Money and Sacrifice

"It takes great learning both to realize and to accept the fact that the world has nothing to give. What can the sacrifice of nothing mean? There is no sacrifice in the world's terms that does not involve the body. Think a while about what the world calls sacrifice. Power, fame, money, physical pleasure; who is the "hero" to whom all these things belong? Could they mean anything except to a body? Yet a body cannot evaluate. By seeking after such things the mind associates itself with the body, obscuring its Identity and losing sight of what It really is." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 13, 2:1-9

"Money is not evil. It is nothing... The right to live is something no one need fight for. It is promised him, and guaranteed by God." -- Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process, and Practice (An Extension of the Principles of A Course in Miracles); Chapter 3, Section III, 1:5-6, 4:1-2

"Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek)) For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. -- The Bible; Matthew 6:27-34

There is not one thought within the world, not one strategy or method, not one way of being that has an ounce of truth in it... it's all based on a fictional world of matter and supposedly real bodies walking around in it. It's all based on a fiction. All of it, all of it is some version of the lie that Oneness must be sacrificed to protect and defend a limited, separate, autonomous (real) self. What we are unwilling to see is that this self that we cherish and defend (in all its flawed glory) is completely fictional. We give a fiction all our time and attention and belief, and sacrifice the treasure of our true Joy and Peace to keep this fictional puff of smoke in circulation. We are addicted to pain and suffering because they give our fictional selves the illusion of reality. We are intent on being right if it kills us...and it does eventually, in the dream.

Money is a like everything else in the dream... nothing at all. It symbolizes the sacrifice of wholeness for specialness and debt (pseudonyms for fear and guilt). The good news is that the Holy Spirit within us retains the Awareness of Oneness, and when we bring our perceptions and symbols to the Truth in us, all is forgiven and released, re-interpreted and used for Awakening.
Everything in the dream is simply symbol... and our only choice in a world of dreams is what we choose to have it symbolize. What is it for? There are only two choices, ever. Truth or illusions, Awakening or endless dreams. Though it looks like hundreds of decisions and choices lie before us, there is always only this one decision in our imagined prison of the Son of God, a separate body in a world of dreams.

Jeshua ben Joseph taught us to not give allegiance to a single thought, to a single imagined need in the dream. He said to take no thought for anything in the world. "Seek first the Kingdom," he said, "and all these things shall be added unto you." He also taught us to pray in this manner: "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." In other words, let us reflect only the Truth of Being even as we walk in the dream... we know we always have whatever is needed as we serve only Awakening... and we forgive ourselves the thought of separation and lack, as we forgive our projections of separation and lack all around us. We know that as we release the so-called others in the dream, we are released. We can always only meet our own projections. It's the nature of the dream.

The thought of lack can only arise when we dream we are separate from God Who is our Source. When we forgive this we see that in reality we are forever Whole in the Allness of God, living and moving and having our Being only in God. There is nothing more or less than Allness. We always reflect only the Allness and Wholeness and Abundance that Is God.

Like all special relationships within the dream, our relationship with money is all made up. It's nothing at all. The laws and rituals that seem to govern are simply what we have agreed to. They are nothing. They have no cause, and no real effects. It is the fear of our own illusions that gives them seeming reality. We are like little children afraid to look under the bed. And so we sacrifice our Self to fear and bondage in a world of dreams.

Money and the sacrifice it appears to demand of us does not need to be a big deal. There is a miracle of healing for every appearance of lack and limitation within the dream. And the Miracle is always Remembering Who We Are, a return to sanity for the Holy Son of God.

"It is as needful that you recognize you made the world you see, as that you recognize that you did not create your Self. They are the same mistake. Nothing created not by your Creator has any influence on you. And if you think what you have made can tell you what you see and feel, and place your faith in its ability to do so, you are denying your Creator and believing that you made yourself. For if you think the world you made has power to make you what it wills, you are confusing Son and Father, effect and Source." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 21, Section II, 11:1-5

"But grant that everything that seems to be, you made in secret, and the instant of release has come to you. All its effects are gone, because its source has been uncovered. It is its seeming independence of its source that keeps you prisoner. This is the same mistake as thinking you are independent of the Source by which You were created, and have never left." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 21, Section II, 13:3-6

"All Power is of God. What is not of Him has no power to do anything." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section V, 3:6-7