THE MARRIAGE BETWEEN ABUNDANCE AND SUFFICIENCY (Part I)

(Originally posted in Spanish October 2016)

Come with me in this story. A story that can be read in several ways. From the inner economy of self to the outside world economics. From what I call microeconomics: the economy of our own house, the economy of what is close and immediate to our life. And from what I call macroeconomics: the global economy of our big home the Earth, and how we take care of her.

************

Alice Abundance is a beautiful woman. So beautiful. She knows very well how beautiful she is. Just like a flower, her petals open as love freely, unboundedly. Seeing her open you would know for a fact that she would never accept someone or something to tie her down, to lock her up, nor to restrain her.

Some people could confuse with vanity what in truth is a profound love for herself. Only as a consequence of this primary love, it is natural for Alice to give away much love to everyone who knows her. What she wants the most is to love one another. She does not need gratitude for her gift to be dignified. Alice just wants to give more and more. That is her passion, permanently in love.

This woman will always give the best to her loved ones, to her friends, to life itself. No matter how much money she has, or how much food she has stored at home, she will always give the best and all she has to whomever visits her. She will want her children to be well dressed, and if there be any doubt that a piece of clothing is not fully clean, she would right away put it in the laundry basket.

How lucky I am to know Alice in person! Hopefully everybody can meet her closely, because she does nothing but gift you, and gift you, and gift you the very best. If she was to invite you for dinner, she would invite you to the best restaurant in Paris. Suppose that by chance you pass by her place, having met her even that very same day, and she has two chocolate bars: an industrial piece, and a handmade piece of chocolate made in Belgium. Which chocolate bar do you think she will share with you? We are talking about Alice Abundance.

Alice would never allow, because of self-love and love for life, to have in her kitchen plates and silverware that are not in a fully immaculate condition. Nor would she allow a refrigerator that is not working 100% well and that doesn’t honor the space with neatness. By her nature she gets rid of all those things, and simply replaces them instead with new ones. She would only get a second-hand piece of appliance if it has been honored and cared for in such a way, that it radiates a special beauty much more profound and subtle that a new object could ever produce.

Alice has heard about environmental problems, and of course she is aware that her refrigerator is becoming obsolete rapidly, unlike yesteryear. She is aware, too, that when she gets rid of it, the recycling of its pieces will be partial at best. And that the production of a brand new refrigerator is necessarily destructive, from the very source of the required supplies in mines, use of chemicals in the process, workers who do not love their job, several carbon producing transports, so on and so forth. However, her innate pull will be to honor her life, her home and family, her friends and visitors, with a refrigerator in perfect conditions. Alice knows in her heart, in her guts, that the spirit of life is abundance, is openness, is generosity. It is not restriction. She intuits that the force of life will take care of everything. It is not in her nature to make calculations about how often to replace her refrigerator is least damaging. If no matter what the refrigerator will be discarded sooner or later, what difference does it make, cosmically, to replace it in 5 years or in one hundred years? If looked at from a neighboring star, this is completely irrelevant.

Alice is very loved, even famous. Oh, so many people desperate want to get close to her. But what they ignore is that to be able to get close to her they need to be like her, or similar to her.

Her cousin Elsie Abundance always wanted to be like Alice. But Elsie went to school for too long, and it got into her head that in order to give you have to demand to receive in exchange. They told her at school that this was a law of the universe, and so therefore its fulfillment needs to be required just like all other laws and norms of control of the nation. Elsie wanted to give with the same love she admired in Alice: an abundant, wonderful love, which delighted everybody. Except that, at the moment of giving to someone, Elsie made sure that she would receive in exchange something equally valuable, that is, according to the law. Because everything she gave was appropriately paid for, Elsie’s life was fully in order and according to norms. Elsie was very well adapted to the modern system, in fact she was quite successful and in time she was able to accumulate a small fortune of money and assets.

However, there was something that was getting lost in what Elsie gave. Something subtle. Something of the immense love that was in Alice was less and less present in what Elsie delivered. She would tell herself: “if I am much more successful than Alice, it must be that I am doing it right, and that is why life is rewarding me like that”… What Elsie offered no longer was unique and special. It became homogeneous, anonymous, indifferent. Elsie’s Gift stop being Flower, no longer did it have the infinite openness of the womb of our Cosmic Mother. They might have taught Elsie many valuable things at school, but they did not teach her what Krishnamurti said: “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”.

Alice on the other hand, somebody said she never went to school. I think she did go to school, but what they taught in that place never penetrated her heart. I imagine her in the classroom gazing through the window at a butterfly dancing in the air with no purpose. She was never interested in laws, neither the laws of human society nor the supposed laws of the universe (interpreted by men). What law could possibly interest that butterfly?

Well, I’ve said enough about Alice Abundance already, but I haven’t even mentioned her husband, Vincent Sufficient. Much less it is talked about Vincent. Because he is not a well-known character, he has been misinterpreted. (See Towards a Gift Culture for a discussion about how it is possible to mistake sufficiency for a mentality of scarcity, which are two different things). Some people think that Vincent is not necessary in this story, that with Alice and her wonderful love we already have everything we could possibly dream of. But it was Alice herself who picked up Vincent as her lover and as the father of her children. It was Alice who dreamt, with all her heart, to fall in love with someone exactly like Vincent. Vincent and his surprises ended up fascinating her to the point that she fully gave herself in love.

 Photography: Piece by Pina Bausch, German choreographer

I think Alice knew how to listen to the word in Vincent’s soul. That word was a promise of peace, a promise of hope. Because Alice, who never stopped giving and giving, began to realize that most people took and took what she gave, but were not truly receiving what she was giving. They were not capable of realizing what she was giving. She became concerned that no matter how much love she gave (and she gave huge love), it was never enough. As a result, what grew in the world was fear and separation, rather than love. Men were blindly destroying life. But in her nature she could not stop to “analyze the situation”. Her nature was to trust in Life, so she continued giving with more love.

If you believe Alice was making a mistake because she did not enforce the law of Giving and Receiving, please reconsider!. She never stopped receiving. Glorious and huge waves of love and life strength rushed into her being from the Very Source of the Universe. Only in a more mysterious, more subtle way, less reachable by human rationality. That is right, this universal Law of giving and receiving is true, and Alice knew about it all along in her guts, not in her mind. Except that there was never a need for man to control this law. In the cosmic mystery of the infinite love of life there is no creature deprived from receiving something wonderful, permanently.

In any case, Alice naturally and without any effort generated love towards others from no other place than the ability to love herself, that is to say, from her innate openness to receive. Thus, who could possibly accuse her of not knowing how to receive? Only those who went to school for too long, and got programmed to control laws and norms, programmed to expect “concrete results”. Where the concept of “concrete” always left outside the mysterious and constantly moving spirit of life.

And yes, as human as she is, she eventually doubted. She felt incomplete. She considered that maybe she was doing something wrong because there were so many people that criticize her. When she was getting tired Vincent appeared in her life. All the love she had for herself was nothing compared to the love she received from Vincent. Then she was able to rest. Then she was overflowed with love.

Vincent is, by the way, a good man, who’s been training to give the best of himself. He has for centuries wandered in search of the beauty of the infinite feminine love. On his path he discovered that to be a complete man, he needed to learn not to complaint. He went and search with all his heart how to cultivate peace in his being. He understood that peace is here and now, and decided that no matter what is going on, everything is fine just the way it is. Vincent realized his bet was the correct one: cold was not as cold as before, heat was not as hot, he was not as hungry anymore, he was not as thirsty, he no longer had that many human needs. He continued to love the pleasures of life, but not anymore from the complaint that “there is something missing”, or “something that needs to be changed”. His nature is to be content and fulfilled with whatever there is. I am saying truly content, not only on the surface.

Vincent is quite capable of fully enjoying a simple and humble meal under a tree, as if it was way better than eating at the best restaurant in Paris, because he knows how to appreciate certain details. Because he knows how to see beyond. Because he knows how to be with no complaint, and to be free of complaint is to know how to appreciate with the heart. To him, the here and now is sufficient just the way it is. When Alice invited him to eat at the best restaurant in Paris, he readily accepted the invitation definitely not because of the promise of magnificent food, but because he was captivated by Alice and the love he felt in her invitation. Nonetheless, Vincent discovered he not only appreciated but was delighted by the food they enjoyed that day. Alice was capable of bringing enjoyment to that place in his heart that was already at peace. A place where nothing was needed but where there was still a vastness of room for love and sweetness.

Then, Vincent and Alice felt in love passionately. They began dancing. Vincent understood it was not his task to change Alice, to balance her with some sufficiency so that she would not be “so abundant”. Alice understood, likewise, that she did not need to teach Vincent to be more abundant. Then they learnt to dance. Alice became more abundant. By being loved in such a way her love and her capacity to give herself grew beyond any measure. And Vincent melted in her love. He became more sufficient, he filled himself up with peace, and suddenly he no longer needed anything. Not even money, not even to pay for the clothes, violin and soccer that their children attended. They discovered that from their love dance something new was being born. Vincent Sufficient already knew, this immense Secret of Life: there is no need of money in order to live. The linear sum of numbers definitely has nothing to do with the unlinear mystery of life. The mysterious spirit of life is present too in what we call money, in our bills, in the so-called need to pay the rent, etc.

There being so much peace, Alice wanted to be yet more abundant, she wished to share even more. Vincent finally understood, he fully gave himself out to life and no longer stopped her. At that moment Love began, as if It had never existed before, and at the same time as if It had always been there. In an eternal instant, Time vanished.

**********

Some time before they learnt to dance, Vincent and Alice lived through other experiences. Alice thought that all conceivable love already existed, she did not know that it was possible to create new love. So she thought that Vincent had to be abundant like the love she was already familiar with. It was difficult for her to understand him.

It was hard to understand that Vincent’s heart contained a profound love for life, a profound love for our big home Pachamama, and a deep call to do everything he could to stop the destruction of life and beauty and to engage in the urgent restoration. Vincent, having a commitment with truth, could not avoid the reality of misery that millions of humans endure. He could not remain blind to the reality of destruction of forests, rivers and seas in the name of progress, so that a few people could comfortably enjoy abundance. Vincent painfully faced the truth: abundance is too often equivalent to the destruction of life. Said in a different way, economic progress is mathematically linked to the misery of the many, and specially linked to the fact that we are leaving our grandchildren as a legacy a severely damaged world.

His enormous sense of responsibility and commitment made him realize the reality of these equations. For example, the equation where we renew our refrigerator every 5 or 10 years, and its real consequences. Or the equation where we face what our debt issued currency system really means for Life.

Faced with the truth, how can one comfortably dedicate one's human energy to generating more money, however much enjoying abundance be a beautiful promise? Money which, even with the most sincere and ethical intentions, will always be linked to the transformation of the beauty and health of life into ugliness and destruction (see Understanding Money to delve deeper into this subject).

Thus, in every simple thing in life. How could Vincent be satisfied washing his children's clothes very often, if in his heart of sufficiency he longs to use less water, less electricity, less detergent (however biodegradable it may be, anyways it is harmful)? His heart of sufficiency, and of love for Life on the planet, longs LESS, instead of more, of all these things.

But all that was looked at from the point of view of equations... Only Alicia's love could remind him of what he had forgotten in his heart, that the universe can never be contained in equations. That there is no exit to the labyrinth, but rather a surrender to the labyrinth that vanishes the walls of every equation. His responsibility for life continued to be manifested with or without equations. His feeling of wanting to do something for life became more loving, more peaceful. He began to understand that there is nothing to change, thanks to Alicia's love. And that, however, he can continue to do the same, he can continue to be the same Vincent Sufficient, with his heart of sufficiency and his commitment to life.

How happy Alicia was when Vincent left her alone to do all the laundry she wanted, all the sheets and towels and blankets in the washing machine! He loved her wholeheartedly. He loved her fully when he was able to be at peace with himself, which is what he always wanted from the beginning. Whatever it is, that's enough.

That's how Vincent and Alicia went on with their mysterious dance of love. For several years they lived with very little or almost no money, and yet even when they had less money they still lived in Abundance and Sufficiency. They did not need to adapt to the system (they never got a paid job for example), nor did they need to change the system. It was perfect just as it was.

And then came another time when they began to live with a lot, a lot of money, which allowed them to fulfill all their dreams. They traveled to remote places such as the Temple of Sufficiency in Kumbaktu, the Abundance Pyramid in Chechelén, and the Tree of Love in Ankermein. They had their own home and a large field full of trees and life and special places where they served and shared their Abundance and Sufficiency and their Dance of Love with all the friends who visited them. They nurtured their children's unlikely dreams without limits. They came to have so much money that they were finally able to start all their restoration projects for the Beauty of Life. They began by buying a huge tract of land to preserve in the Amazon Rainforest. But I will tell you more about that in Part II of this story.

In Part III of this story, I will tell you about what happened when the world really changed. I still don't know if in the future there was a different kind of money, apart from all the new loves and new spaces of Being that were born from this dance of Alice and Vincent.

**************

Abundance connects with enjoying life, with feeling legitimately worthy of the best of life. It is knowing that the feminine love of life has no limits. Sufficiency connects with being at peace in the here and now, as it is, free from all internal complaints, without any need to change anything. In a story like this, abundance and sufficiency dance together. They are not balanced on a scale as our linearly programmed mentality would like to force. They dance, love each other, let themselves be free.

In our family microeconomy, I feel at peace and at ease with this marriage between abundance and sufficiency, where we do not make any major calculations, where we do not separate the money between me and my wife, and where we have never calculated how much money we need to live as we live. Nor have we ever calculated what kind of life is enough for us with the money we generate. We simply live, free, without salary for more than 6 years, and MANY times it seems that it will not be enough but it has always been enough.

In my house, masculine financial mathematics are just a reference, and no more. They are not a guide nor a determinant in our life. That is, for example, if we have $1,000 available, that does not mean that we can only spend 10 times 100, or twice 500. It doesn't add up like that in our house. I say this responsibly, with all my heart. If the universe is not linear, why should we demand linearity from that piece of the universe that is our money, our accounts, our income?

What we do know is that if we adopt a scarcity mentality, that's what we generate around us. If I think that I'm a separate being with a $1,000 credit and that if I spend part of it, I'm left with less, well that's the reality I generate. "If I spend $400, I am left with $600," even that's false! If I adopt that mentality, what happens is that when I spend $400, I am left with about $300 (and 300 are lost out there who knows how). Our mind is so powerful to generate realities. See The Beautiful Labyrinth of Abundance to delve deeper into this theme.

Abundance and Sufficiency. Vincent and Alice, may they dance freely, may they learn to love each other fully, and may new realities emerge.