My Spiritual Make Money Scheme

In What The Heaven Is Value?, I pointed out lack is an illusion.  If you want to make money, it’s critical you see this clearly.  So in this post, I am expanding on this concept, and I’ll use my own business as an example.  (It made $6K in January – not a super glamorous figure, but not too shabby for a nine month old one-person business, I guess) (Photo by shoebappa)

For those of you in a hurry (because people seem to be in a hurry when they talk about making money), here is the essence of the post:
The shortcut to abundance is to develop your spirituality so that you see abundance instead of lack.
If you get this, you are done.  If you didn’t quite get it, read on.

Lack is an illusion

In reality, things are just the way they are.  For example, it rains a lot in Oregon.  That is how Oregon weather is – it is not about lack of sunny days.  But in our thinking, we can make it about lack of sunny days if we so choose.  And make ourselves miserable doing so.  Or we can see abundance of rain water and make money. Like these people who make soaps with rain water, which is naturally soft water.

In that lengthy post about value and lightworkers / darkworkers, I described how the same world could be experienced either as the world of abundance and harmony or the world of lack and pain.  There was no real change between the two – in the latter, people just adopted the bad rumor of lack.

If things are just the way they are, you may argue, it is neither lack nor abundance, it’s neutral, isn’t it?  Good point.  However, things “are”, not “are not”.  Abundance exists, but lack does not – it’s the absence of abundance.  Just as darkness is the absence of light.  Thinking lack exists is an illusion.

“All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.”  — Swami Vivekananda

Likewise, we are putting our hands before our eyes and cry we don’t see abundance.

Lack of income?

In the comment section of that post, I conversed with Hunter Nuttall, who I so respect and adore:

Akemi: Really? You still see lack? Give me an example and I’ll incorporate it in my future post. (Be it YOUR lack, not like starving children in Africa. Because that is a different issue. You don’t really know about those kids.)
Hunter: Well yeah, I see lack. For one thing, I have no income. Isn’t that a pretty big lack?

I guess this may be the case for some other readers, too.  And yet more readers are afraid of the lack of income.  So let me make a point here to help you.

First, let me ask you if all your material needs are met with or without income.

After I quit my corporate job in October 2007 and until I started to make money in June 2008, I had no income source.  But I always had roof over my head and foods on the table.  I had a chance to talk with Hunter about this, and the conversation went something like this (quoted with his permission):

Akemi: So are you experiencing any material lack?
Hunter: Well, no.  Not now. . . But I’m afraid I will.
Akemi: How long is your money going to last?
Hunter: Umm . . . I don’t know.
Akemi: You don’t know?
Hunter: . . . No.
Akemi: Okay, then you have enough money.  If you are really short of money, you know exactly how long it will last.

Note about homelessness

People say they are afraid of becoming homeless.  Fear of homelessness keeps people stuck in their jobs they so loathe.  It’s such an effective control system that I wouldn’t be surprised if some exploitative managements were paying those people in the back.

However, I’m pretty sure people who are in alignment with the energy flow of Divine Abundance would not go homeless.  Homeless people are either:

1. Extremely out of alignment and stuck.  Like believing it is possible to become homeless and continuously acting with that fear.
2. Working on some spiritual lessons that can be best learned in homelessness.  For example, the soul may be choosing to experience abundance in an extreme rugs to riches scenario.

And here are three examples of people who rose from homelessness to abundance.

• Alex Smith, owner of Alara Wholefoods in UK, started his business with 2GBP, about $3, that he found in the gutter.
• Chris Gardner, owner of stockbrokerage firm Gardner Rich and who wrote his story in The Pursuit of Happyness that was later turned to a movie, was homeless with a toddler while he was interning.
• Neale Donald Walsch, well-known writer of Conversation with God series, was homeless for almost a year after his car accident.  Yeah, not just a homeless but a homeless with a neck collar.

I’m just listing these people to show the incredible possibilities.  But again, I don’t think we particularly need to become homeless to enjoy abundance.

Limiting thoughts about “income”

Next thing I want to ask to those of you who see lack of income is your idea of “income”.  Is that limited to certain ways, like paychecks or established business income?

Money is just energy and it can come in various ways – if you let it.  But paycheck mentality runs deep in many of us.  Even those who become self-employed carry over this mentality.

Are you comfortable receiving money in unexpected ways or do you want “income source” that seems solid, like employment?  Does it bother you if someone just sent you money, like as donation?  Does it bother if you just picked up a $100 bill?

I’m not saying you should rely on these haphazard incomes.  I’m saying you might want to open up to all kinds of possibilities of income, all kinds of income sources.  So you always have income possibilities – as long as you don’t refuse it by believing you have lack of income.

Seeing abundance everywhere you go

To make money, you first need to see abundance.  You can’t create abundance out of lack – I mean your stubborn belief of lack.  It looks like this:

Dark grim outlook of lack: “There are no good business ideas, people don’t have money and they are not buying anything, and I don’t have any money or connection or expertise to do anything, maybe I’m not interested anyway . . .”

Gee, I just felt really awful.  Let’s get back to abundance consciousness, quick!

. . . okay, I think my vision is restored.  I see abundance now.  I see lots of people, with lots of dreams and desires, and therefore tons of opportunities to serve these people.  Energy is flowing, and all I need to do is to get in this flow.

Do you see it, too?  Look around and say out loud what you see abundantly, whether they are visible stuffs or invisible needs / wants / etc.

When you notice “lack”, take a moment and think if you can change your viewpoint to see abundance.  For instance, you see lots of people losing their jobs?  Means there are lots of people who will benefit with support services in their job search or businesses development.  Think you live in a small town where there isn’t enough market for your business?  Can you go online?  The population is exploding globally, you know.

Share abundance to get more abundance

One excellent way I know to tap into increasing abundance is to share the abundance.  Come up with a win-win game plan that make everyone better off – that will attract more people and money.

I just started promoting my new eBook by affiliate program.  Affiliate programs are easy way to share abundance.  My affiliates make money by promoting great products that improve customers’ lives, I make money, too, and customers are happy to easily find such great products.

Do you know other win-win game plans?  I’d be interested – let me know in the comment ; )

How I started my business

I had a pretty good job as executive admin before.  My motivation to go into business myself was more about the sense of service and increasing love and freedom for all, including myself.  In other words, releasing the light energy trapped in darkness.

I knew there were many many people who would benefit from my Akashic Record Reading service because I was one of them myself.  I had struggled many years trying to make sense of my life, always felt as if there were invisible walls around me.  So I saw abundance of potential customers – all I do is to reach out.  And by doing this, my lifelong experiences, many of which were troubling at the time, become my assets – another abundance.

I also write for this blog.  This is a free access blog and I hardly make money with it right now, but I enjoy writing and sharing my thoughts, so I do it.  I have abundant resources within me.  And I sense there may be yet another abundance that I may be able to tap in by doing this.  I’ll see.

Okay, enough about me.  Here is another person working to release light from darkness, or “eliminate the chain and changing the fucking world”, in her own way.  While making good money herself (reportedly $200K last year)  And yes . . . a lightworker can use bad words – be quite good at it, for that matter ^_^

Do you see abundance now?  And with that empowered vision, what are you going to do?  If you are not doing what you aspire to do, what is stopping you?

What The Heaven Is Value?

My dear friend Hunter Nuttall wrote “What The Hell Is Value?”  and gave me a special treatment of homework.  A very special attention to me out of his thousands of readership!  What an honor.  I feel obliged to reciprocate.

In this article, I will first take you back to the beginning of time so we know how the Universe and any and all things in it, including this stuff we call life, started.  This is a critical knowledge to understand the lightwork and darkwork, or lightworkers and darkworkers. (Second link love to Hunter.  Think abundance.)  This leads to our discussion of what value is, and I will wrap up by explaining how we can make money by delivering value in our daily work life.

It’s a long post.  Please bookmark.  (Photo by siderean)

We all came from Light

First there was Light.  Or a mass of energy.  Everything in the Universe (or maybe Universes), including the Universe itself, came out from this original Light.  Scientists call it the Big Bang.  Light became atoms and formed substances.  And the stars.  And life forms.

Even today, many people, such as those who experienced near-death or after-death episodes, report seeing bright white light that they intuitively recognized as the source of life energy.  I think visible lights, like sunlight, are part of this Light that illuminates the whole Universe, in all dimensions.  It is the Light that provides us with vital life energy.

All came from the one Source of Light, so there was no lack. Everything that was was just that, and everything was in harmony.  This was great, but somehow, the Source, which has intelligence of some kind, decided to try something different.  Why not create an illusion of lack so we know, by contrast, we are truly abundant?

I don’t know when this happened, or if it took place on this Earth when humans were already inhabiting.  But for now, I am going to pretend it did so I can share some stories that illustrate the case.

The original utopia

So we were living in this original world where everything there was simply was.  Again, this may not have been this Earth and we may have been different life forms, but for the sake of simplicity we will pretend it was.  You may wish to visualize a round faced petite woman called Akemi, living happily in harmony with others.

She picked berries and ate them, but there were so many, so after she had eaten plenty, she went out and shared the rest with others.  Both my alter ego and her neighbors were happy.

She was not very good at fixing things, so when there was a leak in her hut, she asked her neighbor if he could help, and of course he did.  He liked doing this kind of work and was pleased looking at his clean work.  Both were happy.

Notice she didn’t ask for the repair work as a “return” of her giving him berries.  They just did what was natural to each of them, and all were served.

It was the same with relationships.  When my alter ego saw a nice cute guy, she went up and told him she liked him.  If he liked her, too, they made love, and both were happy.  If he liked staying around, they had a long-term relationship.  If he didn’t, it was no big deal because there were other cute guys.  No drama, just love and joy.

All kids were looked after by all the villagers.  For women, the children she gave birth were special, and for men, their women’s children were special, but really all kids were well loved and cared.  In fact, not just kids.  Everyone was loved for who they were, and everyone loved all there was.  All in harmony and peace as it was.

They may or may not talked about spirituality, but they were highly spiritual anyway.  They knew they came from the one Source and still connected to this Source.  They also knew they were all interconnected.

Even death was not something to be feared.  It was sad because it was about separation, but they intuitively knew it was a temporary separation, so after a while, they moved on.  Some lived long, some died young, but all were well.

The “Fall” and the birth of darkworkers

Then something unusual happened.  Someone came up with the idea of getting more than there was by seeding the idea of lack to people’s mind.

Say, one day, there was a traveling merchant who showed pretty red stones to my alter ego.  She liked them and wanted one of the pendant.  The merchant said she had to pay.  So she offered a basket full of berries.

. . . and to her surprise, he said “That is not enough to get the pendant.”

He wanted something more.  The next door guy offered him big chunk of dried meat and could get a pendant for his wife.  My alter ego’s berries were valued less because they didn’t store well.  She was shocked.  Until then, she never even thought something she had to offer may not by “enough”.

The merchant also told everyone that there were only limited supply of red stones.  So the value of the stones would go up – that next door guy was lucky to get it with five pounds of meat.

This affected my next door neighbor’s mind.  He started to think he is “better’ than others.  He began saying things that put others down and stopped doing kind things for them.  He “fell” and became a darkworker.  At first, he just did a little bit of darkwork occasionally.  Eventually, however, he became good at manipulating others.

The idea of lack and scarcity affected relationships as well.  Suddenly, there was a rumor that there weren’t enough cute guys!  Any smart woman was to “keep” a guy so that he would bring the paychecks to raise their kids.

Things were even worse for men.  Suddenly there was a rumor that there weren’t enough good women, so they had to secure a woman who would bear their children.  It became important to make sure their woman weren’t seeing someone else because resources were considered to be limited and he could afford only to raise his own kids.  The village was no longer functioning as community of care.

Our health deteriorated, too, because of the increasing negativity and stress.  And death became the ultimate limitation and cause of fear.  True spirituality was replaced by fear inducing religions.

The beautiful sense of connection to all that was was replaced with the painful sense of separation.  Love was no longer a basic condition of life but became a commodity.  Sex became a dirty word tainted with shame.  Joy and gratitude evaporated and jealousy set in.

This change to negativity is commonly referred to as the “Fall” in various legends.  (Legends are our soul memories told as stories.)  In the beginning, we were all lightworkers, but with the Fall, some became darkworkers whose main interest was to serve themselves at the expense of others.  Darkworkers use the idea of lack and manipulate others with negativity such as fear, anger, guilt, shame, etc. to manipulate others.

Some well-developed lightworkers knew this was just a BS, but many many lightworkers fell prey and got confused.

The difference between lightworkers and darkworkers

There is no substance called darkness. Darkness is the lack of light. So we all find ourselves somewhere in the spectrum of light.  On one end there are those who are fully aligned with Light, the lightworkers.  On the opposite end are those who are completely shut down from Light, the darkworkers.  In the middle, there are confused lightworkers who often engage in negativity and wishy washy darkworkers who can’t engage in negativity full time.

Now remember this Light is also the Source of life energy?  So darkworkers have serious problem for survival – they need to get energy from sources other than the true Source.  The only way they can do this is to suck up the energy of others.

Again, they do this by seeding negativity such as fear, anger, guilt, shame, and jealousy in others.

What is value?

Basically, whatever someone else wants is value.  Nutrition for the physical body is value.  Education to train our mind is value.  A beautiful song that brings out tender feeling is value.  Spiritual healing is value.

As a business owner, I want accounting service to free up my time so accounting service is value.  The computer, internet, and all the programs someone wrote are value.

Flattery for ego boost is also value, whether it’s an honest one or not.  Weapon is value to darkworkers – a very tangible one, it kills people.

However, I am a lightworker.  So here, we will talk about lightworker value, or positive value.

What is lightworker value?

Lightworker value is about releasing the energy that are stuck in negativity and bringing it back to Light. Currently there are a lot of energy sucked up by darkworkers.

For example, think of someone who wants to become an energy healer, like the Reconnection practitioner, but is afraid of quitting his corporate paycheck job.  Lots of energy stuck in his fear.  Let’s say he reads my article on entrepreneurship and gets inspired enough to let go of his fear.  Now the energy that was previously captured in the darkness of fear is freed up and it will shine in the world.  His energy has converted to something valuable and useful, and I delivered value assisting this process.

Any work that releases the stuck energy from negativity such as fear, anger, guilt, shame, and jealousy and
bring it back to Light, to positive energy flow of love, joy, peace, harmony, and spiritual awareness is of lightworker value:

• When you write an article that inspires others to overcome their fear, or an article that educates others how to recognize the BS of manipulation, you are bringing lightworker value.
• When you create a beautiful piece of art that resonates deep into the viewer’s heart and reminds them our original state of harmony, you are bringing lightworker value.
• When you build a successful business that saves customers’ time and energy, thereby freeing up their energy for better use, you are bringing lightworker value.
• When you assist other lightworkers who are bringing value to others, such as doing administrative work for them, you are indirectly bringing lightworker value.

Hunter uses the tale of two bricklayers to illustrate the last case.  You could be just mindlessly laying bricks to get paid or you could be a member of cathedral building team.

Personally, my mission is:

1. Assist the more or less confused lightworkers liberate themselves from negativity. One way I do this is through my Akashic Record Reading and its clearing.  I also hope this Yes to Me blog aspires the readers.
2. Assist the wishy washy kind darkworkers return to Light, if they so wish.  Again through my Akashic Record Reading.

But how can we make money by delivering value?

Here is a secret of making money:  De-focus on money.

Because money is like a shadow.  It’s not real.  Sure the greenbacks are real, but that is not what you really want, right?  You want what money can do, the purchasing power of the money.  Because of this purchasing capability of money, money also represents security or freedom.  But I am yet to meet someone who likes greenbacks themselves, except for hobby purpose.   They are just crinkly sheets of paper. (Photo by TW Collins)

If money is a shadow, what is casting the shadow?  What is the real thing?  Value.

In your effort to make money, you can take one of the following two approaches:

1. Chase money, which is like chasing shadows. Depending on how the light is cast, shadows move a lot and confuse you.  And even when you come so close and believe you have caught it, it escapes you so easily.  It’s a shadow.  You can’t hold onto shadow.
2. Focus on value. Value is invisible but real.  Figure out what kind of value you can deliver, and deliver it.  This may take some time and soul searching effort, but leads to real results.

How does delivering value bring in money?

Because everything in the Universe is energy, value is a form of energy.  We can’t really “create” value.  That is just a way of saying.  Crating value means creating products or services that deliver value.  (Even I, who has little idea of math and physics, know energy only changes forms, but can’t be created nor eliminated.  Energy only circulates, changing forms.)

What we really do, as lightworkers, is to assist someone release their energy from negativity.  Or assist other lightworkers do this.

When we deliver value, a form of energy, it creates flow of energy. Outflow invites inflow.  Another form of energy comes along, either from the recipient of the value or from other sources.  This is where it gets really fun.

We all know receiving money in exchange to the value we deliver.  But we can also receive money from other sources.  Ad income for popular bloggers is an excellent example.  I bet there are other ways as well.

On the practical level, we need to set up a way, a system, to deliver value – consistently high value, hopefully.  This is where business experts like marketing whiz Naomi Dunford comes into the picture, delivering her value.  But she can only assist you when you have decided to make money this way.  It’s your job to choose which money making approach  you want and what kind of value you want to deliver.

My new soul’s resolution to show abundance to the world

I know some people are still thinking, “Well, that all sounds nice, but I’m not sure. . .  I’m afraid.”  So I want to show that I, as a lightworker, can make good money.  This is my new soul’s resolution.

I have completed my new year resolution of extending love in my business and beyond.  Maybe that is why I had the honor of getting a new soul.  I now know there is nothing in my life that is not love.  Love is a foundation, not a special day treat.

So I’d like a new resolution (can you tell time is speeding up?), and that is to show spirituality and wealth can be, and are, compatible.

Lightwork and Light Ascension

Some say that, when we restore sufficient amount of energy to Light, the original blueprint of Earth will be restored, and we will see a new version of utopia.  This is one way of defining Light Ascension.  I find this idea interesting and inspiring.  I don’t know this for sure, but I am observing so many soul situations like the special soul shifting cases in my practice that were previously considered – well, previously it was not even considered or imagined in any way really.  So I figure anything can be possible.

Another notable thing that I just noticed recently is that many of those wishy washy darkworkers (there are more professional sounding terminology, but let me keep things simple for general readability) are returning to their original lightworker blueprint.  I don’t know why or how they are doing this, so don’t send me those “Why SHOULD they . . .” questions.

And just to make sure, this utopia is not the communism.  Communism is about totalitarian control, based deeply in fear.  On the contrary, I am talking about the kind of utopia where each of us express our unique gifts, which immediately and naturally serves others.

Take your side and polarize

We all had enough learning experience with this illusion of lack.  By now we know what abundance is in contrast to scarcity and how fun it is to invite and enjoy abundance.  I think it is time to complete our learning by leaving negativity and polarizing in Light.

This is where taking side matters.  Staying in the middle of the light spectrum, being neutral or mix, doing lightwork sometimes and darkwork at other times, means messing up the energy flow and therefore effectively stuck.  No good.

So take your side. Choose if you want to deliver lightworker positive value or darkworker negative value.  Choose love, joy, abundance, and harmony or choose lack and fear.  Polarize consciously.

This post is part of Jeremy Day’s group writing project on creating value.

The post that I promissed to Hunter in the comment below is now published as My Spiritual Make Money Scheme.

10 Spiritual Money Practices To Eliminate Poverty

This post is for Blog Action Day 2008 that is about Poverty.

It’s also a supplement to my last post on how to start your own business because the issue of money is unavoidable when you quit your job and make the leap of faith. (Photo by Kaptain Krispy Kreme)

Real cause of poverty

When we think about poverty, it’s so easy to focus on the existing tragedies such as the homeless people or the starving children in Africa. I feel for them, but I’m asking you to put those issues aside for a moment and think why poverty exists. Let’s take care of the root cause first.

Now imagine two individuals – two brothers, with the same educational background. Will they achieve the same level of financial status as they proceed in life? We’ve seen similar cases and know they won’t, right? So what makes one succeed, while the other fails miserably? It’s their thinking. One is focused on wealth, abundance, and success, and the other only sees lack and poverty in and around him.

In my previous bank job, I was told never to judge customers by their appearances. A stinky homeless-like guy may have tens of thousands of dollars while the guy in nice suit may be deep in debt. (As bank employees, we knew this.) I also read that Donald Trump once said, when the economy was down, that the homeless guys had more net worth than himself because they had some coins in their papercups while he was deep in debt.

So what makes Donald Trump rich? He focuses on abundance and success. While the guy on the street worries like crazy and never touches his savings.

Kiva: Empowering the have-nots

This understanding that poverty starts not from external lacks but from the internal scarcity thoughts has taken roots in our social awareness. For example, charity. Charity used to be about sending money to the needy. This only helped the needy superficially and temporarily. Now organizations like Kiva lends money to the people who currently don’t have the money but are willing to make some. They treat the people as those who have the full potential to become rich – just not there yet. This is empowering.

Do you still think there are absolute poverty? People who just can’t climb up from poverty because of their outwardly circumstances? Well, I’m not going to argue – there may be because this physical world is not perfect. For those of you who think that way, however, the real question may be: Are you using their poverty as an excuse for you to stay stuck?

I’ve seen this pattern of thought. For example, Po Bronson’s book, What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question describes people who say something like “Oh, but those poor immigrants . . . they take the worst jobs . . . I feel bad being so picky about what I want to do in my life . . .” As an immigrant myself, I say BS. Don’t use us as an excuse of your procrastination and lack of courage. For the same token, don’t use people in poverty as your excuse. Pick up after yourself and the world will be a better place.

10 principles of spiritual money practice to eliminate poverty and to become rich yourself

There are a lot you can do right here and now to decrease the world poverty, and only you can do them because they are about your own spirit. In the meantime, they will make you rich

Here are the principles of spiritual money practice (I will be explaining them into more details in my future posts):

1. Let go of your scarcity thoughts. One by one, as they surface in your mind.
2. At the same time, expand your spirit to allow higher level of abundance for yourself and others. (My Dream Money Project is a fun way to do this.)
3. Accept money as a form of natural abundance. There is nothing dirty or evil about money. We can do a lot of good things with money.
4. Learn to see the current situation, financial or not, as a vehicle to learn the valuable lessons rather than being stuck in it.
5. Learn to see the possibilities behind what meets your eye. There are a lot of opportunities to make money.
6. Take responsibility for your own life. Don’t wait until you win the lottery to do what you want to do. Use the power of your free will and free choice to create your own life.
7. See abundance in nature. Be amazed how God (or any name Divinity) has made this physical world so abundant and beautiful. Isn’t the sunrise literally priceless?
8. See everyone as your equals and treat them with respect. Money goes around and comes through people.
9. Start your day with gratitude and end your day with gratitude.
10. Enjoy giving.

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur – the startup money issue

You might want to do some math how much money reserve you need to quit your corporate job and start your own business. Alternatively, you can take a part-time job or rely on your family’s income. But still, there is a point when you cut your umbilical cord and step into the unknown. No amount of money can make this transition completely safe.

When I was starting as a new entrepreneur, I often thought about the Kiva beneficiary in another country that I was supporting. Or about Muhammad Yunus, the banker to the poor, and his story of lending money to a woman who wanted to buy a goat to eventually sell its milk. (If my memory serves me well, she expanded her business further and later became Mr. Yunus’ business partner) It gave me tremendous courage in the uncertain days of early entrepreneurship.

What is your money hangups? Write them in the comment as a way to overcome them!

Further reading: This book review is about how to become a millionaire.

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