“What is a cynic?

A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

~Oscar Wilde

I am so glad that self-development and spiritual-development are becoming more widely accepted topics, and that so many people are embracing the betterment of their lives through connecting with nature and their true souls.

Myself, I’ve been on this path for over a decade, you could say that I have been on it for my whole life, and I have experienced some fantastic changes and magical occurrences along the way.

That being said, I occasionally still find myself falling into the trap that many modern seekers do. The quest for money…the urge to master manifestation and spiritual thinking in order to create material prosperity.

This is not to say that thoughts of this nature mean that we are losing our spiritual achievements or that we are greedy, evil people of any kind. It is simply a true factor of a modern life.

In ancient times, when humans lived in small, manageable communities, staying in the same place for generations, there was more support for the spirit and the spiritual.

Spiritual leaders, the psychically gifted and those with metaphysical knowledge were honored by the community. These special community members acted as advisers, healers and intermediaries between the people and the spiritual realms. In return they were supported with food, clothing, shelter and love.

But those days and those community ties no longer exist for most of us. Thus it follows that we HAVE to be concerned with our own finances and how to get what we need in this world. The challenge is to learn to balance this with our spiritual development and spiritual outlook, without losing our focus and becoming myopically fixed on the “prosperity” issue.

Living in the UK now, I am faced with this issue nearly everyday. This has got to be the most bloody expensive country to live in on the whole planet! Money does not go far, especially when you are converting from American dollars. (The Australians have it even worse.)

Here I am, in the most spiritual enlightened town in the Northern hemisphere, fields and trails and ancient monuments all around me, and I am still worrying about paying the phone bill.

So, walking around with these very thoughts in my head yesterday afternoon, a line from a song that I was listen to caught my attention: “When did the light die?”

And at that very moment it occurred to me that with all of the planning and dreaming and hopes and intentions for success that have been swimming around in my mind lately, along with worry and doubt, I had somehow gotten blinded to the shear wonder of all that I found myself blessed with in this crazy life.

What about the idea of having chosen to incarnate now? As this very spirit that I am? What about wanting to live my life purpose to the fullest?

These things are our true motivation and the only thing that will bring us TRUE happiness. How many vastly wealthy people do we hear about every day who are just a miserable mess?

And why is that? Because they long for spiritual fulfillment and try to fill that hole with possessions and parties.

So, having realized the misalignment of my thinking with my core values, I have readjusted my viewpoint. And now looking at it from a spiritual perspective, I see very clearly that the same issue of needing value (ie. cash- as this is the object of value in the modern society) can be addressed in a way that is in line with my vibrational values and the nature of the universe.

Many, many times I have had ideas and concepts for ways that I can build my career, for valuable content that I can offer the world. Usually one of two things stops these great impulses cold: the opinion of others or, more often, the realization that the time I put in will probably NOT pay off monetarily.

What to do then?

What I now realize is that, in keeping with reciprocity, if there is no outflow their can be no inflow. You must give value to the world if you expect to receive value from the world.

Constantly sitting around willing the universe to bring you prosperity, while at the same time being paralyzed by the lack of it (ie. taking no initiative on your own behalf) is like a potter begging for someone to fill his cup and buy his bowls, when he hasn’t even bothered to sit down and make any yet.

From this point forward, when I get the impulse to create I will go with it as a gift of inspiration, a gift of value that I can give to the world. Whether others agree with me or not, whether the creation flops or not, is irrelevant. It is in the giving of it to the world that the energy of the value is released to the world. And the outflow will naturally attract inflow, I leave it the universe to decide how value is repaid, but I create value regardless.

How I intend to live my life from now on, is to ask, answer and act on these three questions every day:

3. What value can I provide to the world today?

I invite you to shift your own thoughts from desiring to giving, and see what the ever-creating universe blesses you with in return.

The Tao Te Ching said:

The Great Tao is universal like a flood.
How can it be turned to the right or left?

All creatures depend on it,
And it denies nothing to anyone.

It does its work,
But it makes no claim for itself.

It clothes and feeds all,
But it does not lord it over them:
Thus it may be called “the Little.”

All things return to it as their home,
But it does not lord it over them:
Thus it may be called “the Great.”

It is just because it does not wish to be great
That its greatness is fully realized.

And so this is how the spiritual attempt to live out their life purpose. Giving freely without expecting return and becoming great through the lack of desire for greatness. Ram Dass, who inspires me greatly, learned to live this core truth, to be more like the Source Creator from which all came.

I aspire to use my gifts, my words and my light, to give others inspiration and hope on their own spiritual journeys. If I were to become financially wealthy, yet fail to live up to this aspiration, there would be no joy in my heart, even if my bank account did rival that of Bill Gates.

Therefore my true value lies within my true soul purpose, not within my wallet.

Provide value and you will have value.

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