Oceans and Oceans of Bodhi

Sacred Words Entry #8

 

A New Year

 

Well, I must admit that I took a few weeks off.  To be honest I didn’t know that to say; or, to say if differently, I have been brewing up this entry.  I say brewing because the sauce looks like a witch’s caldron boiling when it is made.  We have entered into a new year and my task the past few weeks has to figure out the energy of money.

 

My entire life I have ignored this topic.  How?  I wandered like a yogi and lived on the generosity of other; may they attain bodhi bliss for their kindness.  But, now as the new dawns I have been cornered and here is what I have learned to date.  Money is like a river on constant motion.  Money must be spent to make more money.  Finally, money is not a bad or evil thing; it is an energy – a tool – that can be used to create just as easily as to destroy.

 

The image that keeps coming to me as I focus my awareness on money is that it is a great river constantly flowing.  When the flow stops thing become quite painful. I say this now with a few different references.  The first is a great blog entry a member of my management team brought to my attention javascriptl('http://blog.fastcompany.com/experts/jdesjardins/2007/01/strong_business_growth_indicat.html');.  It is an entry that touches in with this point along with the one I will make next, “You have to spend money to make it.”  In the blog he speaks to the importance of keeping the energy of money moving.  That with money, like karma, you have to make an action to have something come back to you.  And, it is our responsibility when working with money to keep the energy of the river money moving so that more may flow on through.

 

My next thought along these lines is the story of Indra and the dragon Virtra.  The dragon takes up all the water, “the seven rivers.” And so humanity suffers greatly and pleads to the gods for help.  Indra answers the human prayers and with his vajra slays both the dragon Virtra and his mother.  He then frees the rivers and lets humanity thrive.

 

The last thought on this topic comes from my own personal reflections on the running of the Sacred Works Project.  At first I thought it was sales that made me happy.  When sales came in I found myself full of energy and excitement.  Slowly as I went through a few patches of sales and dry spells, I began to realize that it was the movement of energy – the flowing of the river that I enjoyed.  When the money moved, I was happy, my vendors were happy and my customers were happy.  It is the movement of the river money that helped my business and helps every business succeed.

 

Money must be spent to make more money.  To speak to this point I will share with you all the many things that have transpired this past year; all of which took spending money in hopes that more will be made.  First, the 501 C 3 was formalized with the federal government.  Next, I was able to bring Mama’s Fire to the point of meeting all of the FDA’s requirements and formally registrar it with the FDA.  The Sacred Works Project was licensed the sauce to support its mission and was able to find and negotiate a cannery to make the sauce.  The web site was created for both the Sacred Works Project and Mama’s Fire.  Mama’s Fire can now be found on the first page of both Google and Yahoo’s search engines when one searches Tibetan hot sauce or mamas fire.  Mamas Fire is now available for sale in the following stores:

 

Artisan’s Coop – St. Helens, OR

 

Boulder Coop – Boulder, CO

 

Capella Market – Eugene, OR http://www.capellamarket.com

 

Life Source Natural Market – Salem, OR

 

Newman’s Fish Company – Eugene, OR

 

Red Barn Market – Eugene, OR http://wwwredbarnnaruralgrocery.com

 

Samadhi Cushions – Barnet, VT http://www.samadhicushions.com

 

Ziji Gift Store – Boulder, CO http://www.ziji.com

 

I am now getting ready to take this to the next level in food production.  I plan to update or business plan to raise $75,000.00 to introduce Mama’s Fire Tibetan Hot Sauce, Mama’s Fire Zesty Garlic and Mama’s Fire Glorious Ginger Soy to the larger markets of Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and the distributors that carry their products. 

 

You have to spend money to make money and with the small donation of $15,000.00 I have made all this happen and have found that I have created a sustainable business model in one year.

 

The last thing I have learned about money is that money is not a bad or evil thing, it is an energy - a tool – that can be used to create just as easily as it can be used to destroy.  Realizing this was very freeing for me.  My greatest concern and why I avoided the reality of money my entire life, was that I was scared that if I had money and the potency that goes with it I would destroy, hurt others.  The realization that this did not have to be the or my truth has made it possible for me to step in and create the Sacred Works Project.  I have created a business whose sole purpose is to use the energy and flow of money to create, support, and bring about projects of bodhicitta loving kindness. 

 

To help my readers understand what I mean when I say bodhicitta loving kindness I will share my own experience of the first time I really directly felt and understood bodhicitta.  I have practiced Tong Lin for many years.  Tong Lin is a practice which translates as sending and taking.  It is a meditation where the practitioner breaths in all the dark black negative energy for those they love and then sends them out cool white light healing energy.  It is know to be a very potent means to give birth to bodhicitta in ones own being. 

 

It was a particularly bad day in New York City.  A day when the air itself seemed to be filled with aggression and everyone I had contact with was sharp and prickly.   I was riding the subway, heading downtown, the air was dense and black all on its own.  This had been something I had experienced in my sessions of tong lin so as an antidote, I chose to breath in the black, sharp, heavy and hot energy. 

 

My first thought as I began to breathe in the darkness was something to the effect of, “Oh shit, this is going to rip me to shreds.  There was actual physical pain as I breathed in.  I really thought that my mind and body was going to crack under the intensity of the energy I was breathing into my being.

 

“What the hell am I doing to myself.” Was the thought fast on the heels of the last.  I believed that I truly could not take anymore.  In that moment when it was no longer possible for me to inhale anymore, much less take in anymore negativity, I breathed out.

 

Exhale.  Cool, white light of kindness at a level that I had never experienced before streamed out of me.  The quality of energy around me and my mood changed in one breath.  In that moment I realized something.  I saw that the negativity that I had brought into my being was the fuel for loving kindness. And having felt this loving kindness directly I knew that I wanted to make my life’s pursuit one of stabilizing this feeling in my own being and finding a means to offer it to others.

 

So there it is, my new found understanding of money shared.  With all that in mind my goal-aspiration for 2007 is to free the rivers and let them flow into the Sacred Works Project for the benefit of all myself and my family included.