FROM A SITE VISITOR: According to American standards I have it all—the great house, great cars, a beautiful wife and smart kids—but what I don’t have is enough time. When I’ve stop by this site occasionally, I always thought it was easy for you to say “relax”. I thought-if I relax the bank will take everything I have. Today I read the August 17th post and I suddenly am feeling things I’ve never felt before and they’re not real pleasant.
F.: First, it is interesting that you mentioned a “great house” and “great cars” before you mentioned a “wife” and ‘kids,” but that’s a topic for another day.
To the root of the content of your no-question e-mail, your delusions must end before any pointer can be heard and understood. If you “have it all,” you would be looking for nothing else, so why do you “stop by this site occasionally” if not looking for something…for something that is missing? Then, you claim you want more time, but time is not offered on this site. Here, time is shown to be another man-made illusion as well. So (1) you’re not visiting this site to find more time, (2) you are looking for something that is missing, and (3) that which is troubling you is not the too little time you mention.
The problem is not that you need more of anything but that you already have too much of everything. They programmed you to accumulate and you have responded in typical, non-Realized fashion. Been there. Done that. Was miserable. Stopped that. Lost the “do-er.” Then and only then did freedom manifest. Finally, it was that freedom, in turn, which allowed happiness and peace to manifest.
In the case of "floyd," trapped in the dream for decades, accumulation happened at an alarming rate. The problem with such accumulating lies not only in all that is required to be in a position to accumulate. The problem also involves the toll which the maintenance of accumulations requires.
That drive to accumulate and maintain led to three jobs, working 80-90 hours a week. It led to building a five-bedroom, three-bath Tudor-style home on a double lot, to building a separate getaway lake house, and to purchasing a rental condo for additional income.
The desire to accumulate led to finding a fellow sleepwalker “in need.” It led to using money to attract someone with a sense of entitlement whose ability to love is limited to the love of money and to the false sense of security which wealth provides to all of those who sleepwalk about the planet while believing that they are awake.
It led not as much to "having too little time" as to being owned by a house rather than owning a house, to being owned by another person, to perceiving fear of loss of accumulations, to being owned by financial institutions, and to being burdened with the costs of maintaining accumulations...a cost that can, on occasion, match the original cost of all that is accumulated.
Yet nothing material could compare to the high maintenance involved with adopting personas and maintaining image. The ego's going and doing and zooming that seemingly robs you of “free time” (but that is actually robbing you of freedom) is the high maintenance price being paid to maintain your image and your personas.
If entrapment in the dream for decades led to accumulating at an alarming rate, Realization led to de-accumulation at an even faster rate. De-accumulation made it possible to reduce the number of jobs being worked to two and made it possible to reduce the average work week to 60 hours. Further de-accumulation, including the selling of a too-large house and substituting a small condo in its place, led to a single, 35-hours-per-week job.
Next came the restoration to financial sanity, the creating of a budget, and the end of excessive accumulation. That led to less spending and to less accumulation (which led to not needing any job and to the ability to retire from the last of three jobs at age 54. For more information on that, see the information booklets on budgeting and finances at the end of this post.)
Rather than worrying about the bank taking everything, why not sell it or give it away before they have the chance? De-accumulate and downsize and you’ll likely be amazed, not by how much “time” you have but by how much freedom (and how much peace and happiness) begin to manifest.
Be honest and see what you’re really buying:
An image-enhancing-home that is far more than is required? Have you spent huge sums during your adult years on trying to buy "trophies"? How about other high-end, high maintenance items that enhance image, like expensive cars and beautiful things and beautiful people and the best private schooling?
F.: First, it is interesting that you mentioned a “great house” and “great cars” before you mentioned a “wife” and ‘kids,” but that’s a topic for another day.
To the root of the content of your no-question e-mail, your delusions must end before any pointer can be heard and understood. If you “have it all,” you would be looking for nothing else, so why do you “stop by this site occasionally” if not looking for something…for something that is missing? Then, you claim you want more time, but time is not offered on this site. Here, time is shown to be another man-made illusion as well. So (1) you’re not visiting this site to find more time, (2) you are looking for something that is missing, and (3) that which is troubling you is not the too little time you mention.
The problem is not that you need more of anything but that you already have too much of everything. They programmed you to accumulate and you have responded in typical, non-Realized fashion. Been there. Done that. Was miserable. Stopped that. Lost the “do-er.” Then and only then did freedom manifest. Finally, it was that freedom, in turn, which allowed happiness and peace to manifest.
In the case of "floyd," trapped in the dream for decades, accumulation happened at an alarming rate. The problem with such accumulating lies not only in all that is required to be in a position to accumulate. The problem also involves the toll which the maintenance of accumulations requires.
That drive to accumulate and maintain led to three jobs, working 80-90 hours a week. It led to building a five-bedroom, three-bath Tudor-style home on a double lot, to building a separate getaway lake house, and to purchasing a rental condo for additional income.
The desire to accumulate led to finding a fellow sleepwalker “in need.” It led to using money to attract someone with a sense of entitlement whose ability to love is limited to the love of money and to the false sense of security which wealth provides to all of those who sleepwalk about the planet while believing that they are awake.
It led not as much to "having too little time" as to being owned by a house rather than owning a house, to being owned by another person, to perceiving fear of loss of accumulations, to being owned by financial institutions, and to being burdened with the costs of maintaining accumulations...a cost that can, on occasion, match the original cost of all that is accumulated.
Yet nothing material could compare to the high maintenance involved with adopting personas and maintaining image. The ego's going and doing and zooming that seemingly robs you of “free time” (but that is actually robbing you of freedom) is the high maintenance price being paid to maintain your image and your personas.
If entrapment in the dream for decades led to accumulating at an alarming rate, Realization led to de-accumulation at an even faster rate. De-accumulation made it possible to reduce the number of jobs being worked to two and made it possible to reduce the average work week to 60 hours. Further de-accumulation, including the selling of a too-large house and substituting a small condo in its place, led to a single, 35-hours-per-week job.
Next came the restoration to financial sanity, the creating of a budget, and the end of excessive accumulation. That led to less spending and to less accumulation (which led to not needing any job and to the ability to retire from the last of three jobs at age 54. For more information on that, see the information booklets on budgeting and finances at the end of this post.)
Rather than worrying about the bank taking everything, why not sell it or give it away before they have the chance? De-accumulate and downsize and you’ll likely be amazed, not by how much “time” you have but by how much freedom (and how much peace and happiness) begin to manifest.
Be honest and see what you’re really buying:
An image-enhancing-home that is far more than is required? Have you spent huge sums during your adult years on trying to buy "trophies"? How about other high-end, high maintenance items that enhance image, like expensive cars and beautiful things and beautiful people and the best private schooling?
Try de-accumulating and you’ll be amazed at how much "time you’ll have." (That doesn’t mean you have to eliminate the “beautiful wife” and the “smart kids,” but it does mean that all of them will have to undergo a shift in what is valued since de-accumulation is not likely to be something that can happen unilaterally.)
Ultimately, what is troubling you is your lack of authenticity...more specifically, the dualistic disconnect between false self and True Self. A dual-minded man is unstable in all ways, one Advaitin teacher said.
For those visitors who have not already accumulated to the point where they must work three jobs or where they can’t relax because the bank’s collection department is looking over their shoulders and standing by with papers to file, might you continue to avoid the happiness-robbing practice of accumulating? If so, peace and happiness can happen.
In those cultures that value accumulation and where “The Accumulator” is one of the most popular ego-states, the notion of “giving something up” seems ludicrous unless one realizes that it is by such de-accumulation of all that is false that the real can manifest. And if not fully in touch with that which is real, then no peace, no happiness, and no freedom will ever come. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POST:
INTERESTED IN RESTORING FINANCIAL SANITY AND USING A ZEN APPROACH TO HANDLING FINANCES?
Click LIVING WITHIN YOUR MEANS
Click ENDING FINANCIAL PROBLEMS BY UNDERSTANDING YOUR PERSONALITY TYPE
WORKING ON BEING FREE?
Click THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “PEACE OF MIND” (There Is Only Peace If You’re Out of Your Mind)
Ultimately, what is troubling you is your lack of authenticity...more specifically, the dualistic disconnect between false self and True Self. A dual-minded man is unstable in all ways, one Advaitin teacher said.
For those visitors who have not already accumulated to the point where they must work three jobs or where they can’t relax because the bank’s collection department is looking over their shoulders and standing by with papers to file, might you continue to avoid the happiness-robbing practice of accumulating? If so, peace and happiness can happen.
In those cultures that value accumulation and where “The Accumulator” is one of the most popular ego-states, the notion of “giving something up” seems ludicrous unless one realizes that it is by such de-accumulation of all that is false that the real can manifest. And if not fully in touch with that which is real, then no peace, no happiness, and no freedom will ever come. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
READINGS RELATED TO TODAY’S POST:
INTERESTED IN RESTORING FINANCIAL SANITY AND USING A ZEN APPROACH TO HANDLING FINANCES?
WORKING ON BEING FREE?
and
Click LIBERATION
