Transcending Material Martyrdom the Natural Way

Many of us find that as we advance spiritually, our material resources dry up. Yet since all money metaphors contain water imagery (cash flow, liquid assets, currency...) this seems like imagining the Sahara when we're actually standing at an oasis.

Tom "Montalk" has an intriguing on article on reimagining wealth consciousness that discusses the concept of flow, tied in with both the breakthrough film The Matrix, and the power of Nature, the latter of which I discuss in in-depth in the current issue of What Shines. He writes, in part,

"Because money is a type of flow, we can make a comparison to water flow in order to illustrate the difference between making money the Matrix way or the Divine way. To empty water from a bottle, common sense says to tip it upside down. Sure enough, the water goes 'glug' several times and eventually empties. But if instead one first shakes the bottle in a circular motion, the flow forms into a vortex that more rapidly and efficiently drains from the bottle. Nature loves efficiency, and the vortex is nature’s most efficient form of flow. If one initiates an impulse in line with the laws of nature (shaking the bottle / leaping toward a wisely chosen goal on solid faith that the material means will synchronistically fall into place), the resulting flow will be many times more efficient than were these laws ignored. The Matrix method of progress is based on ignorance of higher laws and is inefficient. But if one initiates an impulse in line with those higher laws, progress speeds up as reality aligns via numerous synchronicities, just as flow speeds up as water aligns into the shape of a vortex.

"To increase the flow of money, you must exercise your ability to spend it. This is no different from increasing physical energy by exercising your body. Pinching your dollar to save money is like staying physically inactive to conserve energy...It is the pinching and holding on to your last dollar, fearing that no more will come, that actually prevents your receiving more. For giving, more than anything else, helps to open the channel so that supply, both spiritual and material, can freely flow.

"Opening flow requires that money come purely as a byproduct of following your heart; money is not an incentive when the heart alone compels you into action. In other words, the 'incentive' for doing higher productive work lies beyond material compensation, arising instead from an inner sense of service, compassion, wisdom, courage, and necessity. By acting on these living principles as they are felt and acknowledged, the material details automatically work themselves out.

"To summarize, material martyrdom is not necessary for spiritual progress. When in balance, material prosperity naturally arises when priority is given to spiritual prosperity. Where the Divine Will flows, material limitations melt away."