#18: Abundance

Our greed comes from our fear that we will not have enough - whether it is money or love that we grasp. Yoga teaches us to let go of these fears and so to realize the abundance around us and within us.

B.K.S Iyengar

Abundance.

It’s such a full sounding word, isn’t it?

A-bun-dance.

( I don’t think I can say it without thinking of a room full of iced buns dancing.)

For this month’s theme, I’ve been thinking about what it means to feel a sense of abundance.

To feel that life is abundant.

And while I don’t profess to having anything even remotely new or different to say about abundance, I have had a chance to reflect on the teachings of some of those who have come before us, and it is these reflections that I will share here, now.

As part of my research for each month’s letter, I try and find a book on the subject in question.

Something random that will, hopefully, enable me to make a quiet discovery. Perhaps something I hadn’t envisaged. Or a direction I had not foreseen.

Photo by Ehud Neuhaus on Unsplash

And this month I stumbled across the beautiful: The Abundance of Less by Andy Couturier, and I cannot tell you how incredible it is.

The book is essentially a collection of written portraits about a group of people in Japan who have chosen to live a simple life high up in the mountains, not too far from Tokyo. And it is strikingly powerful.

What is really interesting to me is that, as well as being guided by the principles of Zen - an ancient philosophy that features in Japanese culture - many of the people in the book also learned lessons from the wisdom tradition of Yoga, discovered during their previous travels to India. And then, upon returning to Japan, these people shunned the post-war cultural norm of focusing on economic progress and so-called productivity.

Instead choosing a simpler but more satisfying existence.

Reading this book, coupled with my own past experiences of at times feeling lack, and also the times of feeling abundance, it rings true to me that by focusing on what we do have - the things of which we are fortunate to know and own and experience - as opposed to what we don’t have, then a sense of abundance flourishes.

After all, there’s a never-ending list of ‘haven’t-gots’ and ‘must-haves’, and we all know too well that our entire lives, here in the West, are driven by the never-ending desire for more; it’s how the whole game is structured.

I’m not saying that this is either a good or bad thing. Just that it is what it is. And I think it takes a huge effort to ignore cultural norms and to try to live differently. To live more freely. Choosing not to ride on the endless carousel, or at least not completely: 24/7, is something that I know I try to do. And I know that it isn’t easy.

Reflecting on myself: I think I aim to be in this world, for sure, but not entirely of it. If that makes sense. And I think I admire people who are able to make the break and live life on their own terms.

I know that I don’t want half of the stuff that we are told we ‘should’ want. No thanks! Not for me. And I know that in some ways it makes me somewhat ‘different’.

I can appreciate this stance is not for everybody, and I’d never suggest that it was. We are each free to live however we choose. There is no one right way, I don’t think.

But I’ve been there; in the depths of lack, feeling that life as it was was never really enough. That I was never really enough. Cut-off from living in the moment, the pursuit of fulfilment was exhausting.

“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

These wise words came from Eckhart Tolle: a teacher who changed my life.

Almost 20-years ago now, long before I had a meditation or yoga practice, I read the book: The Power of Now, and it blew my mind.

This was the book that opened up a whole new way of thinking - a whole new universe - to me. Leading me to mindfulness and then on to meditation and yoga.

Without it, I’d probably still be caught up entirely in my mind - and, no doubt, with the overbearing and destructive sense of lack that led me to making all kinds of harmful decisions and had me chasing the next thing, and then the next.

So, you could say, I have a lot to be thankful for, and this book is one of those things.

If nothing else, I am just grateful for the abundance of books; for all of the words and ideas that can help to change lives.

It is not something that everybody on this planet is fortunate enough to experience.

Your turn:

What are you thankful for?

And, through this thanks, how has it showed you the true message of abundance?

(Please also find the Abundance journal pages at the end of this issue.)

Perhaps it is a person or an experience, or a thing - something that has taught you a lesson and has opened up within you wide oceans of gratitude.

If this focus isn’t working for you, perhaps give it a go another way: If you’re feeling a sense of lack, perhaps make it your practice to uncover what the underlying essence of that lack could be.

Is it really that you don’t own enough or do enough - or is something else going on underneath those feelings?

Photo by Felicia Buitenwerf on Unsplash

In this sense, Yoga does something to me: it delivers the message that I am enough because it allows my mind to be quiet and for the innate universal message of abundance to be known. To be remembered.

All of the stuff and things that we think we need to own/buy/do, and the endless messages about the stuff and what it says about us, these are all the remit of the mind, and we all know that Yoga is about getting out of the mind and back into the body.

Back to the felt experience of the now within our bodies.

All of the spoils of our modern-day life (not all bad, no) are the makings of the mind, too.

So, when we get underneath that, through Yoga, or through any other means - however you switch off from the noise of your mind and all the minds that make up the racket of this modern world - there’s only the truth.

And the truth is: you are enough, and that there is enough.

There is no lack. Nothing lacking at all.

With this, the whole chain reaction of our lives is altered, because the starting point and the whole driving energy is different and has an entirely different focus.

To explain what I mean: have you ever noticed how one bad thing happening in the morning can lead to a long day of difficulties?

Try it yourself, notice your reactions to things and see how it affects what happens next.

Believe me. I know this isn’t a miracle balm. I know life is hard, on so many levels right now and that things feel wrong and unfair. I also know that we live in increasingly fearful times. It’s certainly not all in our minds.

But all the more for choosing to see what we have to be grateful for, right?

All the more reason for trying to see the good. The lesson in the truth, no matter how hard that, in reality, may be.

Because as one thing leads to another and on to another… well, it’s got to be worth considering.

So, in your practice this month, I sincerely hope that you get a chance to behold something in your life in terms of abundance.

Especially if things feel hard for you.

And if you’re bathing in light and love and everything is wonderful, please know that you can never run out of it. So, please, share it far and wide, and shine your light into any dark corners around you.

Until next month,

With love, peace, and endless kindness,

Louisa

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