SPENDING MONEY WISELY

 

 

 Money is the root of all evil, they say.  This is the pessimistic point of view. The more optimistic approach would be to say that money is the start of the road to perfection.  Without money in the modern world, how can you exist, how can you live?  Without money, how can you build churches and homes for families and orphans?  Without money, how can missionaries embark on apostolic work?  Without lots of money, how can a nation prosper or a business continue serving?  So money is not evil per se.  Just like sex.  The use of money can be good or evil.  The search for money can be good or bad depending on your intentions.

 

The search for money is man's compliance to God's dictum: "From the sweat of thy brow, thou shalt eat."  This means that man must endeavor to have an independent means of carrying on a living --- a gainful employment, profession, or business.  Man must conquer the material plane as he embarks on spiritual perfection.  One's search for spiritual truths is no excuse for neglecting one's material commitments.  Why is this so?  Because man is both body and spirit.  Man lives in the material and spiritual dimensions.  That is why man can get rid of his material desires if he exerts enough effort and substitute them with spiritual ones, because man is at the border line of material and spiritual planes.

 

When one attains financial stability, he should focus his almost entire attention to spiritual perfection.  But unless he has perfected his material standing, man must devote his time to both.  Did not Christ say: "Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's"?  It means you have to manage your time efficiently so as to attain both types of perfection.  In other words, money is the bottleneck in the beautiful road to spiritual perfection.

 

It is no use to wish for the spirits to give you. money.  They will not do that because they are purely spirits and prohibited from tampering with God's material creation.  Otherwise, with millions of enkantos and dwarfs, you can imagine the trouble it will cause if they are allowed to tamper with nature.  They cannot disobey because they do not have free will.  But what they can do is influence the people around you who are instrumental in your getting of money, like inspiring your boss to promote you, inspiring customers looking for your services in advertisements to call you up, or whispering to people near your place to look or glance at your store and remind them of their need for your products or services. But they will not and cannot give you material benefits without your effort, accompanied by 100 percent positive thinking.  Without the 100 percent positive thinking or faith, the spirits’ power to influence buyers is greatly diminished.  Therefore, man must judiciously plan as explained in Message #52: "Making Things Happen" to carry out his conquest of the material plane lest his conquest of the spiritual plane be hampered.

 

Man cannot ask for material benefits directly from the spirits.  Or rather, the spirits cannot give something they do not have.  It is just like asking a poor man for one million pesos and he cannot give it to you.  But ask the poor man for his friendship and you will be overwhelmed with Love.  Ask the spirits to help you attain spiritual perfection and they will lead you to the path, giving you tests in the process for you to earn credits that will move you up the ladder of spiritual perfection.  And when you feel discouraged and about to give up, they will encourage you to go on and earn spiritual credits or go to the extreme of enticing you with material benefits --- which material benefits they do not have but only their spiritual components.

 

So in the final analysis, in the material or spiritual plane, God helps those who help themselves.   As Edison puts it, "Success is one percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration."  That one percent inspiration is God's tip to you, God's help for you in perfecting your Will Power.  Will Power, the ability to make things happen, can only be attained by oneself, by one's own effort.

 

Therefore, with the right frame of mind, that money is one's material responsibilities, and cannot come from heaven above as it is material.  Then, how can you look for money?  And once in your hands, how do you spend money wisely?

 

Money is not the root cause of evil.  Man's greed is.  Man's uncontrollable subconscious obsession for power over God's resources and other people is the real root of all evil.  Money is a mere medium of exchange.  Money is simply the door to spiritual development.  Without money you cannot go on living, but lots of money is not needed for one's continued existence.

 

You may be a millionaire but if your wants and desires are that of a billionaire, then you will indeed be poor!  You may be poor but still if you save some money, then you are richer than the businessman who owns lots of properties but whose liabilities are greater than his assets.  When he dies, the difference will be karmic debts to be paid in the spiritual plane.  That's why you cannot borrow and borrow without thinking of paying because you might be declared in default and your debts canceled out of frustration of collecting.  But still money owed is money to be paid, if not with cash (if it is no longer possible) it will be paid with karma in the next life.

 

How do you earn money?  That is man's problem and can be solved by man alone.  The spirits can only give tips.  The enkantos can only bring customers.  The higher spirits can only provide the setting.  But man can do it if he exerts enough effort, determination, and concentration.  The search for money is a puzzle given to God by man to toughen his Will Power.  But it is not his salvation.

 

How do you spend money wisely?  As money is concentrated form of material resources (just like pranic energy which is concentrated form of God's Love), money should be budgeted.  One's difficulties in search for money most often can be traced to one's inability to manage one's finances efficiently.  The root cause of this inefficient use of money is one's hunger for material things.  If one is totally detached from material things, then he will have no need for lots of money but barely enough for one's three meals and most basic needs.

 

Therefore, the best way is to list down or classify one's need to basic, intermediate, luxurious.  In this way, you will know which group you should try to fill in and which group you may dispense with when money gets scarce.  So after listing down all the basic, intermediate, and luxurious expenses, then you put money in their respective envelopes just like what a company does with its petty cash.  When money comes, it is put in their proper envelopes with the amount registered on top, first allocating funds for the basic, then for the intermediate, and if there is some extra for the luxurious.  This you fill up every week, every half-month, or at least monthly.  When you spend an item, you only get it from the envelope where it belongs.  Thus you can monitor your preprogrammed expenses.

 

This may appear to have lessened your freedom from spending but it will liberate you from monetary headache.  Better still, have two sets of envelopes for each category.  When there is excess money inflow, put it in the reserve envelope for the incoming budgetary period.  Then you might complain.  The envelope is empty before the week is over or the half month is over.  Then its time to reign in your material desires.  You lost control of your subconscious who desires lots of money to use in satisfying its uncontrollable needs.

 

But if even when you do this there is not enough, then it is time to look at yourself ten years ago.  What have you done to advance materially?  Have you just taken it easy and let opportunities handed by God to you pass unnoticed?  Did you exert effort in improving yourself in personal matters like taking extra technical courses, another degree to be worthy of promotion?   What have you done consciously or planned judiciously for promotion or life improvement to happen?  Evaluate.

 

Then look forward ten years from today.  What will happen?  Project yourself realistically.  What will you be ten years from today basing it on ten years ago and on today's present circumstances?  If the picture is vague or not optimistic then by all means get a part time job, look for another job, or with the present job go into part time business.  Do something!

 

Rely on your effort, ask help from your friends, and ask guidance from the Lord.  Pray and pray hard for inspiration.  Pray for a better life that you may advance materially which will lead you eventually to spiritual perfection.  Don't hope for riches.  Most likely you are not destined to be rich in the material world but to be a millionaire in the spiritual world.

 

With your hunger for material success unattained, you meditate.  Let your mind become blank.  Then it may dawn on you that you cannot attain material riches now because most likely in the previous life you were rich who spent money unwisely, and therefore in this life you have to learn how to use God's resources judiciously not only for your benefit but for the benefit of others as well.  Then the realization will bring you peace.  You have learned your lesson.  Your spirit is happy that he has been liberated from the desire for material things.  Ironically, you attain happiness amidst material scarcity.  You are happy.  Detachment from material things frees you from the inordinate search for money.  Thus now you can embark on a conscious determined goal of strengthening and perfecting your Will Power, Intelligence, and Love.  And then, surprise of all surprises,. money comes easily!  It will come when you don't need it.  Such is the irony of life.

 

God in his infinite mercy and Love welcomes you in heaven where everything you look for here on Earth has counterparts and is in abundance, never diminished when you partake of it.  And you have no use for money there.  Then you will realize that the happiness money brings on Earth is but an illusion to imprison man on Earth.  Using money wisely but not being attached to it is the key to attaining material mastery and spiritual perfection.