Join us in Chicago at House of Bodhi with Lola Wright at Lincoln Hall on November 26th. Visit bodhicenter.org for tickets!
On this episode, Lola guides listeners through the topic of abundance – specifically regarding our relationship with money. She encourages listeners to challenge limiting beliefs that may be keeping them trapped in a scarcity mindset.
To financially support the on-going availability of our live events, classes and this very podcast, visit us bodhicenter.org/giving, or text GIVE to 773-770-8577. No contribution is too small and no contribution is too large.
For more information on Bodhi Center, please visit us at bodhicenter.org.
For more information on Lola Wright, please visit her at lolawright.com.
“The premise is that we are in an abundant universe. That we are sourced and supplied with everything that we should need and want in every given moment. Now I know that that can sound like a very radical idea and I realize it may confront all kinds of limiting beliefs. Your worldview might be wholly disrupted by the simple consideration that the universe is in fact abundant,” Lola says.
Lola cites The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist. “We do not have a sufficiency problem. We have a distribution problem,” Twist writes. She also digs into an affirmation from The Abundance Book by John Randolph Price.
For more information on Bodhi Center, please visit us at http://bodhicenter.org. For more information on Lola Wright, please visit her at www.lolawright.com.
Transcript
This “talk” is electronically transcribed. Please excuse any errors or omissions.
Lola Wright: Hey everyone! I am super excited to announce a new project that I launched in October, House of Bodhi with Lola Wright. This is a live experience that gathers monthly at different historic music venues around the city of Chicago. It is a gathering of incredible creatives that are committed to awakening. I hope you’ll join me on November 26th at Lincoln hall. Tickets are on sale now. I hope to see you there.
Lola Wright: You are more than this meat suit. A feeling lasts 90 seconds. A multiracial, intergenerational, queer affirming, non-religious, pro woman community in the most segregated city in America, Chicago.
Lola Wright: Hello and welcome to And This Is Bodhi with Lola Wright. Bodhi is here to inspire your awakening to support people in rising beyond fear-based thought patterns of lack, limitation and scarcity into a greater experience of freedom, creativity, and aliveness. If you found us through my friend Saul Williams, we are thrilled to have you with us. I hope that this is of service to you, that it supports you in your own freedom and liberation, your own awakening. We are able to make all of our programming possible and accessible because of your generosity. There are two ways that you can give. You can give by texting the word GIVE to (773) 770-8577 or you can visit bodhicenter.org/giving. The topic of this week’s podcast is abundance. It’s something that I wanted to talk about because I experienced people getting really, really trapped and bogged down in our relationship with supply, with flow and specifically with money.
Lola Wright: In the last week, I have had three money moments that really caught my attention. It had me think it’s time to do a podcast on this thing called money. I want to invite you into this money exploration from the perspective of abundance. The premise is that we are in an abundant universe that we are actually sourced and supplied with all that we should need and want in every given moment. Now, I know that that can sound like a very radical idea and I realize it may confront all kinds of limiting beliefs. Your world view might be wholly disrupted by the simple consideration that the universe is in fact abundant. A great teacher and author by the name of Lynne Twist, who wrote the book, The Soul of Money wrote, we do not have a sufficiency problem. We have a distribution problem. It is not that there is not enough. In fact, we are living in a paradigm of scarcity, of lack and limitation. So we are living in a consciousness of hoarding, which creates an experience of suffering. As we awaken ever more to our unity, our oneness with all of existence. Once we start to realize that we are responsible for one another, we can start to loosen our grip on what we have and realize that generosity, that sharing is really such an amplifying practice. We can stop gripping and hoarding. We start to relax into the flow of life.
Lola Wright: So I’d love to just share with you a little bit about the three money moments I’ve had over the last week and what they really stirred in me. As you know, I launched this incredible live experience in Chicago last month called House of Bodhi with Lola Wright. In our kick off of House of Bodhi, I cited this affirmation that I work with. It’s something that comes out of the book, The Abundance Book by John Randolph Price and the affirmation goes like this: The spirit of life within me is the source of my supply.
Lola Wright: That is an affirmation that I have worked with for many years. It speaks me, it moves me, it breathes me. It creates a sense of a liveliness in me. Your word that comes out of your mouth is literally your wand. You are speaking your reality into existence. We are in this multi-verse and we are tracking in different strains of consciousness, so when you and I are in a strain of consciousness that’s rooted in lack and limitation and scarcity, guess what happens? We find evidence of that everywhere. When we can awaken to a higher state of consciousness to a greater state of awareness, we can rest in the notion that in fact we really are in an abundant universe. Nature is a demonstration of that and my guess is you can look at many aspects of your life and see abundance in form.
Lola Wright: About a week later, my husband and I were sitting at a taco spot in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood and there were these big picture windows that we were sitting inside of. A friend happened to walk by the picture window. We waved and he decided to jump in and say hello, and I said, “Hey, what did you think of House of Bodhi? I would love your feedback.” He said, “I thought it was great, but there’s one thing that has stuck with me since that evening.” And I thought to myself, “Oh wow, I’m so curious. What was that?” He said, “I just keep hearing, and he pulled out his phone. The spirit of life within me is the source of my supply,” and then he said, “I just keep wondering what does that really mean?”
Lola Wright: And I took a deep breath, I noticed myself smiling and I was like, “Oh, if there was one thing you could take from that night, I’m so excited that that was what jumped out at you.” So I want to take a few moments and just explain what does that mean? There are texts, there are word configurations that can speak to a level of your being that transcends the activity of your mind. So he was chewing on what in fact those words meant and yet fascinating to me that that’s what he grabbed onto. Even though he couldn’t quite put his mind around it. It was speaking to an aspect of his being. I would say it was speaking to a level of truth that transcends the survival state of the mind. The spirit of life within me is the source of my supply. The question I asked you is what have you determined is your source? Is your job your source? Is your spouse your source? Is your comfort and your home your source? Is the weather acting accordingly your source?
Lola Wright: What have you determined is sourcing you? What is giving you a sense of liveliness, of freedom, of vitality? My experiences so long as the source of your supply is located in external people, places and things. It is as if a carrot is always being dangled before you, but here’s the thing, you and I don’t breathe ourselves. Something breathes us. We don’t typically say, remember, breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe. Now you and I might hold our breaths and it may be a good idea to remember to breathe more deeply, but there is a life force energy that is breathing you. Your blood is circulating without your efforting. Much of your life experience has occurred without your muscle. In fact, the areas of life where you’re muscling, you might actually consider that you’re working in opposition to the flow of life. The spirit of life within me is the source of my supply.
Lola Wright: There is something that is in me that is greater than that which meets the eye and it is always sourcing me. It is the place in space that I access my imagination. It is the place in space where I access creativity. It is the place in space where new ideas are born, the spirit of life within you. You are an individualized manifestation of the universe. When you and I remember that we are not some accident that is here for some random experience, we can locate ourself. We can align ourself with a greater vision. You have pressed into this dimension of reality for a unique and Holy appointment. Only you can do life the way you can do life. This human experience is altered by you being in it. It is not your ego that is sourcing and fueling all of existence. It is your essence. The spirit of life within you is the source of your supply.
Lola Wright: I just invite you to chew on that over the next few weeks. Really, you know, allow your mind to soften. Allow your mind to loosen, walk in the practice of that as if it’s a mantra and see what you begin to notice.
Lola Wright: A few days later I was sitting among a circle of deep, deep friends and the word abundance came up and one of my friends said, “I have a massive aversion to that word. I can’t stand that word. I have experienced abundance and it didn’t feel great.” And I said, “Tell me more about what you mean by experiencing abundance.” “I have had more money than anyone has ever known what to do with, and it made no difference.” And as we talked further, it became clear that the experience he had had nothing to do with abundance. In fact, it had everything to do with scarcity.
Lola Wright: Just because he had a lot of money didn’t mean he had an experience of abundance. The source of his security, the source of his supply was located in a bonus structure. The source of his security and the source of his supply was located in the next deal getting done. I don’t care what your net worth is or your balance sheet or your cashflow summary. Those are external circumstances and conditions that do not determine the truth of your life as abundant. Now, that doesn’t mean that there’s not great value in shifting your experience of your money and having a breakthrough around your circumstances and conditions, but please know that so long as you are measuring your value, your life by external circumstances and conditions, you will always come up short.
Lola Wright: Literally, not even days later, I was in a client’s office. I was wrapping up some work for the day. I walked past a meeting room and I looked in the window and could sense that something was not right. It appeared as if there was a kind of tension and constriction among the executive team. I felt compelled to enter the room and with my jovial self, I said, “Hey, what’s going on in here? It looks like it feels very serious.” And the accountant was in there and the group said, “Well, it turns out that our year to date revenue projections are considerably skewed. What we thought we had accomplished is not what our accountant is now telling us we’ve accomplished. And this is really bad news.” And I just chuckled. Now I realize when you and I are in what we experience as serious circumstances, having someone chuckled does not always feel like the kindest or friendliest interaction.
Lola Wright: My client had just spent 10 days in Mexico in a deeply intensive leadership course. He was waking up to all kinds of new possibilities of how he could leverage his business and his influence to make a difference in humanity among society. And the very day he returns, he’s smacked upside the head with some kind of sobering assessment of his business. That is called an upper limit. When you are expanding into a new state of consciousness, one that goes beyond where you’ve been before this now moment. Your unconscious will self sabotage. Your unconscious will say, “Whoa, this feels scary. This is unfamiliar. This set point goes beyond what I know.” And if you’re not awake in the process, the unconscious will take you out and bring you back down to the set point that your familiar with.
Lola Wright: So of course after 10 days of having this wildly expansive, nourishing, inspiring experience that was calling him into a new paradigm within his business, the accountant would show up and give a sobering explanation of the state of his revenue. I asked him to take a deep breath and I said, “Would you be willing to consider that you are intrinsically connected to the abundant universe that is in you, as you, through you and all around you?” Out of my left eye, I caught the accountants face. It was as if she had a kind of quizzical puzzled look. I sensed that she was wondering what in the world are we talking about here? This is a black and white cashflow summary. You are talking about the abundant nature of the universe. As I caught her out of the corner of my eye, I turned and and said, “So what do you think?” Her quick response was, “What is the universe?” And I smiled. My client had a big grin and started to chuckle. He totally got it. He had made this moment very significant, very serious. A half hour before he was riding high and because someone walked in the room and put down a piece of paper with new ink and new numbers, his entire disposition shifted. You and I have that experience all the time.
Lola Wright: We can be going through this thing called life experiencing ease, grace, flow, joy, and then we’ll hear a thing, we’ll see a thing and all of a sudden our consciousness shifts. We go into a state of panic, of fury, of scarcity and everything in life shifts in a nanosecond. I have such appreciation for this particular client. He is an incredible demonstration of how to bring this practice of awakening into a very traditional business environment. Would you be willing to consider that as a shift in consciousness occurs, he actually can move forward with greater access to solution. Now in a matter of moments, the team got activated. They were questioning some of the reporting. Something didn’t look right. They started to experience a kind of a liveliness and curiosity around, Hmm, what could this be pointing to? There may be a breakdown in our reporting. There may be something that we’re missing that we need to look at. See, they had set the intention for clarity and order in their finances and what they got was an experience that they didn’t like, but clarity and order was being activated.
Lola Wright: I have had a long road with this thing called abundance. I was raised in a hyper affluent environment with really access to anything and everything I could need and want. From the time I was very little, material needs were not something I struggled with and then at 18 when I got pregnant and I was cut off, I created a very different experience of life for myself. I spent a number of years on welfare and really had to untangle all of the false beliefs, the cosmology of thought that I had constructed based on my family of origin, based on the community I was raised in and based on the set of circumstances and conditions I had found myself in. Untangling my belief system around scarcity, sufficiency, abundance, and flow is an active practice that I am engaged in on a daily basis.
Lola Wright: I am in an active practice of noticing my perception, noticing the filter through which I perceive life. When I am scared, when I am feeling closed and defensive, I perceive life through the filter of lack, limitation and scarcity. When I am scared, but I’m activated in curiosity, I actually can be scared and see opportunity and possibility and the demonstration of abundance. Fear is not only an unconscious practice. You and I can be in a conscious practice of fear, stretching ourself into a new state of consciousness around this thing called abundance. Remember the practice that I walk in on a regular basis, the spirit of life within me is the source of my supply. The moment I start seeking evidence of my source and my supply as a carrot being dangled outside of me and before me, I experience suffering. There’s a big paradox here. As I deepen in my awareness of the abundance that is right where I am, I experience greater abundance in this dimension of reality.
Lola Wright: I hope this is of service to you. I have spent many, many years suffering around this experience of scarcity. I have devoted my life to untangling it, to busting through it, to reconfiguring my cosmology of thought and beliefs so that I can rest easy in the flow of life. Creativity and aliveness is found in an abundance consciousness. Constriction and contraction is found in a scarcity consciousness. Look, I still experience fear around my resources. And I can do that with some consciousness. I can do that by noticing, “Oh Lola, you’re feeling scared.” You’re seeking evidence to support your position that this universe is unfriendly, that something out there really is happening to you. Would you be willing to take a deep breath and trust that something greater is happening here. That you have never been forgotten. That there are an infinite number of opportunities, resources. Imagine what you can create. You are a creative channel in this dimension of reality. Would you be willing to avail yourself to the good that is here now.
Lola Wright: I’d like to offer a practice. A way that you can be in active relationship with your own expansion. Practice number one, focus on what you have and celebrate it. So often our orientation, and it really is a function of our reptilian brain, is focused on what we don’t have. And guess what? Wherever you focus your attention that will expand. You are a channel of and for consciousness, so focus your attention on what you have, celebrate it, and just allow yourself to feel the appreciation that’s within you. Practice number two, activate generosity. So often we have this stingy relationship and we hoard what we have. Get to giving, move your good, activate generosity in your life. Notice what it brings up for you. Identify the places and spaces where you’re still believing in lack and limitation where you’re still seduced by scarcity and then move it anyway.
Lola Wright: That could be being generous with food on your plate. That could be being with your time, your energy, words of affirmation. If you notice an aversion to being generous in one particular area of life, it is likely an area of life that your being called to activate, to awaken. So if you notice that circulating money is a particular area of life that you go unconscious, and that can manifest in many ways, bring your conscious awareness to it and circulate with intention. Stretch yourself beyond your comfort zone, create a little bit of healthy tension and get to giving. My life has expanded many times over because of the activation of generosity. It is one of the great mental hacks to transcending scarcity. Thanks for listening to And This Is Bodhi. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I look forward to seeing you soon.
Lola Wright: As always, our funding for projects like this come from you. We’d love for you to join us as a contributor of this body of work. There is no gift that is too small or too large, so please give by texting (773) 770-8577. Include the word GIVE, and you’ll get a set of very easy instructions on how you can get in the practice of generosity. You may also visit bodhicenter.org/giving. Your giving matters, and it’s a great way to activate the principles we expressed in this podcast.
Lola Wright: And This Is Bodhi is a production of Bodhi Center. Funding comes from our incredibly generous monthly contributors. I’m your host, Lola Wright. This podcast is produced by Katie Klocksin with editorial guidance from Bodhi’s creative producer Tyler Greene. I recorded this in my home studio in Oak park, Illinois. Our theme music is by independent music producer, Trey Royal.
Lola Wright: What is the universe?
