Santa, Archetype of Prosperity

December 25th is the day hundreds of millions of Christians celebrate the birth of their Redeemer. It’s also the day hundreds of millions celebrate the generosity of their Rewarder. He’s the bearded jolly chap known as St. Nicholas or Santa Claus (Sint Klaas as the Dutch settlers called him in Holland). I like to think of him as the quintessential archetype for prosperity. In a tough economy where you may be losing sleep over losing your job, an abundant elf like Santa is vital to our national health and imagination.

Known as the patron saint of giving, Santa might more aptly be known as the patron saint of rapid transit. He’s a veritable master of bilocation. In December, you’ll spot him at the Town Center in Boca Raton, Florida, at the same moment your friends spot him on Broadway in New York City, while others insist he’s also on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Bilocation, shmilocation… Superman may be fast, but Santa is downright omnipresent. He’s more than just a symbol of prosperity, he’s a veritable embodiment of all possibilities.

When I was a small boy, my Uncle Dave was vital to my sense of possibilities. A personification of prosperity, he’d give me the silver dollars he pulled out of my ears with his magic. Dave was a mortal man, so he had his limits, Santa is a myth so he has none. His huge sack full of wrapped goodies is a veritable storehouse of infinite generosity.

This red-suited jolly old guy gives unending presents from just one sack, sleds his way over the rooftops of the world, and shares his bounty with children, the most innocent beings on our planet.

Perhaps St. Nick’s miraculous feats of “sharing-do” are powered by the ever-present mantra he chants– “Ho-ho-ho.” Is this an ancient mantra from China or an esoteric meditation from the North Pole? That ringing bell of his sounds more at home in Tibet than at his snowy digs.

While the holiday season is about love and hope, the girth of St. Nicholas inspires abundance. In December’s endless flashing neon, long checkout lines, and out-of-control credit cards, this archetype of prosperity brings a much-needed smile to the harried shopping class. We shouldn’t even think of foregoing the wrappings and trappings of a saint like Nick, he’s our national symbol of prosperity. Our political leaders forever spout peace and prosperity; these are qualities embodied by Santa Claus.

As I once told students in a prosperity class I gave near the nation’s capital in Alexandria, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.”

Man’s best teacher

A dog is not only a man’s best friend, he may also be his best teacher. A dog embodies so many qualities of the Enlightenment described by the world’s great teachers–from Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Mohammed and Lao Tzu—that it’s hardly a coincidence that dog is god spelled backwards.

All spiritual teachers put love as critical for cultivating the highest state of consciousness we call Enlightenment. The family dog demonstrates a form of unconditional love that’s hard to find in our world. Many a husband who’s turned his head a little too long to gaze at the “hottie” in a mini-skirt, has discovered how quickly his spouse’s love is less than unconditional. What if a woman gains 75 pounds? Unfortunately, that has moved far too many men in our disposable culture to be on the lookout for a slimmer (and, while they’re at it, newer) model. What adult doesn’t like to think his parents love him unconditionally? Yet, break a few laws, and even the kindest of parents have been known to disown such a child, or even turn him in to the authorities.

But it doesn’t matter how much you weigh, how many hotties and hunks yo ogle, it doesn’t even matter how many other dogs you pet, your dog is your pal forever, loving you unconditionally to his dying breath. A dog will greet you with a wagging tail and endless licks and kisses. (Does your wife or husband do that? I didn’t think so.) You can yell at a dog in anger, and h may cower away in fear, but an hour later, he’s forgiven you of your cruelty. Most spouses are less forgiving.

Consciousness firmly awakened in the present is necessary for achieving the highest states of human development. In Eckhart Tolle’s best-selling The Power of Now, he elucidated the necessity for, and advantages of, keeping yourself in the present moment, as compared to looking over your shoulder at the past, or into the future that’s not yet come.

A dog never dwells in what once was, nor is he obsessed with what may be on its way. He’s focused on the present. Even when lying down to catch some shut-eye, he often keeps one eye open to the goings on around him.

Enthusiasm, from the Greek entheos or “in god,” is another attribute of higher consciousness. If a wagging tail doesn’t remind you to stay enthusiastic, nothing will. Retrievers of the Golden and Labrador type are perfect embodiments of an enthusiasm that’s hard to top in this world. A person can throw the same ball to the same Retriever over and over again but, while the person soon gets bored, the dog never does. Each new toss is a brand new ball to fetch. His presence in the moment and enthusiasm for chasing the same thing time and again display the freshness of an awakened state of being that our great teachers have both explained and embodied.

With all these things that dogs teach us, who really are the masters? Perhaps they love to awaken us so much that we’re like our teachers’ pets.

Thanksgiving 1621

]Recently, Thanksgiving has become a gluttonous day of turkey, parades and football, a long fall from its origin when grateful Pilgrims thanked God for the bounteous harvest that their helpful native American neighbors shared with them. Our Higher Power is also generous with His/Her bounty; blessing our every moment with the breath of life while keeping the heart in our chest beating. Rev. Ike spoke of the prospering power of an attitude of gratitude. I like to say that the more grateful I am for what I have, the more I have to be grateful for.

Whether you dine on turkey or a vegetarian equivalent, add consciousness to this Thanksgiving, the day that begins our end-of-year holiday season. Perhaps you can lead your gathering in a heartfelt thankful grace, or ask each person at the table to share something that s/he is truly grateful for. It will be a memorable holiday (as in holy day) for one and all.

Keeping your eye on your goals helps you achieve them.

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”

— Anthony Robbins

If you’re self-employed and worry about making rent or your mortgage to avoid foreclosure, you might think that establishing goals is a luxury you don’t have time for.  Quite the opposite.  Unless you set goals to stretch the way you market, and grow your income, you run the risk of being a casualty of this recession.

Tracking weekly goals makes use of the Law of Attraction, which states that energy goes where attention flows.  There’s a physical law paralleling this—the role that the observer plays in the process of observation: “You cannot separate the observer from the observed,” said David Bohm, the world-famous quantum physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb.  In the case of goal setting for your business, the observer is the entrepreneur and the observed is the business itself.  

To take advantage of this law of nature, create a variety of weekly goals for different aspects of your business.  These might include gross income, number of new clients gained, number of new prospective clients, hours spent on marketing, and so on. 

At the top of your paper going across the page, write Goal, Actual and Percentage.   Then, write your goals going down the page on the left margin. The first thing Monday morning, before your workweek begins, fill in your goals for the week.  As the week unfolds, tally your results as they develop in the category called Actual.  Then, the following Monday morning, total your results.  If your goal was to gain two new clients and you gained one, you did 50 percent.  Do this for each category weekly.

There’s great power in this process for, as Lee Iacocca put it, “The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.”  Simply intending certain results and attending to these intentions daily helps bring them into manifestation.  That’s why it’s wise to display your weekly goal sheet where you can see them daily—remember the power of attention. “It was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way without reference to the consciousness,” said Nobel Prize-winning physicist Eugene Wigner.  The same can be said for the laws of quantum business growth.

Forgiveness helps us to prosper

Anger costs you money. Forgiveness makes you money.  By not discussing the prospering power of forgiveness, The Wall Street Journal is derelict in its duties to its readers who wish to become richer.  Like Hebrew National, I answer to a higher authority.

Allow me a personal digression.  Many years ago, my then sister-in-law returned my letters to my nieces unopened.  I was deeply hurt, yet I took responsibility for our breakdown.  I was expecting her usual angry tirade.  Instead, she suggested we forget the past and create a whole new future.  You could have knocked me over with the proverbial feather.  Within three days I landed my largest client ever, and four days later signed two more.  It typically took about three months to sign three clients; this time it took only seven days!   I also lost 7 pounds in that week without changing what I ate or how I exercised.

Following is a prospering process to “complete” with anyone for whom you have strong unresolved emotions.

1: Write the person a letter you’ll never send. Say how you feel about the horrible things done or said to you, what a terrible low life s/he is.  Don’t hold back, and don’t censor your language.  Release the toxic feelings inside you; if not, they’ll damage you.  Blame this person for everything awful that’s happened.  By the time you finish, you’ll feel lighter.  You’ll have lifted a great weight from your shoulders, a heavy burden from your heart.

2: In this next letter (which you won’t send either), you’re no longer the victim doing the blaming.  The great German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.  Find out how knowing this person had made you stronger.

3: Letter #3 is an integration of the two letters, and is intended to be sent. By now, you’ll have released the venom expressed in the first letter, and seen how you’ve grown in relationship with this person.  Describe the incident that caused the upset; then describe how you felt about what happened.  Avoid saying “you hurt me.”  The person did something—the hurt is how you reacted to what was done.  Then describe what you learned from what was done, and how you grew.  Finally, express your gratitude for their role in inspiring your growth.

The Course in Miracles talks about forgiveness and the creation of miracles. The Forgiveness Letter described above has brought miracles in communications, new clients, unexpected income and other wonderful new prosperity.  Be wise, and show it to a close friend, therapist or coach before sending so an objective pair of eyes can scour it and make sure that you are complete with the person you’ve written to, and forgiveness shows through.

The relaxed Roger Federer present with the ball

I just came across one of the great Roger Federer’s secrets of success.  Drum roll…in a word: sleep.  Sleep?  That’s right.  The greatest tennis player ever, attributes success not just to his gorgeous array of shots, but to getting 10 hours of sleep per night.

So what’s this got to do with you?  Plenty.  Federer demonstrates an important principle of the Universe that you can take advantage of without having to get all those extra hours of Zs.  The Swiss net star stays cool because that extra shut-eye releases daily stress and strain.

You can release fatigue and deeper-rooted stress in a deeper way than sleep. The best way I know of is meditation.  As a former Transcendental Meditation (TM) practitioner and teacher since the ‘70s, who recently launched Higher Self Meditation, I’ve experienced so many times just how profound this phenomenon is. 

Deprive a person of sleep long enough and that person becomes unable to function properly.  He’ll be irritable, he’ll be unable to concentrate, and he’ll perform poorly. Nature lives by the law of rest as the basis of activity.  The more you align with this natural law, the more you thrive; the more you fight it (burn the candle at both ends, for example) the more you suffer. 

The orange ball that rises majestically from over the Atlantic Ocean every morning, while I sip hot water and lemon (Ayurvedic) rather than coffee (Colombian) demonstrates the point. With the exception of nocturnal creatures, most of Nature sleeps after the sun goes down. We’re told to make hay while the sun shines. The related maxim: make Z’s after the sun sets.  

The daily rest and activity cycle that Nature observes, and that we practice is mirrored by seasonal cycles of rest and activity, as well: much of Nature rests during the Winter, and then comes alive for a rebirth come Spring.  Bears hibernate for months—their deep rest enlivens them for vigorous activity when the weather gets warmer.

Scientific research on stress management indicates a myriad of benefits accruing from deep rest.  The research on TM I’m familiar with shows that a level of rest reached that’s twice as deep as the deepest point in a night’s sleep as measured by oxygen consumption.  A night’s sleep removes daily fatigue, the deeper rest gained during meditation releases deeper-rooted stress that’s accumulated over the years.  

So the next time you’re about to step out onto the tennis court, the basketball court, or a court of law, make sure you’ve gotten in your good night’s sleep—or better yet, your daily meditation.  It works for Federer, it works for the yogis, and it can work for you.

The proverb–“Well begun is half done.”–recognizes that it’s good to get off to a good start. So isn’t it peculiar that marriage–what we vow is a long-term “permanent” relationship (“Till death do us part”)–begins with “falling” in love?   Why associate this most delightful state of consciousness with falling?  What good ever came from falling?  How can a relationship that starts with a fall do anything but fail?  Too soon after the rice has been thrown and the wedding cake is eaten, far too many brides and/or grooms call divorce lawyers.

Cupid is looking to put people in love.

Rational people might argue that “falling in love” is just a figure of speech.  But the subconscious mind takes the words and thoughts that we feed it literally.   So it’s high time we replace “falling” in love with “rising” in love or “growing” in love.

We have a host of expressions that don’t give love a chance.  Consider the following:

“I’m crazy about you.“

“I’m madly in love.”

“Love is blind.”

We associate love with craziness, madness and blindness.  Is it any wonder why six in 10 first marriages end in divorce?   What if we changed our expressions?

“I’m crazy about you” could become “Being with you helps put me in my right mind.”

“I’m madly in love” could morph into “Being in love frees me.”

“Love is blind” could change into “Love opens my eyes to higher realities.”

Loving another person can lead to delightful and liberating states of being, to marriage and children, and to a lifetime of commitment together. It’s high time that we give it a chance to get off to a good start by calling its early delicious stage rising in love.

The Buddha in his Enlightenment

The Enlightenment I’m going to speak about in this blog is much more than the Enlightenment that the great French philosophers Rousseau and Voltaire wrote about in the so-called Age of Enlightenment that helped create the idealism and egalitarianism that led to the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.  These two documents helped inspire a more enlightened way of looking at government throughout the world for decades and centuries to come.  They still do.

The Enlightenment I’m going to speak about in this blog is also more than the understanding of the Law of Attraction and Creative Thought that’s become so popular with the best-selling book and video, The Secret.  It’s also more than the understanding of New Age principles.  It’s the realization of living truths that were recorded more than 40 centuries ago.

The Enlightenment I’m going to speak about in this blog is more than the Cosmic Consciousness flashes depicted in the revolutionary book, Cosmic Consciousness, written slightly over a century ago by the Canadian psychiatrist R.M. Bucke.  In this seminal classic, a desert island read for me if I was limited to even just a handful of books, the Walt Whitman biographer voluminously revered the mystical glimpses of great seers, sages, philosophers, poets and the like throughout history.  The book is so important in the history of consciousness because the spiritual experiences that it celebrates are given greater importance than the ritual performance that takes place a couple of hours every weekend in America.

As important as all these different versions of Enlightenment are, Enlightenment is much, much more.  It’s only fitting in this age of 24/7 that Enlightenment becomes widely known as the all-time 24/7 state that it is, rather than an occasional glimpse or fleeting experience that it isn’t.  You may visit Paris as a tourist for a vacation: a Parisian on the other hand, is French.  And so it is with Enlightenment: a perpetual condition of transformed consciousness as much as it is of purified physiology.  Because it takes the transformation of the nervous system to consciously reflect for all times—all the time—the timelessness of the Transcendent that’s your essential nature, the ground of your inner Being, your true higher Self.

The 9 Muses

One of the best ways to deepen your connection to your Muse—your creative Source–is an exercise called Discovery Writing.  It taps the infinite creativity of your subconscious mind to enhance your creative output; increase income; enrich relationships; organize your life; deepen your spiritual connection, and so on.

Here’s how it works. Write one objective you want to work on at the top of the page.  Let’s say it’s “20 Things I Can Do to Increase My Income 25 Per Cent this Month.”  (If you want to double your income, then use that as a goal.)  Then, for two minutes, keep your pen moving. Set a timer.  Jot down whatever is in your mind, even if no sensible income-stimulating idea is there, never letting the pen be idle for a second.  Even if it’s seemingly off-topic like “chocolate chip cookies.” Who knows—maybe you can make money selling the cookies you bake in your spare time. (Debbi Fields sure did before she thrived as Mrs. Fields.)  Maybe you just need an occasional milk and cookies break. Your inner child might be trying to give you a tip that all work and no cookies make you a dull boy. The act of letting creative juices flow without editorial censorship opens you to provocative ideas from the Unconscious.  From this, I developed new workshop ideas, ideas for books, and names of people who could expand my work.  After two minutes, put down your pen and look at your list. If any idea appeals to your rational mind, consider acting upon it the way you’d act upon any good idea.

Warmth in communication is a delight.

We blemish our communication with white lies, big fat lies, withholds, gossip, and back-stabbing.  The following list can help you be clear and clean in your communication.

1. Honor your truth.

2. Tell the truth quickly and kindly.

3.  Ignore your neighbor’s gossip.

4. Don’t talk behind other people’s backs.

5. From time to time mirror the speech of others so that they feel heard.

6. Don’t verbally abuse others.

7. Take a brief “timeout” when you lose your temper.

8. Forgive others for being less than perfect.

 9. Speak enthusiastically.

10. Uplift people with your words.