or prosperity is the real means to living a happy and fulfilled life.

Some people’s definition of abundance is having millions or even billions of dollars, while others simply want the ability to comfortably maintain the lifestyle they want. There are still others who want to live a life of abundant health, enjoy life’s pleasures and live their dreams.

The great news is, that no matter how much (or how little) money you need to be wealthy (according to your definition) you can have it. You can manifest the wealth you want, but there are some basic principles you need to understand and work with.

Whatever your definition of prosperity, you’ll find that most of us share a desire for wealth not for its own sake, but for what we are able to do with it. We want prosperity to make us feel better, be more comfortable in our lives, and very often, to help make the world a better place. Creating wealth for worthwhile goals is the route to attracting real prosperity into your life. Money is rarely the end goal, but only the means to achieving what you want by having it.

We can be happy having very little, and miserable with a lot. Prosperity is different from money. You can have a high income or lots of money in the bank and still not be prosperous. Or you can feel prosperous with little money when it is used in the right way. Happiness does not depend on what you have, but on how you feel about what you have.

Do you have a dream? Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a vision and a dream and showed the world how one person with a purpose could change the world. He inspired the world in many ways. Read about his life and accomplishments to be inspired to make changes in your own life, by following your own dreams.

It’s never too late to transform your life and take it to the next level. If you don’t go after what you want, you will never have it. Ask, believe and receive. You have greatness within you, so…go for it!

All (real) time is simultaneous. There is a part of you in the future that is alive right now and affecting what you are creating. Thousands of ‘future selves’ exist right now. You must make the changes you want in your life that will create a permanent shift. The lack of abundance in a person’s life is often the result of a belief in a scarce and fearful future, in which there will never be enough,

and also from a belief in linear time. Take back your time. Time management and getting your schedule under control can help you manage your life and stress better.

The secret to success has nothing to do with how smart, lucky, or rich a person is. You’re not required to travel the world in search of it and you don’t have to spend time and money on training or gathering experience or expertise. The ‘secret’ to everything you desire in life – success, wealth, health, abundance, happiness – is right here, within you.

You create your own future and experiences through your thoughts, actions, and beliefs. All you need to do to harness this powerful ability to create reality is to know this secret well and apply it with every fibre of your being. Work in the invisible world at least as hard as you do in the visible one. Once you’ve mastered this, your life will be how you’ve always envisaged it.

The game has changed. Yesterday we thought it was clever to want to change/save the world. Today we are wiser, so we aim to change ourselves. A rather compelling school of thought, namely yoga, indicates that changing yourself and changing the world are one and the same thing.

Metaphorically, you were born with wings. Why crawl through life?

We have choices. There are so many ways we can use and abuse our freedom. You can choose to eat well, exercise regularly, and manage your stress – Or, you can overindulge in drugs and alcohol to avoid your demons. You can choose to do work that you love and that makes a difference to the world or you can stay in a dead-end job and complain about your bad luck. You can read and write and share life-affirming literature, or you can while away the hours watching mindless TV shows and playing video games. Nobody can tell you what to choose, and nobody but you is responsible for the consequences.

You need to know that no thought lives in your mind rent-free. Negative thoughts take up living space and cripple your capacity to function at your optimum level as a ‘whole’ human being. Here are some examples of what I mean:

– Being unforgiving is more poisonous to you than to the person you’re not forgiving.

– Talking about injustice is re-living negativity over and over again, causing stress and making you bitter.

– Jealousy hinders love. Not having what someone else has, doesn’t justify being hateful and destructive towards them.

– Self-pity is telling yourself that you are no good. You are here for a reason, and it is a great insult to the universe to tell yourself that you don’t matter.

– What you focus on expands: complaining can create an endless cycle of complaining, and give you more reasons to complain. In this way, complaining becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

– Fear. our memory banks are our enemy, because they harbour fear, with all of fear’s resident buddies, such as resentment, hatred, anger, attachment, and judgments from the past, to replay them over and over again. Simply ignoring issues will not change a thing. This only buries things temporarily, until the next trigger sets them off, and the issues we ignored rear their ugly heads again.

We must engage our conscious powers to release ourselves from these tyrants. We must take responsibility to bring them to the surface, in order to love, heal and release them. We are the problem, not them. We can only change ourselves. This, in turn, will change the world.

We affect change in the world by affecting change within ourselves (by taking responsibility). It’s that simple. Taking 100% responsibility for our lives, removes the victim mentality and places us in a place of authentic power. Just as the light in a room shines on everyone with the same intensity, no matter who turned it on, our lives demonstrate this same principle. We are all connected. We live in a holographic universe. By affecting ourselves, we affect others.

Why should there be hunger and deprivation in any land, in any city, at any table, when man has the resources and the scientific know-how to provide all mankind with the basic necessities of life?

Martin Luther King Jr.

As with all energetic and healing modalities, do not harbour time pressures, or expectations about when or how results will occur. Just allow the universe the complete freedom to act and choose whatever method is needed. Act in accord with it, and have the faith to know that it is working the way it is meant to.

Live A Fulfilling Life

There is no time like the present to learn something that will change how you can turn your whole life around in multiple ways. Transform your thinking, change your habits, become more spiritual, and live the life of your dreams. Start living life’s abundant richness, incredible health and youthful vitality.

Make The Space

You have to make room in your life for the blessings that you are expecting. If your mind and heart are closed off, you won’t get anywhere. You have to know the secret behind accepting the gifts you are given. Make the distinction between your goals and dreams and more importantly, appreciate the energetic difference. This process will allow you to dissolve your sense of urgency, move past resistance and relax in the faith that your needs will be fulfilled without pushing or worrying about them.

Where To Start

In order to make any changes in your life, you need a starting point. No one starts off by making a million dollars, and of course, you don’t need a million dollars to change your life in a huge way.

Some questions for making your passion work for you could be:

What am I interested in?
What am I passionate about?
What am I good at?
What do I do in my free time?
What do I like to do without anyone paying me for it?
What problems do people have that I can solve?
Why and how can I help them solve their problems?
Is their need for these solutions urgent enough for them to be
willing to spend money to obtain them?

Ths is not about you capitalising on other people’s problems. However, if you can help someone solve problems they are experiencing, then you deserve to be compensated for presenting them with the solutions. It has been my experience that if you have a solution for something and you give it away for free, most often people don’t value it and they don’t use what you have given them to change their situation. Any problem that you can solve is extremely valuable. Wouldn’t it be worth paying money to someone to help you solve a problem?

Your role is to define what you want and to take responsibility for making it happen. You do this by looking out for opportunities for you to act upon.

Be clear about what services you are offering the universe in return for prosperity. Know what your skills and passions are. The universe will then support you by inspiring you to take action; bringing the right events into your life that you can act on, as you work towards your intention.

Conscious manifesting begins inside you. You must discover the force that directs your every move and acquaint yourself with the true nature of your Cosmic Self that resides within the deepest part of your being. You will also inspire the people around you with your health, not just your wealth.

Aspirations

These ideas have been generated from ancient knowledge and wisdom, depicted in texts known as the Vedas. ‘Veda‘ means science or knowledge. The Vedas talk about there being four aspirations in human life which are pleasure (kama), wealth (artha), purpose (dharma), and freedom (moksha). Here (meaning in the Vedas), principles such as the law of attraction, creative visualisation, affirmations, attracting prosperity (health is your first wealth), purpose, cosmic ordering, goal setting, manifestation and freedom abound.

Invisible Helpers

The invisible spiritual world has many ‘helpers’ available to meet our day-to-day needs and concerns. Deities (found in many traditions) represent ‘higher energies’ within us that help us manage any blocks that are preventing us from manifesting our goals. There are thousands of books written about Hindu deities, most of which come from an academic or a theological perspective. Beyond academic considerations, these deities represent ‘higher energies’ within us and aspects of ourselves. Here are some of the most renowned Hindu gods for you to consider:

Ganesha, the elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati, is revered as the remover of obstacles. He was born with an ample body that is said to hold within it all the matter of the universe.

Lakshmi, the embodiment of beauty, is the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity (both material and spiritual) and fortune. She is also the consort of Vishnu. The word Lakshmi comes from a Sanskrit word meaning ‘goal’. She is depicted in gold and red clothing (gold represents prosperity and red is a symbol of activity), with four arms, standing on a lotus flower, holding a lotus bud, which is the symbol of beauty and purity. Gold coins flow from her hands. In mythology, the wealth that Lakshmi personifies, supports creation. What is interesting, is that the lotus Lakshmi stands upon, symbolises the idea that there is more than material wealth to aim for in this world. In other words, it is good to create wealth, but not at the expense of other parts of life.

The Shri Yantra (a holy instrument), is composed of nine interlocking triangles, that surround and radiate out from a central (bindu) point. The triangles interlace to form 43 smaller triangles, in a web symbolic of the entire cosmos, or a womb that is symbolic of creation. Four isosceles triangles with their apices pointing upwards, represent Shiva or masculine energy, and five isosceles triangles with their apices pointing downwards, symbolise the female embodiment (shakti), are symbolic of the union between the divine feminine and masculine into non-duality. In the middle, is the power point (bindu) the highest, invisible, elusive centre from which the entire figure and the Cosmos expand, the point between the universe of matter and spirit, and the route through which everything moves from its inception as an idea, to manifest into reality. The Shri Yantra is a powerful, devotional symbol that creates concentration in the mind. It is auspicious, beneficent, salutary, benign, and conducive to prosperity.

Mantras are not ordinary words. They are symbols of powerful sound vibrations. Their sounds link you energetically to the deeper vibrations of the spiritual universe. The roots behind this symbolism, bring hope and deeper meaning to every situation and phase in life. These ancient mantras combine India’s cultural wisdom with personal development tools, for practical application in daily life. You too can access authentic secrets of wisdom and wealth to unlock your true potential and live a passionate, meaningful life. Mantras broadly revolve around four areas:

Overcoming weakness, rivalry, and past demons (raja yoga)
Overcoming challenges (karma yoga)
Achieving popularity, friendship, and love (bhakti yoga)
Balancing wisdom and wealth (jnana yoga)

Apply the secrets to wisdom and wealth, and watch your life blossom into a life of passion, happiness and abundance.

Other cultures also point to another universe for help with prosperity. Some of the ones that you might be familiar with are Mercury, the Roman god of trade, profit and commerce, abundance and commercial success; Fortuna, the Roman goddess personified as luck and Abundantia, the Roman goddess of abundance; Danu, the Celtic creator goddess, of fertility, abundance and protection. T’shai–shen, the Chinese god of wealth, the laughing Buddha; Fu Xing, the god of happiness, Lu Xing, the god of prosperity, and Shou Xing, the god of longevity. Three stars from the Chinese firmament (Xing is the Chinese word for ‘star’ and is sometimes written as Hsing). If you have happiness, prosperity and longevity, you will have a very good life, so these three gods work together and are often referred to simply as Fu Lu Shou.

Your responsibility is to plant seeds for what you desire, and to then water them. Start by making your intentions clear and taking action towards achieving them. It is the universe’s job to make the seeds grow under the surface of the soil, and to provide them with the nutrients they need to sprout above the surface. These then blossom into flowers and fruit. Be grateful to all the forms in the universe for their efforts on your behalf. Admire the flowers. Enjoy and distribute the fruit. Know that the universe provides a whole field of blooms in so many forms all the time.

There are only a few blocks that can stop your intention from manifesting. These include:

Not giving your vision enough time to happen
Not really believing deep down that it can happen
Not feeling your future can happen
Being muddled, confused or ambivalent about what you really want,
Not playing your part.

There is plentiful food for birds but it hasn’t been placed in their nests. If there is a blockage, there is always something you need to change. May you realise all your dreams and transform your life.