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The True Nature of Abundance

One day a young man came to the temple of old venerable Master. He found the Great man in his garden, and eagerly beseeched him. "Great Sir, I wish to know the true nature of abundance. I want to learn how to manifest it within myself, and by myself. But first I know I need to understand it. Will you instruct me?"

The Master examined him closely, and though seeing the man's ambitions and desires, saw also that his heart was open and good. He agreed to guide him and told him that to find the truth within the nature of abundance he must meditate on the nature of all the world's gifts. Then, playfully, he tapped his wrist and asked him. "How long have you got?"

The young man, not seeing the twinkle in the Master's eyes, immediately answered, "I have two days, Sir. I have scheduled for it!"

The Master's eyebrows raised slightly but he made no comment. Instead leading the young man to a quiet corner of the temple he told him to sit in stillness and first consider wealth. The young man nodded eagerly and sat down. The Master withdrew again to his garden.

It was near the end of the first day when the young man reappeared.

"Great Sir, I have considered money, and I confess I'd come here thinking it to be a great power. I believed it to be a force that would be able to lead me to achieve and obtain all of my desires.

"Yet I have found it is not a power in itself. I can see no way to make, or even use it, without other people, without a system. And if I try to see it as something coming from within me, something I can truly manifest, I fail. It seems there must always be something that comes first, something behind it. What is that thing, Sir?"

"Come tomorrow," said the Master.

The next day the young man came shortly after the sun had risen. "What shall I consider today, Sir?

"Consider... all," said the Master simply. The young man nodded and immediately entered the temple.

It was almost dark when the Master went looking for him, and found him much puzzled.

"Sir, I have done as you bid and considered many things. After yesterday's failure I did not know where to put my attention, so I asked myself what I knew that was in abundance. Strangely, I heard myself answered with the bizarre and abstract. For example, I found myself thinking about the bounty of the world itself: the rain that always comes, the air which is within and around everything, and the light beaming constantly from the sun. However, none felt right, none felt complete on its own. And again, all of it was still outside me. All was not mine. Sir, I am no nearer to my goal."

The Master regarded him with a gentle, but penetrating stare before saying simply: "Tomorrow."

The young man, already much changed from the 'scheduler' who had first entered the temple, nodded. He rose and walked slowly away, as if every step was being watched for some clue to his quest.

The next day found him in the temple before the Master himself. The old man smiled a blessing and left him with no word to disturb his silent pilgrimage. Returning to his garden he passed the day in joyful expectation. Sure now of what was to come. It barely noon when he heard the cry.

"MASTER!"

He watched with a delighted smile as he saw the young man rushing across the garden towards him. When he arrived, throwing himself onto the grass beside him, the Master could see plainly that his student's eyes burned with great joy.

"Master, it is Love! This above all others is the true nature of abundance. It is infinite, it requires no materials, it reproduces itself indefinitely, and it is... it is... in everything, and everything comes from it. It is love that is behind all those other things. It is love that creates yet needs nothing to be created. And Master, it is within me! I can love, I can always love. I can love anything I want, there are no limitations, there are no rules. I can be abundant!" The young man leaped to his feet, his face beaming. Sure in his own mind he had completed the task.

The Master regarded him with delight and curiosity, but seeing that the young man felt satisfied he had completed his task, he bowed gently to indicate his blessing and bid the young man good bye.

However, he was not surprised when the man returned, somewhat quieter, within a day.

"Great Sir, what is the true nature of Love?"

The Master smiled and asked him to sit next to him for a moment. Before responding his eyes wandered, considering the answer. They passed from the passion of the young soul beside him, to the flowers of his garden, rich in their colour and blessings. He thought of the delicacy of their veins, the silkiness of the petals, and the fragile yet resilient stems. Beside him was his watering-can, reminding him of its sacred liquid that was so humble it held no colour or no taste; was willing to adopt any shape, and fall to fill from the lowest level, yet without it nothing could live.

From there his thoughts drifted across the garden to the surrounding trees, rising above them in wise grandeur, and then on, carried by the wings of the myriad birds. As he watched them fly, he thought of the earth and all its life-giving fields, forests, rivers. And the oceans, each one powerful in its healing of the world - absorbing the symptoms of disharmony, re-balancing life.

And on, his mind flew, with grace and speed it landed on distant shores, grazing the slopes of hills, each one bearing his inner knowing higher, until he let it be flung vertically by the majestic gradient and power of the tallest mountains. Flung upwards through the sky that grew ever deeper in colour, until at last his mind burst into space.

And now the Master ‘saw’ new scenes roll by: the incalculable stars, the untold worlds, but, most of all, the size of the womb-like blackness! The blissful, never ending, ever expanding enormity of the All.

Slowly, with a gentle tenderness, his meditation ended and he turned to the young man who sat quietly, obediently by his side. Looking into his eyes the Master saw that at last they reflected the sweetest of all things: longing. The desire to know, that which in itself brought ever perpetuating joy. In a breathless whisper, and this time with the up-most solemnity, he asked the young man a second time:

"How long... have you really got?"

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