One thing I’m noticing as I contemplate working with the Mother’s money is that seemingly everything, e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g about the way we as a society do business until recently has gone on within an unworkable paradigm.
And I’m aware that working with the Mother’s money in ways dictated by this paradigm won’t bring success to our work in the future.
Are we agreed that the old and unworkable paradigm favored the ambitious person, the go-getter, the person who wanted to get ahead? We were all of us counselled to “look out for number one” and “keep the other guy from eating our lunch.” It was very competitive.
Are we also agreed that getting ahead primarily meant increasing our wealth and possessions? “Whoever dies with the most toys wins”? The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous? Etc.
Finally, are we agreed that the old paradigm favored self-interest plus accumulation, enjoyment, physical pleasure? The old paradigm enshrined ego and desire, “I want,” the endless cycle of desire.
Some people used to say that money, sex, and power were what we all wanted. I can’t think of an old-paradigm dream of success that didn’t include all three in some measure or shade. You have only to look at the billboards for a visual of these desires.
Many of us bought that these were the fashionable goals. Not like we bought into them for ourselves or sought after them, but we accepted that that’s where society was apparently at.
Little did we know that an extensive campaign was being waged to dumb us down and eliminate “useless eaters.”
But simply surviving those times is not enough if we’re to manage this next, important assignment, placed before us by the Mother. To make a success of disbursing a portion of her wealth to others, paying it cosmically forward, and kickstarting a Love Revolution, we’ll need to relieve ourselves of our left-over conditioning as well. And that means shifting from the old paradigm to the new.
Let me call the old, 3D paradigm of doing business “Us Against Them.” The new, 5D paradigm is “Us and Them.”
The old is separative, competitive, and conflictive. The new is unitive, cooperative, and harmonious.
The old paradigm is our conditioning; the new paradigm hasn’t yet sunk in to the level where I’d call it “conditioning.” It hasn’t taken root yet.
When I work at developing the ideas behind the nascent Michaelangelo Fund, I operate from the new paradigm. But I encounter stiff resistance from the old; i.e., from my conditioning.
Here’s what occurs in my inner conversation:
SB: I’m going to give a large portion of the Mother’s money away.
Constant Comment (CC, my voiceover): You’re going to do what? Are you crazy? Your assets are supposed to grow, not diminish. Don’t you think you need some advisers to keep your feet on the ground? Where are you going with this?
SB: I always follow higher guidance and act with prudence and wisdom. Nevertheless, I’m very happy thinking of giving the Mother’s money away.
CC: You are so very irresponsible. Think of your heirs, your family. How could you possibly squander all that money, Steve? I’ve lost all respect for you.
SB: I’m going to contribute to building a new world by helping fashion a new paradigm for business, based on “Us and Them” principles.
CC: Earth to Steve. Earth to Steve. Come in, Steve. “Us and Them” will never work. People are all out for themselves. You’re naive.
Besides, what chance is there that anything you might do could make a difference in the world? Less than none. Stop dreaming and get a job.
Do you get how moving forward in attending to the Mother’s business against the advice of Constant Comment, the conditioned mind, can be like walking through molasses?
Earlier I said that, when incredible wealth hits, we might all be temporarily knocked over. Unknown vasanas connected to wealth could go off like Fourth of July fireworks. So be forewarned.
Well, that isn’t all that could happen. Here’s this second situation we may need to deal with: We may have to find a way of working in the face of the shocked criticism and disempowerment we may receive from our own frightened conditioned minds. Or a way out of the archaic and no-longer-needed conditioned mind altogether.
Adyashanti might say: Stop believing your thoughts. That time fast approaches.
Meanwhile, it’s time to create the new “Us and Them” business paradigm, to operate as if it were already here, no matter what the conditioned mind says. Blissfully. Joyfully. Expectantly.