“Money has always been a problem for us. We could never find enough to support ourselves and our habits.” (12 & 12, p. 130)
Which spiritual tools might you use when you feel you don’t have enough money, lately?
Mon-ey (Pink Floyd, 1974 Original Video)
The Dalai Lama on God, Money & Inner Peace
Classical Inner Peace Meditation
The Money in The Pot of Butter
– an African proverb
A man had to go on a long travel. He hid his money in a pot and put butter over it. So nobody could see what was there under the butter in the pot.
Then he took the pot to his neighbour and said, “Please keep this pot of butter for me till I come back.” He did not say anything about the mon-ey in the pot.
A month passed. Two months passed. But the traveller did not come back. His neighbour thought, “I’m afraid the butter in the pot is bad.”
And he took all the butter out of the pot and saw money there.
He took the money for himself and put many small stones into the pot in place of the money. When the traveller came back, he asked his neighbour for the pot. He carried it home and took out all the butter. He wanted to take the mon-ey. But he found only many small stones under the butter.
He was very angry. Then one of his friends came to see him. “You look angry, my friend! Why are you angry?” asked his friend.
“Oh, I am a silly man!” And he told his friend the story about the pot of butter, the mon-ey and the small stones.
“Well, I can show you how to get your money back. Let us go to the forest.”
And the two friends went to the forest, caught a monkey there and brought it home.
“Now you go to your neighbour and say, ‘Please let your son come with me to the market. He can help me to carry food from the market.”
The man did so. The neighbour sent his son to the man. But they did not go to the market. The man went home with the neighbour’s son and locked the boy in his house.
The friend said, “Now go to your neighbour with the monkey and say: ‘Here is your son.”
The man did so. The neighbour was very angry.
“Take the monkey away and bring back my son!” he said.
“Why, this is your son! If money can turn into small stones then a boy can turn into a monkey.”
The neighbour understood everything. He brought the mon-ey and the man let the boy go back to his father.
The man thanked his clever friend very much. He wanted to give him a part of the Money. But his friend did not take it.
“We are friends, aren’t we?” he said. “And friends always help each other. But never take money for that. Never, never!”
http://www.english-for-students.com/The-Money-in-The-Pot-of-Butter.html
There are many concerns as a young person working today that bear down on me that aren’t proper to this program and the work we do in recovery. There isn’t necessarily a working fix in the program for student loan debt, for instance, and that’s not the design of this program. I appreciate that. However, I’ve come to understand how certain basic precepts in the program might map onto management of life elsewhere outside the rooms. This is a bit the function of the saying to the effect of “you get sober and life begins.” I have a lot of critical anxieties about finances–income/wages, taxes, debt, future prospects and growth in my career, etc. Taking it one day at a time and doing what is manageable, what I can where I can, each day, and checking in with people who are experiencing many of the same problems. These are things that on the one hand keep me grounded, practical, and task-oriented, but also situate me alongside others. I understand how it is together we can forge ahead, despite difficulties that are often outside of our control.
This is a hard one. I pray that i will focus on enjoy the journey.
Money “the thought ” of it has consumed many days of my life. What a waste. Just a bunch of useless thinking, nothing different from any other head thoughts.
If I were truly honest with myself I would be doing a 10th step around money every night. I’ve looked into debtors anonymous and even though I’m fortunate not to have had any debt in a few years I’m not as aware of my spending as I should be.
Wow….this one sure hits home. I always worry about not having enough money. My truth is that so long as I am sober I have people in my life who would never allow me to sleep on the streets or miss a meal. Yet I worry constanty. It is so unproductive and useless yet I cannot seem to shake it.
Recently, I had less then $50 to my name but I stayed the course and almost out of no where I slew of cases came my way and I was able to pay all my debts, satisfy all of my needs and most of my wants. Even stock-piled some money in case things slowed down. Well now that things have slowed down and money is once again thin I am starting to worry more and more rather than having faith that once again my higher power will provide so long as I stay the course and continue working on my recovery. Even though my higher power has never let me down I keeping telling myself that the streak has to end sometime and this may be that time. As I am typing this comment I cannot almost visualize myself making another comment in a week or so mentioning how once again my higher power came through for me and I worried all for not.
To be continued……..
Change “can” for “cannot”. A simple typo. Funny, I am so self-centered I actually think people may read my comment and notice the typo. If you are reading this comment but did not notice the typo then you are probably just as self-centered as I am and you were thinking about yourself as you were reading my comment.
I think about all the people I know that have less money than I do and I see them laughing all the time. It reminds me that the power to be happy is in our grasp regardless of how much money we have, within reason. Starvation and homelessness due to lack of money is a separate issue not so easily dealt with. For those of us who already have our basic needs met, there are many tools to draw upon to dispatch our greed if we are willing to use them.
I have a terrible relationship with money! Sometimes I abuse it, and sometimes I allow it to dominate me. I believe there is a happy balance somewhere and sometimes I even find that balance – but not on a consistent basis. From reading DA literature I have learned there is only one source for all security – one source – and that is my Higher Power. Do I have sufficient trust to Let Go and Let God? Only when I choose to surrender.
What I keep forgetting is that money is not security.
Yeah but money can be fun! if you knows its proper place & limits.