LAYING UP TREASURE IN HEAVEN
In a previous post I related how at our clinic in Baton Rouge, La. years ago we offered healthcare on a “giving basis,” allowing patients to give within their means for services received. We had a high volume patient flow with a low volume cash flow. The compensation wasn’t always balanced by the priceless worth of the services we offered. Health in itself is priceless. In an effort to help patients understand the spirit of our Cooperative Fee System, often I would say “Your visit was paid for by the person who just left. You can pay for the person coming behind you.” Precious few really caught the vision; most couldn’t quite make such a radical shift in their customary way of paying for services received.
One peculiarity I noted was how people tended to place more monetary value on a chiropractic adjustment than on an attunement, which was viewed as a form of “spiritual” healing and was therefore somehow exempt from monetary consideration — quite understandably, I will add. The experience of sharing an attunement is priceless. We simply do not know how to measure priceless spiritual gifts by material standards — and in truth we really can’t. How do you reciprocate to God, for example, and compensate Him for the gift of life, other than with the spiritual currency of a life well lived in expressed love for God and one’s neighbor?
On the subject of reciprocity and compensation, my friend and follower I mentioned in the last post offered this perspective in his comments to a previous blog post, referring to a question the founder of the attunement service, Uranda (Lloyd A. Meeker), once posed:
From the divine standpoint, I don’t think reciprocity in kind is the rule and more importantly there is a vertical dimension to this which is negotiated only by an exchange of spiritual substance. Your article caused me to remember Uranda’s pointed question, “How much is an attunement worth?” And he went on by degrees to suggest there really wasn’t compensation enough in human terms for an attunement. But, of course, according to our response, so is it established unto us. Some may give much but it is little enough of what they have to give; some may give little but it is all they have to give. The considerations are not material but spiritual substance.
If I look at my own life from human appearances it’s easy to suppose I gave up far more materially than I ever gained by reason of spiritual expression. . . . What [one has to] understand is that I have spent my life ‘laying up treasure in heaven.’ That’s the vertical dimension of divine economics and it can only be understood in terms of the generation of spiritual substance as the primary purpose for our being in this world.
We generate spiritual substance when the spirit of God is allowed to move upon the face of the waters of our consciousness — out hearts and minds. When that happens there is Light. As it was in the Beginning, so is it now and will always be. Another word for Light is Life. In other words, when we put Life, the real and lasting currency in divine economics, into our exchanges between one another, we generate spiritual substance, and that spiritual substance is stored in our consciousness — our “heaven.” With his permission, I will share the rest of my friend’s comments, as he accurately articulates a very pivotal perspective from his own life experience, one with which I resonate deeply at many levels based upon my own experiences in serving the health needs of my patients.
Lest I be misunderstood, life long there has been an appropriate translation of that spiritual substance into the just fulfilling of material necessities — never extravagant, only fitting to the need; no more, no less. What I’ve noted about exchanges in the material world is that the thing itself exchanged — money for this or that object/service, etc — is not the primary concern. A true exchange in spirit — even if from outer appearances you may look to be receiving the ‘short end,’ as they say — always results in an increase of substance for both concerned. So my lifelong commitment to [my spiritual path], apparently getting the short end so far as outside observation is concerned, was really an exchange of substance which resulted in laying up treasure in heaven for whatever purpose the Lord has and has yet to reveal.
The reference here is to something the Master Jesus is recorded to have said in his Sermon on the Mountain. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt , and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will be your heart.” (Matt 6: 19-21)
“AN ECONOMY THAT WORKS THROUGH THE WHOLE”
This vertical dimension is where the real balance has to come; the earth responding in kind to the impulse of the spirit so that what rises up meets and corresponds to what is coming down from God out of the Heaven. That truly is out of balance in the world and it is the vertical dimension that brings balance to the horizontal give-and-take on the plane of materiality. And it is this vertical dimension that has been largely ignored creating an inflated state of affairs in the world with ‘things’ being demanded and/or exchanged without regard to spiritual substance. But man won’t discover this until he gets beyond the two dimensional currency of the earth and discovers the vertical dimension of spiritual substance.
The interesting thing about the generation and use of spiritual substance for spiritual purposes is that what you give and what comes back may have an entirely different complexion. It’s an economy that works through the whole.
My friend, who was a university professor, cited an incident in his career which demonstrates an important misunderstanding of the principle of reciprocity.
I remember a circumstance years ago when I had very little and lived for a period of several months “rent free” with an acquaintance, for which I was very grateful. He agreed I shouldn’t pay rent (though I picked up the cost of food for him and me) but at the end of that time he made the comment to me with a sigh, “Well, I guess that rent will come back to me some other way,” implying it should have come from me. What he didn’t realize was there was a divine exchange going on. He had been a student of mine when I was still a graduate student and teaching assistant. He’d had some difficulties and I excused him a final paper so he could graduate. I had also introduced him to [my spiritual path] and lifted him up out of a very difficult circumstance. In other words I had extended spiritual substance to uplift him, and yet, apart from the ‘rent,’ he couldn’t see the outworking of divine reciprocity except it be in financial terms. What he had done was ‘given back’ bread I had cast upon the waters, but for him it was another matter.
APPRECIATION AND DEPRECIATION OF THE ECONOMY
This opens up, for me anyway, a entirely new and fresh perspective with regard to paying for goods and services. If I only pay what they are worth in material terms, then I have given nothing more than what the merchant has invested into his business. I have not appreciated, added to, his worth. As my friend put it, I only returned the “bread” he had cast upon the waters of life in hopes, and perhaps with faith, that he would receive it back with “interest,” or “lagniappe,” as we call it here in the South. The “lagniappe” is usually given by the merchant in goods or services. How about it being given by me for a change? And it doesn’t necessarily have to be in material or monetary terms, although a “tip” is always appreciated.
Giving with a thankful and generous heart, for example, appreciates the value of the transaction. Complaint, on the other hand, depreciates its value. We may well wonder if complaint about the state of our economy is not the root cause of the recessions and depressions we bring upon ourselves. I personally have never felt good when I’ve allowed my complaint over prices to be voiced toward the cashier, who had nothing at all to do with pricing the goods I was purchasing. My words, to my regret, only left a dissonant vacuum behind me. The wise admonition “Never underestimate the power of spiritual expression” my spiritual mentor reiterated, non too often for me, applies to all spirits we express in life, both loving and resentful. The spirit of thankfulness always uplifts the situation. My friend concludes his comments with these timeless words:
We live in this realm of divine exchange constantly, allowing the interactive nature of spiritual substance to give shape to whatever is appropriate in the current of the spirit, and those gifts we give and gifts we receive are not to be measured against human standards of valuation. This is the true meaning of Christ having given his life for the flock; of true love being the laying down of one’s life for one’s friend, of the gift [great spiritual messengers like Uranda] gave us at the expense of their own “personal fulfillment” that many might come and know what it means to lay up treasure in heaven to the restoration of divine balance to the human race.
This is what we had accomplished in our Baton Rouge clinic serving on a “Giving Basis.” Together, through our passion and agreement to serve from a spiritual state of consciousness, we had generated quite a rich atmosphere of spiritual substance. In such a buoyant atmosphere of rich spiritual substance, miracles of healing took place. Results were forthcoming with little effort. Spirit had created a healing matrix in our clinic and human flesh rushed to respond to the love with which we imbued and truly enriched our services. This is what I am talking about — laying up riches in heaven.
Those riches we laid up in heaven back then have continued to bring blessings into my life, and through me into the lives of those who have come to me for healing over yea these many years. I celebrate my Golden Anniversary as a Chiropractor this year. It’s been an incredibly rich and rewarding career and journey spiritually and, consequently but modestly, materially. As my friend pointed out in his comments, the provision of the Lord is always just perfect for the need of the day. Never too much nor too little. I suspect the Lord has the same attitude toward His provision as my late mother-in-law had, God rest her soul, “Waste not, want not” — a legacy, I am thankful to say, her daughter faithfully carries forward. I think of it every time I brush my teeth and turn off the running tap until I need to rinse. The provision of life is really abundant. As wise stewards of that provision, we can enjoy the riches of heaven without wasting the wealth of the earth.
In closing, let me thank my friend for taking the time to write and send me his comments. Through his words and shared insights, he really did add to (appreciate) the depth of our consideration. I trust his commenting will inspire and encourage other readers to not be shy is sharing their thoughts with me and with others through my blog.
I’ll share more from Walter Russell’s Messages of the Divine Iliad next post. Until then,
Be love. Be loved.
Anthony
Read my Health Light Newsletter online at LiftingTones.com and receive a two-minute sound attunement with quartz crystal and Tibetan bowls and tuning fork that will resonate in your pineal gland.
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Healing Tones 