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Part 1 Chapter 11
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I’d like to get back to my list of questions. There’s so much more detail I want to go into on every one of these. We could do a whole book on relationships alone, and I know that. But then I’d never get to my other questions.

 

There’ll be other times, other places. Even other books. I’m with you. Let’s move on. We’ll come back to it here if we have time.

 

Okay. My next question, then: Why can’t I ever seem to attract enough money in my life? Am I destined1 to be forever scrimping and scraping? What is blocking me from realizing my full potential regarding money?

 

The condition is manifested not just by you, but by a great many people.

 

Everyone tells me it’s a problem of self-worth; a lack of self-worth. I’ve had a dozen New Age teachers tell me that lack of anything is always traceable to lack of self-worth.

 

That is a convenient simplification. In this case your teachers are wrong. You do not suffer from a lack of self-worth. Indeed, your greatest challenge all your life has been to control your ego2. Some have said it’s been a case of too much self-worth!

 

Well, here I am, embarrassed and chagrined3 again, but You are right.

 

You keep saying you’re embarrassed and chagrined every time I simply tell the truth about you. Embarrass-ment is the response of a person who still has an ego investment in how others see him. Invite yourself to move past that. Try a new response. Try laughter.

 

Okay.

 

Self-worth is not your problem. You are blessed with an abundance of it. Most people are. You all think very highly of yourself, as rightly you should. So self-worth, for the great mass of the people, is not the problem.

 

What is?

 

The problem is lack of understanding of the princi-ples of abundance together, usually, with a massive misjudgment about what is “good” and what is “evil.”

Let Me give you an example.

 

Please do.

 

You carry a thought around that money is bad. You also carry a thought around that God is good. Bless you!

Therefore, in your thought system, God and money do

not mix.

 

Well, in a sense, I guess, that’s true. That is how I think.

 

This makes things interesting, because this then makes it difficult for you to take money for any good thing.

I mean, if a thing is judged very “good” by you, you value it less in terms of money. So the “better” something is (i.e., the more worthwhile), the less money it’s worth.

You are not alone in this. Your whole society be-lieves this. So your teachers make a pittance4 and your stripteasers, a fortune. Your leaders make so little com-pared to sports figures that they feel they have to steal to make up the difference. Your priests and your rabbis live on bread and water while you throw coins at entertainers.

 

Think about it. Everything on which you place a high intrinsic value, you insist must come cheaply. The lonely research scientist seeking a cure for AIDS goes begging for money, while the woman who writes a book on a hundred new ways to have sex and creates tapes and weekend seminars to go with it.. .makes a fortune.

This having-it-alI-backwards is a propensity5 with you, and it stems from wrong thought.

The wrong thought is your idea about money. You love it, and yet you say it is the root of all evil. You adore it, and yet you call it “filthy lucre6.” You say that a person is “filthy rich.” And if a person does become wealthy doing “good” things, you immediately become suspect. You make that “wrong.”

So, a doctor had better not make too much money, or had better learn to be discreet7 about it. And a minister—whoa! She’d really better not make lots of money (assuming you’ll even let a “she” be a minister), or there’ll surely be trouble.

You see, in your mind, a person who chooses the highest calling should get the lowest pay...

 

Hmmm.

 

Yes, “hmmm” is right. You should think about that. Because it is such wrong thought.

 

I thought there was no such thing as wrong or right.

 

There isn’t. There is only what serves you, and what does not. The terms “right” and “wrong” are relative terms, and I use them that way when I use them at all. In this case, relative to what serves you—relative to what you say you want—your money thoughts are wrong thoughts.

 

Remember, thoughts are creative. So if you think money is bad, yet think yourself good. . .well, you can see the conflict.

Now you, in particular, My son, act out this race consciousness in a very big way. For most people the conflict is not nearly so enormous as for you. Most people do what they hate for a living, so they don’t mind taking money for it. “Bad” for the “bad,” so to speak. But you love what you do with the days and times of your life. You adore the activities with which you cram8 them.

For you, therefore, to receive large amounts of money for what you do would be, in your thought system, taking “bad” for the “good” and that is unac-ceptable to you. You’d rather starve than take “filthy lucre” for pure service... as if somehow the service loses its purity if you take money for it.

So here we have this real ambivalence9 about money.

Part of you rejects it, and part of you resents not having it Now, the universe doesn’t know what to do about that, because the universe has received two different thoughts from you. So your life with regard to money is going to go in fits and starts, because you keep going in fits and starts about money.

You don’t have a clear focus; you’re not really sure what’s true for you. And the universe is just a big Xerox10 machine. It simply produces multiple copies of your thoughts.

Now there’s only one way to change all that. You

have to change your thought about it.

 

How can I change the way I think? The way I think about something is the way I think about something. My thoughts, my attitudes, my ideas were not created in a minute. I have to guess they are the result of years of experience, a lifetime of encounters. You are right about the way I think about money, but how do I change that?

 

This could be the most interesting question in the book. The usual method of creation for most human beings is a three-step process involving thought, word, and deed, or action.

First comes thought; the formative idea; the initial concept. Then comes the word. Most thoughts ulti-mately form themselves into words, which are often then written or spoken. This gives added energy to the thought, pushing it out into the world, where it can be noticed by others.

Finally, in some cases words are put into action, and you have what you call a result; a physical world manifestation11 of what all started with a thought.

Everything around you in your man-made world came into being in this way—or some variation of it. All three creation centers were used.

But now comes the question: how to change a Sponsoring Thought?

Yes, that is a very good question. And a very impor-tant one. For if humans do not change some of their Sponsoring Thoughts, humankind could doom12 itself to extinction13.

The most rapid way to change a root thought, or sponsoring idea, is to reverse the thought-word-deed process.

 

Explain that.

 

Do the deed that you want to have the new thought about. Then say the words that you want to have your new thought about. Do this often enough and you’ll train the mind to think a new way.

 

Train the mind? Isn’t that like mind control? Isn’t that just mental manipulation?

 

Do you have any idea how your mind came up with

the thoughts it now has? Do you not know that your world has manipulated your mind to think as you do? Wouldn’t it be better for you to manipulate your mind than for the world to?

Would you not be better off to think the thoughts you want to think, than those of others? Are you not better armed with creative thoughts than with reactive thoughts?

Yet your mind is filled with reactive thought— thought that springs from the experience of others. Very few of your thoughts spring from self-produced data, much less self-produced preferences.

 

Your own root thought about money is a prime exam-ple. Your thought about money (it is bad) runs directly counter to your experience (it’s great to have money!). So you have to run around and lie to yourself about your experience in order to justify14 your root thought.

You are so rooted in this thought, it never occurs to you that your idea about money may be inaccurate15.

So now what we are up to is coming up with some self-produced data. And that is how we change a root thought, and cause it to be your root thought, not another’s.

You have one more root thought about money, by the way, which I’ve yet to mention.

 

What’s that?

 

That there’s not enough. In fact you have this root thought about just about everything. There’s not enough money, there’s not enough time, there’s not enough love, there’s not enough food, water, compas-sion in the world. . .Whatever there is that’s good, there’s just not enough.

This race consciousness of “not-enough-ness” cre-ates and recreates the world as you see it.

 

Okay, so I have two root thoughts—Sponsoring Thoughts— to change about money.

 

Oh, at least two. Probably many more. Let’s see. money is bad. . . money is scarce. . .money may not be received for doing God’s work (that’s a big one with you).. .money is never given freely.. .money doesn’t grow on trees (when, in fact, it does).. .money corrupts16.

 

 

I see I’ve got a lot of work to do.

 

Yes, you do, if you’re not happy with your present money situation. On the other hand, it’s important to understand that you’re unhappy with your present money situation because you’re unhappy with your present money situation.

 

Sometimes You’re hard to follow.

 

Sometimes you’re hard to lead.

 

Say, listen, You’re the God here. Why don’t You make it easy to understand?

 

I have made it easy to understand.

 

Then why don’t You just cause me to understand, if that’s what You truly want?

 

I truly want what you truly want—nothing different and nothing more. Don’t you see that is My greatest gift to you? lf I wanted for you something other than what you want for you, and then went so far as to cause you to have it, where is your free choice? How can you be a creative being if I am dictating17 what you shall be, do, and have? My joy is in your freedom, not your compliance18.

 

Okay, what did You mean, I’m unhappy with my money situation because I’m unhappy with my money situation?

 

You are what you think you are. It’s a vicious circle when the thought is a negative one. You’ve got to find a way to break out of the circle.

So much of your present experience is based on your previous thought. Thought leads to experience, which leads to thought, which leads to experience. This can produce constant joy when the Sponsoring Thought is joyous19. It can, and does, produce continual hell when the Sponsoring Thought is hellatious.

The trick is to change Sponsoring Thought. I was about to illustrate20 how to do that.

 

Go.

 

Thank you.

The first thing to do is reverse the thought-word-deed paradigm21. Do you remember the old adage22,

“Think before you act”?

 

Yes.

 

Well, forget it. If you want to change a root thought, you have to act before you think.

Example: you’re walking down the street and come across an old lady begging for quarters. You realize she’s a bag lady and is living day-to-day. You instantly know that as little money as you have, you surely have enough to share with her. Your first impulse is to give her some change. There’s even a part of you that’s ready to reach in your pocket for a little folding money—a one, or even a five. What the heck, make it a grand moment for her. Light her up.

Then, thought comes in. What, are you crazy? We’ve only got seven dollars to get us through the day! You want to give her a five? So you start fumbling23 around for that one.

Thought again: Hey, hey, c’mon. You don’t have that many of these that you can just give them away! Give her some coins, for heaven’s sake, and let’s get out of here.

 

Quickly you reach into the other pocket to try to come up with some quarters. Your fingers feel only nickels and dimes24. You’re embarrassed. Here you are, fully25 clothed, fully fed, and you’re going to nickel-and-dime this poor woman who has nothing.

You try in vain to find a quarter or two. Oh, there’s one, deep in the fold of your pocket. But by now you’ve walked past her, smiling wanly26, and it’s too late to go back. She gets nothing. You get nothing, either. Instead of the joy of knowing your abundance and sharing, you now feel as poor as the woman.

Why didn’t you just give her the paper money! It was your first impulse, but your thought got in the way.

Next time, decide to act before you think. Give the money. Go ahead! You’ve got it, and there’s more where that came from. That’s the only thought which separates you from the bag lady. You’re clear there’s more where that came from, and she doesn’t know that.

When you want to change a root thought, act in accordance with the new idea you have. But you must act quickly, or your mind will kill the idea before you know it. I mean that literally27. The idea, the new truth, will be dead in you before you’ve had a chance to know it.

So act quickly when the opportunity arises, and, if you do this often enough, your mind will soon get the idea. It will be your new thought.

 

Oh, I just got something! Is that what’s meant by the New Thought Movement?

 

If not, it should be. New thought is your only chance. It’s your only real opportunity to evolve, to grow, to truly become Who You Really Are.

Your mind is right now filled with old thoughts. Not only old thoughts, but mostly someone else’s old thoughts. It’s important now, it’s time now, to change your mind about some things. This is what evolution is all about.


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1 destined Dunznz     
adj.命中注定的;(for)以…为目的地的
参考例句:
  • It was destined that they would marry.他们结婚是缘分。
  • The shipment is destined for America.这批货物将运往美国。
2 ego 7jtzw     
n.自我,自己,自尊
参考例句:
  • He is absolute ego in all thing.在所有的事情上他都绝对自我。
  • She has been on an ego trip since she sang on television.她上电视台唱过歌之后就一直自吹自擂。
3 chagrined 55be2dce03734a832733c53ee1dbb9e3     
adj.懊恼的,苦恼的v.使懊恼,使懊丧,使悔恨( chagrin的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • I was most chagrined when I heard that he had got the job instead of me. 当我听说是他而不是我得到了那份工作时懊恼极了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He was [felt] chagrined at his failure [at losing his pen]. 他为自己的失败 [遗失钢笔] 而感到懊恼。 来自辞典例句
4 pittance KN1xT     
n.微薄的薪水,少量
参考例句:
  • Her secretaries work tirelessly for a pittance.她的秘书们为一点微薄的工资不知疲倦地工作。
  • The widow must live on her slender pittance.那寡妇只能靠自己微薄的收入过活。
5 propensity mtIyk     
n.倾向;习性
参考例句:
  • He has a propensity for drinking too much alcohol.他有酗酒的倾向。
  • She hasn't reckoned on his propensity for violence.她不曾料到他有暴力倾向。
6 lucre SAMxp     
n.金钱,财富
参考例句:
  • She married a foreigner for mere lucre.她仅仅为钱财而嫁给了一个外国人。
  • He would sell his soul for filthy lucre.他会为了不义之财而出卖灵魂。
7 discreet xZezn     
adj.(言行)谨慎的;慎重的;有判断力的
参考例句:
  • He is very discreet in giving his opinions.发表意见他十分慎重。
  • It wasn't discreet of you to ring me up at the office.你打电话到我办公室真是太鲁莽了。
8 cram 6oizE     
v.填塞,塞满,临时抱佛脚,为考试而学习
参考例句:
  • There was such a cram in the church.教堂里拥挤得要命。
  • The room's full,we can't cram any more people in.屋里满满的,再也挤不进去人了。
9 ambivalence ixVzV     
n.矛盾心理
参考例句:
  • She viewed her daughter's education with ambivalence.她看待女儿的教育问题态度矛盾。
  • She felt a certain ambivalence towards him.她对他的态度有些矛盾。
10 xerox ffPwL     
n./v.施乐复印机,静电复印
参考例句:
  • Xerox and Lucent are two more high-tech companies run by women.施乐和朗讯是另外两家由女性经营的大科技公司。
  • You cannot take it home,but you can xerox it.你不能把它带回家,但可以复印。
11 manifestation 0RCz6     
n.表现形式;表明;现象
参考例句:
  • Her smile is a manifestation of joy.她的微笑是她快乐的表现。
  • What we call mass is only another manifestation of energy.我们称之为质量的东西只是能量的另一种表现形态。
12 doom gsexJ     
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定
参考例句:
  • The report on our economic situation is full of doom and gloom.这份关于我们经济状况的报告充满了令人绝望和沮丧的调子。
  • The dictator met his doom after ten years of rule.独裁者统治了十年终于完蛋了。
13 extinction sPwzP     
n.熄灭,消亡,消灭,灭绝,绝种
参考例句:
  • The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
  • The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。
14 justify j3DxR     
vt.证明…正当(或有理),为…辩护
参考例句:
  • He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
  • Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗?
15 inaccurate D9qx7     
adj.错误的,不正确的,不准确的
参考例句:
  • The book is both inaccurate and exaggerated.这本书不但不准确,而且夸大其词。
  • She never knows the right time because her watch is inaccurate.她从来不知道准确的时间因为她的表不准。
16 corrupts 6c2cc2001c0bd7b768f5a17121359b96     
(使)败坏( corrupt的第三人称单数 ); (使)腐化; 引起(计算机文件等的)错误; 破坏
参考例句:
  • The unrighteous penny corrupts the righteous pound. 不正当得来的便士使正当得来的英镑也受到玷污。
  • Blue cinema corrupts the souls of people. 黄色电影腐蚀人们的灵魂。
17 dictating 9b59a64fc77acba89b2fa4a927b010fe     
v.大声讲或读( dictate的现在分词 );口授;支配;摆布
参考例句:
  • The manager was dictating a letter to the secretary. 经理在向秘书口授信稿。 来自辞典例句
  • Her face is impassive as she listens to Miller dictating the warrant for her arrest. 她毫无表情地在听米勒口述拘留她的证书。 来自辞典例句
18 compliance ZXyzX     
n.顺从;服从;附和;屈从
参考例句:
  • I was surprised by his compliance with these terms.我对他竟然依从了这些条件而感到吃惊。
  • She gave up the idea in compliance with his desire.她顺从他的愿望而放弃自己的主意。
19 joyous d3sxB     
adj.充满快乐的;令人高兴的
参考例句:
  • The lively dance heightened the joyous atmosphere of the scene.轻快的舞蹈给这场戏渲染了欢乐气氛。
  • They conveyed the joyous news to us soon.他们把这一佳音很快地传递给我们。
20 illustrate IaRxw     
v.举例说明,阐明;图解,加插图
参考例句:
  • The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
  • This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。
21 paradigm c48zJ     
n.例子,模范,词形变化表
参考例句:
  • He had become the paradigm of the successful man. 他已经成为成功人士的典范。
  • Moreover,the results of this research can be the new learning paradigm for digital design studios.除此之外,本研究的研究成果也可以为数位设计课程建立一个新的学习范例。
22 adage koSyd     
n.格言,古训
参考例句:
  • But the old adage that men grow into office has not proved true in my experience.但是,根据我的经验,人们所谓的工作岗位造就人材这句古话并不正确。
  • Her experience lends credence to the adage " We live and learn!"她的经验印证了一句格言: 活到老,学到老!
23 fumbling fumbling     
n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理
参考例句:
  • If he actually managed to the ball instead of fumbling it with an off-balance shot. 如果他实际上设法拿好球而不是fumbling它。50-balance射击笨拙地和迅速地会开始他的岗位移动,经常这样结束。
  • If he actually managed to secure the ball instead of fumbling it awkwardly an off-balance shot. 如果他实际上设法拿好球而不是fumbling它。50-50提议有时。他从off-balance射击笨拙地和迅速地会开始他的岗位移动,经常这样结束。
24 dimes 37551f2af09566bec564431ef9bd3d6d     
n.(美国、加拿大的)10分铸币( dime的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters are United States coins. 1分铜币、5分镍币、1角银币和2角5分银币是美国硬币。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • In 1965 the mint stopped putting silver in dimes. 1965年,铸币厂停止向10分硬币中加入银的成分。 来自辞典例句
25 fully Gfuzd     
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地
参考例句:
  • The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气,然后全部呼出。
  • They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。
26 wanly 3f5a0aa4725257f8a91c855f18e55a93     
adv.虚弱地;苍白地,无血色地
参考例句:
  • She was smiling wanly. 她苍白无力地笑着。 来自互联网
27 literally 28Wzv     
adv.照字面意义,逐字地;确实
参考例句:
  • He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
  • Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候,她不走到真正要昏厥了,决不肯坐下来。


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