Where does money come from?

The Buddhist hit on this issue is that $ comes from being generous. I don't think you need to believe in karma to appreciate this fact. I would use 'generous' in its most broad as well as its most specific meaning. If you want more money give some away. And 'generous' doesn't just mean with money, but with your time, your interest, your love and compassion.

If this is a fact of how things work, then our pinching pennies about social security and aid for people in need will have to have the effect of bringing us closer to national bankruptcy. It has to. There are laws at work here. If you throw a book out a second floor window, it will invariably fall towards the earth. Why? Because it is a law of physics. It would not happen some of the time, it will happen every time.

There are laws of attraction. "Everybody loves a lover." If a person is on cloud nine, seeing everything as lovely and loving, they bring a smile to people's faces. People want to be near them, hang out with them, pick up a little of that glow. It just works that way.


In his very famous and often quoted prayer, Saint Francis says:
  
          Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. 
          Where there is hatred, let me sow love. 
          Where there is injury, pardon. 
          Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

"For it is in giving that we receive." Haven't you had that experience? Once my kids and I were in a village in the Highlands of Guatemala during the troubles. (war) The road to this village was cut off. There was little food to be had, especially for those without money. I searched the market and found some old packages of spaghetti covered with dust. I bought them. At least I could feed my kids until the road opened. 

I brought the food to a nearby family and asked them to cook it. The family immediately gathered firewood and brought a huge caldron of water. The spaghetti went into these gallons of water. Soon someone brought chilies and some one else a few potatoes. The spaghetti soon disappeared into paste thickening the soup. Other bits and pieces of food were thrown in. Not much of anything. But something warm that would make a belly feel better was being created. Many, many people were gathering around. Most brought a cup or a little bowl.

We ate, we sat around the fire, we felt peaceful. When the road opened, everyone wanted to give us something they cooked. We were moving on. I am not crowing about how great we were to share. I never quite understood  how all this came about in fact, but on many levels, giving away ...or sharing, our last bits of food came back 100 fold.

I think the law that if you want something, give it away was working overtime at that moment.