Sublime

In the alchemy of collaboration, we become equal partners; we create wholeness and sufficiency for everyone.

Accumulation in moderation—saving money—is part of a responsible approach to personal finances. But when “holdings” hold us back from using money in meaningful, life-affirming ways, then money becomes an end in itself and an obstacle to well-being.

When we buy into the promise that more is better, we can never arrive. Wherever we are, it is not enough because more is always better.

It’s the same in the inner city or the suburbs, in New York or Topeka or Beverly Hills or Calcutta. Whether we live in resource-poor circumstances or resource-rich ones, even if we’re loaded with more money or goods or everything you could possibly dream of wanting or needing, we live with scarcity as an underlying assumption.

A you-and-me world is full of collaborators, partners, sharing, and reciprocity. In that world, our resources are not only enough; they are infinite. When we bring the practice of collaboration and reciprocity into conscious view in everyday life, a kind of alchemy and prosperity await discovery all around us.

We start to believe the profit-driven commercial and cultural messages that suggest money can buy happiness, and we begin to look outside of ourselves to be fulfilled. Intuitively, we know it isn’t so, but the money culture shouts down the wiser inner voice, and we feel compelled to seek even the most transient relief and comforts that money can bu

All the great spiritual teachings tell us to look inside to find the wholeness we crave, but the scarcity chase allows no time or psychic space for that kind of introspection.

When human beings pool their resources they become truly powerful.

When Chief Oren Lyons of the Iroquois Onondaga Nation was invited to address students at the University of Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources, he highlighted this risk. ‘What you call resources we call our relatives,’ he explained. ‘If you can think in terms of relationships, you are going to treat them better, aren’t you? … Get back to the re