Illusion One: Money is Earned by Struggle
Most of us have fears and illusions about wealth. Our first fear is that wealth is so out of reach that it could suddenly disappear overnight and return to pre-liberation levels.
The first illusion of wealth: money is earned by struggle, by exchanging our hard work for it. When people can’t get what they want, no matter how hard they try, they start to feel fearful. This fear is expressed as “I am not worthy, I can’t be a wealthy person”. Even if I work hard for others, my bad luck will still make me poor.
If I can slowly exchange my hard work for wealth, I’m willing to do it. The illusion behind this pursuit is exchange. I think all wealth can be acquired through exchange, which is a big illusion of humanity.
We put labels on ourselves, such as “I’m not worthy, I can’t be a wealthy person, I don’t deserve so much money.” When this energy is released, our negative thoughts become reality.
I’ve seen many cases of wealth where people believe that all their money comes from hard work. When they stop working hard, their money stops coming or they start to accumulate debt. So when I check the energy, I often say, “Is it because you’ve started to slack off? Is it because you’ve decided that you’re poor?” Because it doesn’t match your belief system, you start to accumulate debt, right?
“Yes,” they say.
Why is that?
It’s because when you believe that you have to work hard to make money, you can only earn money by working hard. When you stop working hard, you start to feel afraid that you’ll have no money, and your debt begins to pile up.
This energy is set up as a game rule, and in this world, you are the one who sets up the game rules. The game rule you’ve set up is that you must work hard to earn money, and all your money comes from hard work. If you stop working hard one day, you start to become poor, and from there, you may start to experience debt little by little.
When you set up this game rule, your body, including your consciousness and subconsciousness, starts to execute it unconditionally. Even though your conscious mind may not enjoy it, your subconsciousness will begin to execute the plan you want to experience. You will draw yourself a minefield and even a punishment area.
Punishment is something all humans have in common, and we are very good at punishing ourselves. So in the punishment zone, when I’m not working hard, I have to accept the punishment!
The Second Illusion: Self-Punishment
Self-punishment is unique to humans, and it is a double-edged sword. When we punish ourselves, we feel like we’re in purgatory. There are many ways we punish ourselves when we feel we’ve violated our own rules of conduct.
For example, when we’re in debt, we punish ourselves by continuing to experience the pain of debt. In romantic relationships, we may adopt a pleasing mode of behavior out of guilt, willingly suffer, and even turn into a bitter person over time. Similarly, in terms of our physical health, we may punish ourselves by experiencing various symptoms of illness, which are all a result of self-punishment.
Self-punishment can be powerful. I had a friend who was millions of dollars in debt, and when I checked his energy, I discovered that it was because he felt guilty for leaving his childhood friend behind. He felt that he had deserted his friend and began punishing himself, experiencing the feeling of debt.
In a situation where one partner cheats in a marriage, both parties are being punished. One person is being punished by their conscience, while the other is punishing themselves through emotional self-flagellation. This process ultimately leads to both people feeling worse and worse.
When I work with patients, I often see that they are dissatisfied and filled with resentment. They ask me, “Teacher, what is the reason for my illness?” I tell them that their dissatisfaction with themselves and others is the root cause. When you have dissatisfaction, you are punished in various ways, all of which are borne by your body. When your body can no longer bear it, it uses pain and illness to remind you.
This reminder is meant to tell you that you need to let yourself and others off the hook and cancel the self-punishment. Sometimes we can fool ourselves in our minds, but our bodies are honest. Our cells record all of our dissatisfaction, self-punishment, and self-destruction, which includes our self-flagellation of believing that we are not good enough or capable and that we have done wrong.
When we feel like we’ve done wrong, we don’t just want to punish others; we also want to punish ourselves. During this process of self-flagellation, we suffer losses in our emotional relationships, physical health, and finances. Self-punishment is like setting up a hell in our minds.
In our minds, there are three levels: the celestial realm, the human realm, and the underworld. The celestial realm is the momentary joy that is worth a thousand pieces of gold, the health, happiness, and joy of the present moment, and the feeling of happiness and joy that comes from looking at a flower, a plant, or a tree. This is the paradise in our hearts.
The human realm is the complicated world of desires and attachments, including our self-blame, dissatisfaction, and joy. This energy swings back and forth, creating the human realm within us.
We also have a hell inside us, which is created by our hatred for the world and ourselves. For example, some students have said, “My father is dissatisfied with the world and himself every day, so he gradually becomes sick.” Our dissatisfaction with the world and ourselves slowly accumulates like a boomerang and returns to us. Our dissatisfaction with ourselves, our dissatisfaction with others, and our judgments of others all come back to us little by little in the form of pain and illness.
Our body is the first to bear the burden. You’ll find that people who are dissatisfied suffer from problems in their finances and emotional relationships, and these problems gradually worsen until they become a hell. This is not a hell created by someone else, but one that we create for ourselves. That’s why I often tell everyone to treasure the present moment’s joy, so that we can be happy-go-lucky people.
In fact, we need to consciously stay in our earthly paradise and not let ourselves fall into hell overnight. Otherwise, we will begin to punish ourselves, curse ourselves, become poor, ugly, and lonely. All of these results stem from our self-punishment and self-curse.
There are actually many other types of self-punishment. When we feel that we don’t deserve things, or have many inner fears, we cannot hold onto money’s energy. We then start to punish ourselves, saying we don’t deserve to have so much money. During the self-punishment process, even if we receive money, a bigger hole quickly appears, ready for us to fill it up!
Third illusion: I’m not worthy of being wealthy
The third illusion is creating a feeling of unworthiness within ourselves. When you feel like you’re not worthy, no amount of money coming in can be kept. Even if you have high energy or serendipitous opportunities, you’ll feel uneasy and fearful inside, and external manifestations will occur. These manifestations will help you spend the money. You’ll find people borrowing from you, things that need to be bought, and places that need to be expanded. Eventually, the money is balanced out.
When the money is balanced out, you’ll feel relieved. You have a limit and a ceiling in your finances, and when you exceed that limit, you’ll become anxious. This anxiety stems from a feeling of unworthiness. When you feel unworthy, the money becomes a burden.
Therefore, your subconscious will always help you balance the money. You’ll feel like you have surplus money, and this surplus money will return to others’ energy. You need to ask yourself how much money you can handle based on your true feelings. Some people feel that a few million is enough, while others feel that tens of thousands is enough. The limit depends on your debt, your assets, and your creative ability. It’s the boundary of the world you create.
When you exceed this boundary, the surplus will overflow like water from a cup that’s too full. You may feel like a small cup, but you may add more anxiety to yourself because of greed, desire, the belief that you deserve more, or debt. This will create the illusion that you don’t deserve to be wealthy.
I’ve met many successful salespeople who earn a lot but spend a lot too. Why? Because they have an underlying sense of anxiety that they can’t shake off. When this anxiety can’t be released, it can evolve into the illusion that they don’t deserve to be wealthy. They believe they’re not wealthy because they’re not worthy, so they spend large amounts of money to balance it out.
Therefore, you need to forget all the terrifying illusions in your mind, including your debt, sense of responsibility, and all the “shoulds.” You can’t take these thoughts with you when you step outside. Instead, forget the judgments of the ego and slowly break through your limits with moderation. If your limit is 500,000, you can gradually increase it to 700,000. If you try to double it immediately, you won’t believe it, and you won’t be able to truly transform your mindset.
