Great Morning Beloved!!

Spiritual Economics A grateful heart & Work & the Success Syndrome

SO, what did you think of Andrea’s Lesson on the Spirituality of Curiosity? Did you let yourself become more curious? I hope so, that was the whole point.

And I appreciate Andrea stepping up so I could have time to recover some from surgery. And for all your prayers and help. Thank you.

We are back again for some Spiritual Economics. We’ve learned many important ideas that are valuable for our spiritual prosperity. One of the most important is that ‘substance’ is beneath everything. That’s God substance. And that is what we create with.

We were reminded of what role our perception plays in how we see things and that ties into our Consciousness.
Let’s continue with this week’s topics, A grateful heart & Work & the Success Syndrome.

Butterworth tells us, “Your most important asset is the conscious control of your own life.”

Yet we allow events, people, things, and economic conditions to take control of us… why do we allow that?

Here’s an example of control…. Pg. 86
Perhaps this is an example of the healing influence of a controlled life sustained by an attitude of gratitude. And it is proving that thanksgiving is not just a reactionary emotion; it is a causative energy.

But is gratitude necessary? We usually consider gratitude and thanksgiving obligatory. Someone does something for us and we feel the need to show some kind of appreciation.

Traditionalists would say we owe God thanks for our blessings. And we should be grateful as an important social grace. But God does not require us to be grateful, it doesn’t make any difference to Divine Spirit.

The difference is to us. Giving thanks is an important state of our consciousness that keeps us in an awareness of oneness with divine flow. A grateful heart does not need something to be grateful for; it simply flows from within and becomes a causative energy. Think on that a bit…..

A grateful heart helps to keep us centered in the ever-presence of substance. And that is the key to personal prosperity.

Having a grateful heart starts with getting the view of any conflict, any appearance of lack or limitation, from the top. Before you react in negativity, take a moment to lift your eyes; contemplate all the changing, challenging experiences from the highest point of view. See all things from the awareness of the allness of life and ever-present substance.

This view gives us an opportunity to see things creatively, from an attitude that is constructive and optimistic. Not one that is from a sense of inadequacy and insufficiency. To count your blessings from a limitation consciousness effectively compounds the problem.

Theodore Roosevelt used to say; “Do what you can with what you have right where you are.” Give thanks from that view, for there is abundance everywhere.

Jesus always looked up, giving thanks from the view at the top, from that elevated consciousness. And in that blessing, he conferred prosperity upon whatever thing he was blessing.

We can do it too. When we bless our Love offering, from what consciousness are you blessing? Are you truly saying it with Love, from that grateful heart? Or are you saying the blessing from rote, just a habitual thing? Or even from a state of limitation?

The same goes for any instance where you are blessing – your food, your home or family, other people….from what perspective are you blessing?

Some would question that they have nothing to be grateful for…in those cases, we need to stir up the gift of gratitude. We only need the desire to feel grateful.

Plato’s law: “When you feel grateful, you become great, and eventually attract great things”

Part of our issue with abundance is our attitude toward our work. Greek philosopher, Zeno says, “The most important part of learning is to unlearn our errors.”

And one of those erroneous beliefs are those surrounding our work.

Why do you work?
If your only response was to make a living, you may be frustrating your creative flow. How, you may ask?
It’s about the attitude you have toward your work.
Remember, your prosperity will always be a reflection of your consciousness, the degree to which your thoughts are centered in the divine flow. So, unless we unlearn our error thoughts regarding our work, we will be out of sync with the creative flow of the universe.
And what needs to be changed? This – work is a giving process. It is the means by which we build a consciousness of giving, which in turn gives rise to a receiving flow.

If the left hand, receiving your pay, knows what the right hand does for your job, then there is no real giving, only bartering.

For example: a distinguished Harvard professor said, “The University pays me for doing what I would gladly do for nothing, if I could afford it.” He is saying that his work is not just a place to tediously make a living but an opportunity to joyously live his making…the privilege to grow as a person. Growth is what life is all about.
Unfortunately, many of us are creating hidden frustrations with our work ethics…trying to do as little as possible for that paycheck.

While working for the PA State Education Department, one of the comments too often about people, especially as they got closer to retirement, would be RIP – retired in place. They were doing as little as possible to put in the time until they were at retirement age.
Pg. 106
They may get away with it; but they can never get away from it.
What do you think that means? (Think about consciousness)

It means, if Life is a growth process and we grow through giving, how are they growing? Are they giving and if so, with what mindset?

This is spiritual law, if you are not growing doing your work, then something must be wrong. Kahlil Gibran tells us: “If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, then you should quit your job and go sit at the Temple and beg alms from those who work with joy.”

Every day we must work to earn the level of consciousness by which we are sustained and prospered. What we do affects our focus on consciousness that regulates the flow of affluence into our lives. Make a commitment to work for your spiritual well-being.

This is true for businesses and corporations too; the collective consciousness of the workers determines the spiritual consciousness of that business or corporation.

So, if you are lacking in the ‘alive, alert, awake, joyous and enthusiastic consciousness, you are frustrating yourself and not growing as a person, but you also are not adding to the growth of the company.

How does that apply to us here at Unity? What is your commitment to Unity? Are you a body in a chair, coming occasionally? Are you involved in classes and activities?

Do you volunteer your time and talents?

Have you taken ownership of Unity of Rehoboth Beach?

When you discipline yourself, your consciousness will bring about a change in the job, making it right for you and the company; or another job will open benefiting everyone.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “No matter what your work, let it be your own. No matter what your occupation, let what you are doing be organic. Let it be in your bones. In this way you will open the door by which the affluence of heaven and earth shall stream into you.”

When you work in the right consciousness, when your work becomes organically a part of your whole self, and when you do your work out of that commitment, no matter what other people do, no matter what the compensation may be, doing it for the health of your own soul, then you open the door by which the Universe flows into your life.
WE must do the work. “God can do no more for you than God can do through you.”

We must begin to do what we do in the awareness that we are working with God for the releasing of our inner splendor, our connection to the affluence of heaven on earth.

We all have Divine gifts, patterns that when you realize them, you really know you are giving of yourself. If you work is not satisfying, if we are closed off from this pattern, we get frustrated, and this frustration can lead to addiction issues.

We often see this, where a person starts out doing one thing and changes course to a completely different direction. I’m reminded of singer Neil Diamond who was supposed to be a doctor, but his music just couldn’t leave him be. He gave up one for the other and was much happier.

Begin to think of your work as a vocation, a calling. The creative process is calling you and so your work becomes easy and fulfilling.

The only one who can keep you from success is you by blocking your own creative flow. Your desire to get ahead, your urge to succeed, is your intuitive awareness of something within you that wants to succeed through you.
But don’t get the ‘Success Syndrome.’ It is at once the key to success and the reason for much failure. The urge for success is basic to the American dream. But the term success is defined differently by most. Don’t feel guilty if you do not desire to be at the top of the heap in your work. Many are just as happy right where they are.
Progression is not measured alone by the title on the office door.

The drive to succeed is basic to human beings, but instead of seeing it as a cosmic urge to be more, it is usually interpreted as the desire to have more.

Unfortunately, this pressure to succeed starts early, children are more concerned with grades than actual learning. And we have seen the extent some parents are willing to go with the recent arrests of parents for cheating on college entrance test scores.

That ‘whatever it takes’ mentality has permeated all walks of our society. What is ours to do? We do our part, whatever that is.

Saying Yes to the universe opens the gate to receiving what your soul really wants.
Do you know what that is?

Think about all this as we go to meditation…