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| WELCOME |
A reader asks:
Have you ever addressed winning the lottery? That is, do you have any advice for a person who is trying to become financially
free by systematically, persistently playing the lottery? I have an intense desire to become financially free so that I can
devote more time to my spiritual growth and to serving others in a capacity that I'd REALLY enjoy.
Do you have an answer to this question?
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Playing the lottery is like praying
to have a truckload of apples fall from the sky into your garden rather than planting an apple tree.
If your prayer comes true, then you will find that life is not at all what you had dreamed of. First you will eat all of the
apples you can, inviting friends and neighbors to join in the celebration. Then some of the apples will be stolen from you,
as people gather round to
help you deal with the excess. Some of the apples will need to be turned into applesauce in order to preserve them for the
future, and this will take considerable time and effort. Some of the apples will be spoiled as you learn how to preserve them,
follow some bad advice and make inevitable mistakes. And some will simply lie there and rot, as you see that you simply do
not have the time and knowledge to deal with them all.
And there you will be, sitting in a yard full of rotting apples and looking at a basement full of canned applesauce, exhausted
and confused and full of apples, full to the brim. At last, enough apples!
But what if you were to plant a tree instead? Yes, it would be work. And it is true, for the first few years, there would
be very little in the way of apples. A new career is like this. You spend the time learning and developing skills, and while
you do this, you must also
spend time in the neighbor's lettuce field, laboring to support yourself. Yes, these can be hard times, lean times, but they
are also wonderful times of growth, in which you feel yourself stretch and in which you develop wonderful survival skills.
You fill yourself with
courage and rightness, and the sweat which drops from your brow as you toil in the fields and in the orchard is good sweat,
cleansing sweat, righteous sweat.
And then, as the years pass, if you continue to care for your apple tree and even plant more, then your harvest will be bountiful
indeed. Then you will gradually receive enough apples to feed you, then you and your family, and perhaps later enough to be
a support to whole groups of people around you.
But what of your desire to devote your time to spiritual growth? Would not this new career take time away from that? No, for
planting that tree is your spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is not something that takes your entire focus. It is something
that happens while you live, while you go to work. It is in the new way you address your children and your spouse, the way
you deal with conflicts that arise, the way you make your daily choices about what is good for you and others and what is
not. It is in the way you overcome that addiction and calm down that emotional rage. It is there all the time, happening,
and does not require that you give it any special time and focus other than the time and focus within this moment right now.
Just a few minutes in the morning, each morning, to meditate yourself down into a peaceful state, and then go about your business
with a clear mind and a heart full of love. This is spiritual growth. And like the apple tree, it happens slowly and over
time. Gradually, day by day, you will grow stronger and more centered and everything you do, everything, will be filled with
the bright colors of your new awareness of your own spiritual core.
And as for the last, your desire to help others, first help yourself. First, look at your life and fill it with love, love
for yourself, love for each moment, love for each activity you perform. Fill your mind and heart with joy and acceptance and
peace. Build a solid center, a glowing center, a center built on peace and love. And then, when you are shining out with all
that you are, helping others will be a natural extension of this being that you are, for you are now a light, a light which
shines out and cannot help but illuminate the lives of others.
It is very normal that when you are in the first stages of some spiritual awareness that you wish to speed up the process
by devoting your life to it. But that is the path of the very few. The path of the many is simply to be. To live and work
and possibly marry and have children. To watch the days go by and fill them as full as you can with experience and love. This
is enough. This is more than enough.
Just be who you are. The very best version of who you are. Plant those trees by taking some of your skills and talents and
devoting your efforts to developing them. Then see where it leads. If you need more education, then go out and get it. Do
not hold back from the effort it may take. The years will pass in any event, and if you spend even a few hours a day on tending
to your tree, you will be rewarded over time.
Life is such a treasure. Live it. Experience it. Commit yourself to it. Give it all the effort it requires and be glad for
the challenges it presents. For it is through these very challenges and tests that you will find yourself, that you will build
up your character and discover who you are and what you are made of. Each challenge is a great gift. Do not rob yourself of
this gift by praying to be saved from the labors and difficulties of life.
Just face life as it is, take a deep breath and do what you need to do. And if it takes years, it takes years. And if it takes
effort and sweat, then that is what it takes. And at the end of your days you will stand in the middle of a thriving orchard,
each tree a blessing, each tree a bounty of love and caring and challenges met and overcome. And you will be glad to have
worked hard and spent your life in this way.
John - Cleveland Ohio
 
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