Hey,
This is Ishar,
And today I'll be following up on a previous talk which was titled,
The Power of Gratitude.
And here I'll be going over how gratitude translates to a feeling of abundance.
When you are feeling grateful,
You slide from a state of scarcity to a state of abundance.
And this shifts your view of the world from a perceived negative or scary place to a very positive and almost a heaven-like quality to the world.
And this is nice to have.
But let's first start off with the feeling of scarcity.
And this is the feeling of not having enough.
And this is based in a lack-based thinking.
And this is actually a protection mechanism that we may have inherited from our society or family members,
Where there was a lot of chaos in the environment or stress.
And it was more advantageous to look for threats everywhere and look for dangers to keep oneself well-protected,
Small,
And away from any potential conflicts that may happen.
However,
This perpetual way of thinking in a place where you do have your basic human needs met may prevent you from experiencing the flow and peace of life.
So once you're in a position where you don't have any imminent dangers to your body and self,
Then it can be helpful to start to look into what abundance may look like.
And when you are in a feeling of not being grateful,
You observe lack everywhere.
And in the state of not having enough,
And potentially looking at negatives of everything,
You may find that you can also repel more situations away from you,
Because you can also emanate neediness,
Which creates attachments.
So when you are in a state of abundance,
Your mental view is that you have everything that you need.
And being contented is a very powerful concept.
And many spiritual traditions talk about this virtue.
So it's found in Taoism,
Christianity,
Buddhism,
For example.
And being contented has a lot of tremendous implications for your life,
Both internally and how you view the world,
And also externally as far as what you attract into your life.
And a lot of our unhappiness comes from our ego and feeling like we're not enough.
So there's an energetic quality of striving,
Of pushing,
Of competing in a state of lack.
And there may also be a lot of competition in scarcity-based environments.
And there's a lot of struggling uphill.
But in a state of contentment and gratitude and abundance,
You're flowing downstream rather than struggling to fight uphill.
And you are relaxed and happy right now.
So there's no future planning,
Scheming,
Improving,
And that frenetic energy.
And a lot of the world and social conditioning does make you believe that you're not good enough right now.
And you can clearly see this in advertising,
Various television shows that are now on Hulu and Netflix.
And all these programmings that come into us creates an agitated and scattered mind.
So part of the practice of tapping into this abundant state,
Which is actually our natural expression,
Is to become more present,
To relax both physically and mentally,
And allow your natural light of being to come through and presence to come through.
And when you're being grateful and contented with what you have,
This will naturally emanate from you.
So there's not much work to be done.
And you find that when you're in this particular feeling tone and mental state,
There is an outflow of energy.
And a lot of the energy actually frees up.
This is very different from coming from a place of lack or need or trying to prove yourself,
Where you're constantly pushing and trying to force things to happen.
In this state,
You can allow things to happen and things flow much better.
And externally,
Because you are grateful for what you have and you feel that you have enough,
You're also able to freely give to others without neediness,
Because you have all that you need.
So in this position,
Your cup runneth over,
So to speak.
And if you notice,
Many spiritual traditions also put this emphasis on giving.
And it's for this reason,
Because you can think of it as a pointer or an expression of the way,
Where when you tap into this certain mental state,
This is very much similar to your natural way of being,
Which is not obstructed by conditioning or various ego structures.
And in contrast,
When you're in a place of scarcity or lack-based thinking or coming from the ego,
There's always a focus on taking.
So different energies of giving and taking.
Because you feel like you don't have enough already,
So you want more and more and more and more,
And it's an endless cycle.
Now,
When you're in a state of abundance,
You'll find that you will receive more,
Because you don't need anything.
So it's a bit weird how that works,
If you're not used to it,
Or not used to experiencing the state often.
But you'll find that you receive more with less effort.
And this is what certain books talk about,
Like power versus force.
And you'll find that people want to work with you,
More people want to be your friend,
More people like to be in your presence.
And this all happens when you start to make that mental shift from on a habitual level,
Which comes from letting go more and more.
So letting go of your desires,
Your needs and being contented from within.
These things will all start to fall into your life a bit more easily and more spontaneously.
And the deeper meaning behind this is because you've also given up your neediness,
Which is essentially attachment,
You are more aligned with the spiritual source.
So things just flow in a lot easier.
And a lesson you can learn is that as you keep going on a spiritual journey,
Whatever it is for you,
And you start to let go more of your attachments,
You start to experience this.
And you may have to learn from pain through seeing the unsatisfactory nature of the material world.
So if your orientation towards the world is by finding happiness or trying to find happiness in different objects,
Status,
Titles,
Possessions,
Different relationships that you have,
And so on,
You'll find that it doesn't have a lasting quality to it.
So you eventually become disillusioned by these qualities.
And you go back to a place of being grateful for what you have and cultivating within rather than trying to seek externally.
And when you're in this general paradigm of enjoying life,
Being happy with little,
Being well developed in your meditation practice,
Being peaceful,
You will start to feel happier.
And the charge of life,
Which comes from pushing against the world,
Starts to diminish a bit more.
So more peace enters.
Because you're happy,
There's nowhere to go.
And like I mentioned earlier,
A couple run over with positivity,
Happiness and energy.
And because you have more energy within,
You can give more,
You have more to give.
And as a result,
You receive more blessings from the world as a result of giving.
And this further puts you in an upward momentum of this upward spiral of abundance.
So more of the same energy is given back to you.
And this may motivate you to start to give more and start to be contented more and becomes a feedback loop that brings more happiness versus the opposite,
Where if you feel like you have a lack,
You'll have more evidence towards it.
And you'll start to feel more negative and then you have more lack because you repel things away from you and creates more of a constriction and you'll start to notice more and so on.
So these are how upward and downward spirals can manifest.
And when you start to get into this upward spiral loop,
And I have certainly been up and down in both of these spirals many times.
But generally speaking,
When you start to go on this upward trend,
Year by year,
You'll find that you enjoy the experience of life more and more.
And all this really starts with the simple practice of counting your blessings of what you already have.
So again,
This is not a self help talk of trying to get more,
Do more.
But rather,
What can you notice right now,
Try practice making gratitude lists every day.
And notice how this has an ability to change your perceived view of life,
Maybe from a more of a scarce based thinking or negative view,
To more of an optimistic point of view as well.
So try it out.
Thank you.
