Money never made a fool of anybody; it only shows 'em up. ELBERT HUBBARD
Let's take a look at each of the limiting beliefs in the last chapter which represent our culture's primary limiting beliefs about money and ask ourselves one fundamental question about each of them: "Is this true?"
Something need not be true, of course, to control our lives. It is only necessary that we believe something is true for it to have an effect upon our lives. For centuries, humanity believed the world was flat and behaved as though that were true, limiting exploration and expansion. The world is not flat. The world never was flat. The belief, however, that the world was flat made people behave as though it were.
The same is true of our beliefs about money if we believe a limiting statement is true, it will limit us. The first step is to find out whether it's true or not. The second step is to stop believing it's true, if it's not. Let's take the first step now.
In order to prove that something is not true for each person and, consequently, not necessarily true about us we only need to find one exception to every "rule." If someone else was number one, we can be number two.
It takes money to make money.It takes a dream, a commitment to that dream, and the relentless, passionate pursuit of that dream until it is realized to make anything in this world including money. There is story after story of people who started with nothing and made great sums of money. There are also stories of people who started with large sums of money and wound up on skid row. If you expand your container of wealth and money is the energy you need to make your dream come true money will come to you.
Poor is pure. Money is dirty. Being poor is intrinsically no purer neither in mind, body, emotions nor physical surroundings than being rich. In fact, money can help make things purer if that's what a person wants. Some of the grinding poverty we've seen has nothing to do with purity. Not that a poor person must be impure or that a rich person can't be impure (on whatever level you define impurity). It's just that one's purity has little to do with the amount of money one has.
Success didn't spoil me; I've always been insufferable. FRAN LEBOWITZ
People resent rich people. Sure, some people resent rich people. Some people resent that ">The Star Spangled Banner>[The Star Spangled Banner]>The Star Spangled Banner" is difficult to sing. Some people resent it when it rains. Some people resent people who don't resent anything. Those who want to resent will do so, and they will also find for them the perfect reasons to do so. Because resentful people are often jealous people, being jealous of other people's money is a perfect excuse to resent them. It's not a logical excuse, or a reasonable excuse, you understand, but it is a perfect excuse.
On the other hand, some people respect rich people. They may have their perfect reasons that are no more reasonable or logical than the reasons of those who resent rich people, but, nevertheless, there are those who worship the rich. Not getting money because others may resent you for having it is a form of worshiping the god of other people's opinion. This is one of the strangest of the "strange gods" people sacrifice their heart's desires to. The fact is, some people are going to resent you no matter what you do or don't do. You might as well follow your dream and be resented for following it rather than being resented for some other reason.
Wealthy people are snobbish. Some wealthy people are snobby, and some poor people are snobby. Some wealthy people are down to earth, and some poor people are down to earth. Being snobby has to do with complacency, prejudice and unchallenged bad habits not money. Snobby people are punished by their own snobbery, just as those who resent snobs are punished by their own resentment. Snobbishness is certainly not a natural outcome of having lots of money.
The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvelous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition! HERMAN MELVILLE
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. This is, of course, a biblical quotation. It is one of those thrice-witnessed events in the life of Jesus, written about by Matthew (19:24), Mark (10:25) and Luke (18:25). In our research, we discovered several explanations as to what Jesus may have meant by a camel going through the eye of a needle. It's clear in all of them, however, that he was not referring to a great big camel and a little teeny needle. Jesus taught in parables, and the following is our favorite interpretation of that parable.
One of the gates in the walled city of Jerusalem is called the Needle. Within each gate of the city was a smaller gate called "the eye." "The eye of the Needle," then, would refer to the small gate within the larger gate known as the Needle. On holy days, the main gates would be closed, but the eyes would be opened. (Hmmm. That's significant in and of itself.) Going through the eye of the Needle was possible in fact it was done all the time but it required doing three things.
First, one had to wait in line, as holy days had some of the heaviest traffic in and out of the city, and closing the main gates and opening only the eyes kept traffic nicely congested. Second, one had to unburden the camel of whatever it was carrying. (One got to keep it, but one had to carry it through by hand.) Third, the camel had to go through on its knees.
As we discussed before, Jesus was very clear about the location of the kingdom of God. "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). Jesus was talking about how difficult it was for someone attached to outer riches to discover the greater wealth within.
Knowing that his disciples knew about the eye of the Needle and camels passing through it, what might Jesus have been trying to tell them? What do you suppose he was trying to tell us about how to enter the kingdom of God?
First, we must be patient. We must get in line, and take our turn. It also implies that we must be fair and know how to share.
Lack of money is the root of all evil. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Second, we cannot be attached to physical possessions. We can have them, use them when we need them, and learn to let them go when we're done. And sometimes even though it's another's job to carry the burden we have to carry it ourselves. This is another way of saying, "Do the work that needs to be done when it needs to be done."
Third, we must be humble some might even call it reverent. Being on one's knees is a universal sign of this. It is not a sign of unworthiness or disgrace camels, in fact, enjoy being on their knees. For humans, kneeling is a sign of honoring, and we must honor the greater the more sacred portion of ourselves to enter the kingdom of God within us.
It's easy to see, then, that although it's difficult for a rich or poor man to enter the kingdom of God, it can be done. Another often misinterpreted quotation from the Bible is
Money is the root of all evil. This was not said by Jesus, but by St. Paul in a letter to Timothy. The full quotation is "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil" (1 Timothy 6:10). In the ancient Aramaic and Greek texts, the word love is more accurately interpreted in this context as lust. The sentence would then read "Lust of money is a root of all kinds of evil." In this sentence, "of money" could be replaced by any number of things. The basic idea is "Lust is evil."
As we mentioned before, evil is live spelled backwards. What makes lusting backwards living? When we lust, we say, "That out there is more important than what's in here, and I want that thing out there very, very badly." Sounds like a perfect affirmation for ingratitude, nonappreciation and not living in the moment, doesn't it? It is. Lusting whether after money, fame, power, sex, having people do it "our way," or any other than here-and-now experience destroys the moment. The moment destroyed is not a wealthy one. We are doing things backwards, hence evil.
If money were in and of itself evil, the solution would be simple: Get rid of your money. But this is not what Paul counsels: "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life" (1 Timothy 6:17-19).
In other words, don't just seek money seek wealth. There is nothing wrong with having money.
Money alone can't bring you happiness, but money alone has not brought me unhappiness. I won't say my previous husbands thought only of my money, but it had a certain fascination for them. BARBARA HUTTON
You need training and education to get money. There are many stories of people who had little or no formal education or who were notoriously bad in school yet went on to great fame and fortune. There are also stories of people who earned so many degrees, they had more letters after their name than in it. These people sometimes ended up working for the people with little or no education.
Yes, we have to be "smart" about life (dare we plug our book LIFE 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned About Life In School But Didn't?), we need certain skills, information, education and knowledge about the area of our big dream, but a sheath of degrees does not guarantee money, and a complete lack of degrees (other than 98.6) is no automatic obstacle to money.
Money can't buy you love. As someone once said, "Whoever said money can't buy you love doesn't know where to shop." Loving others, expressed through money, can bring love in return.
You can't take it with you. You may not be able to take it with you but wherever you can't take it, you won't need it anyway.
Money is too much responsibility. The more money you have, the more people you can hire to shoulder that awful burden of responsibility for you. True, when we are given an ability, it becomes a responsibility. People with lots of money do have more responsibility for certain things in certain areas than people who have less money. Fortunately, you can hire people who will help you "spread it around" where it will do the most good.
It takes hard work to make money. It takes hard work to be poor, too. Life is full of hard work. The only thing worse than hard work is boredom which is precisely what we get when we aren't working hard. To fulfill a dream any dream takes hard work most of it internal. When the goal is achieved, however, the hard work is forgotten in the pleasure of success. After a brief pause, there follows another goal and more hard work. Such is life. You might as well work hard pursuing your dream than get paid mere money to help other people pursue theirs.
Money isn't everything. People who use this as the reason not to get money tend to be the same ones who, when cornered in an intellectual discussion, jump levels and say things like, "It's not that important, anyway." No, money isn't everything, but it is something and sometimes it's the only something that will get us one step closer to our dream.
The best things in life are free. There are some very good things that are free, and some excellent things that come with a price tag. Having the money to buy the things in the latter category doesn't prevent us from enjoying the things in the former.
Money doesn't buy happiness, but that's not the reason so many people are poor. LAURENCE J. PETERS
Money isn't spiritual or holy. Did you ever look closely at money? Try the back of the U.S. dollar bill, for example. It is full of more mystical symbols (radiant eyes in triangles over pyramids and such) than you'll find over the altar in most metaphysical churches. In addition, money can buy you the time, environment, training and paraphernalia for whatever religious or spiritual path you choose to pursue. As with most things, money is just one of many methods that can be used to fulfill a dream including the dream of knowing God and Spirit better.
Study: concentration of the mind on whatever will ultimately put something in the pocket. ELBERT HUBBARD
Now the real work of challenging the culturally ingrained limiting beliefs about money begins. The next time you feel shame, guilt, fear, unworthiness, hurt feelings, or anger regarding money, take the time to explore the belief causing the feeling.
Perhaps it's simple unworthiness: "I don't deserve it." Perhaps it's one of the limitations listed in this chapter. When you find the limiting belief within yourself, consciously challenge it. Explore it. Dissect it. Have a heart-to-heart talk with yourself. Convince yourself "It just ain't so."
Use your sanctuary, your Master Teacher, further study, meditation, paraphernalia (get a great big needle and a tiny stuffed camel and spend a few minutes putting the camel through the eye of the needle), or any other tools (we'll be using affirmations extensively in the next chapter) to eliminate the limiting belief from your consciousness.
As many of these limiting beliefs were ingrained in us very early and are reinforced constantly by the media and the general negativity around us, freeing ourselves from limiting beliefs about money is an uphill climb.
It's worth the climb.
The view from the top is wealthier, healthier and happier.
