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Dear Dishwasher,
I can't seem to make my own way in the world of financial
security/prosperity. I'm a 50 year old female. I receive appreciation and
gratitude and love what I do but there just aren't any paychecks at the end
of the week/month. Any ideas or suggestions to save me?
Ellen
My Dear Ellen,
I'm sure you know this, love, there is no magic formula to charm
financial success out of the universe including the popular new age dogma
about increasing self worth through affirmations and visualization, and
thereby creating your own reality as you would like it to be. Most of these
self-help strategies are short sighted, Western approaches to very profound
spiritual principles found in Eastern religions. These principles can not be
hijacked for some very particular and personal goal. Just as prayer to God
for things you want doesn't work either.
(There is only one prayer: "Let thy will be done")
Now, I don't believe that your life is all like you want it to be, that
all your conflicts are resolved, your emotional tone blissful and you’re
feeling fulfilled, rejoicing in life and all is well...except for oooooone
little problem...not enough money. So let's not single out one feature of
our householder life and make it the key. I'll be happy then...only if I
had...
A life is an astonishing array of conflicting energies spread out and
flattened into time as we perceive it, one minute to the next, manifested in
movement and thoughts, mostly reacting to stimulation, mostly habitual,
mostly occupied with only a faint notion like a whisper that what we see as
time going by is not all there is...there is more...what happens when I die.
Circumstance is the condition in which we find ourselves in the physical
world; understand circumstance as our school. The people in our lives are
our teachers. The assholes that we know teach us patience, the sick teach us
caring, the children teach us acceptance and forgiveness, the phone that
rings during meditation teaches us to let go of our pride.
One spiritual principle is that our teachers come to us based on our
karmic need. Our circumstance is created for a reason.... Once we understand
that lesson the next one presents itself. So the "new age" dogma
is partially right: we do create our reality, it's just that knowing this
principle isn't a get rich scheme. Lessons in life that aren't learned keep
coming back in various forms, over and over. The lack of money for you is
there for a reason... Reminds me of Fiddler on the Roof...if only I
had a rich man's lessons! I know, I know.
Let go of your desires for a particular material resolution to what is a
spiritual problem...let go of your perceived need for money and only then is
it possible to get it...
There! I said it! You CAN get it... yeahhhhhhh but really... it doesn't work
that way, can't fool karmic law, can't fool God. Pray "let Thy will be
done". Let go, Trust...that you really are living a spiritual life.
I know you know all this... in fact, you've probably said the same things
to someone else...right? An old Sufi story comes to mind, just think about
it…don’t analyze it.
There was once a man named Mojud. He lived in a town where he had
obtained a post as a small official, and it seemed likely that he would end
his days as a civil servant of weights and measures. One day when he was
walking through the gardens of an ancient building near his home Khidr, the
mysterious Guide of the Sufis, appeared to him, dressed in shimmering green.
Khidr said: ‘Man of bright prospects! Leave your work and meet me at the
riverside in three days time.’ Then he disappeared. Mojud went to
his superior in trepidation and said that he had to leave. Everyone in
the town soon heard of this and they said: ‘Poor Mojud! He has gone mad’
But, as there were many candidates for his job, they soon forgot him.
On the appointed day, Mojud met Khidr, who said to him: ‘Tear your clothes
and throw yourself into the stream, perhaps someone will save you.’
Mojud did so, even though he wondered if he were mad. Since he could swim,
he did not drown, but drifted a long way before a fisherman hauled him into
his boat, saying:
’Foolish man! The current is strong. What are you trying to do?’
Mojud said:
‘ I do not really know.’
‘You are mad,’ said the fisherman, ‘but I will take you into my
reed-hut by the river yonder, and we shall see what can be done for you.’
When he discovered that Mojud was well spoken, he learned from him how to
read and write. In exchange, Mojud was given food and helped the fisherman
with his work. After a few months, Khidr again appeared, this time at the
foot of Mojud’s bed, and said:
’Get up now and leave this fisherman. You will be provided for.’
Mojud immediately quit the hut, dressed as a fisherman, and wandered about
until he came to a highway. As dawn was breaking he saw a farmer on a donkey
on his way to market. ‘Do you seek work?’ asked the farmer, ‘Because I
need a man to help me to bring back some purchases.’ Mojud followed him.
He worked for the farmer for nearly two years, by which time he had learned
a great deal about agriculture but little else
One afternoon when he was baling wood, Khidr appeared to him and said:
’Leave that work, walk to the city of Mojud, and use your savings to
become a skin merchant.’ Mojud obeyed.
In Mosul he became known as a skin merchant, never seeing Khidr while he
plied his trade for three years. He had saved quite a large sum of money,
and was thinking of buying a house, when Khidr appeared and said: ’Give me
your money, walk out of this town as far as distant Samarkand, and work for
a grocer there.’ Mojud did so.
Presently he began to show undoubted signs of illumination. He healed the
sick, served his fellow men in the shop during his spare time, and his
knowledge of the mysteries became deeper and deeper. Clerics, philosophers,
and others visited him and asked:
‘Under whom did you study?
‘It is difficult to say,’ said Mojud.
His disciples asked: ’How did you start your career?’
He said: ‘As a small official.’
‘And you gave it up to devote yourself to self-mortification?’
‘No, I just gave it up.’
People approached him to write the story of his life.
‘What have you been in your life?’ they asked.
‘Well…I jumped into a river, became a fisherman, then walked out of his
reed-hut in he middle of one night. After that, I became a farmhand.
While I was baling wood I changed and went to Mosul, where I became a skin
merchant. I saved some money there, but gave it away. Then I walked to
Samarkand where I worked for a grocer. And this is where I am now.’
‘But this inexplicable behavior throws no light upon your strange gifts
and wonderful examples,’ said the biographers.
‘That is so,’ said Mojud.
Sufi Story As translated by Idries Shah from Sheikh Ali Farmadhi (died
1078) from The Naqshbandi Way. It can be found in "Tales
of the Dervishes." More Dishwasher Essays | 
