Is "getting rich" the same thing as "feeling wealthy"? Is feeling wealthy a fringe benefit of getting rich? What is the relationship between money and wealth? Can money be an obstacle to feeling wealthy?

Inherent Wealth is a guidebook to a new understanding of wealth. Most people already know that external wealth does not guarantee happiness.

But what should we do with that understanding once we have it? Should we sell everything and become traveling ascetics? Or try to win the economic roller derby first and then think about it? Or do these two extremes follow from the same misconception about wealth and about life?

Contemplating the nature of true wealth, is the necessary first step toward a life with more humor and confidence. A good place to start is unearthing our presumptions about money's relationship to the quality of life. Most of us would presume that more money simply translates to more freedom. But have we really looked into it?

Seeing and sensing life experiences with an open-minded attitude for example may be much closer to what we think of as feeling wealthy. That is quite different from the anxious management of spending habits and investments. But in the end, will it be necessary to change what we are doing to discover greater wealthiness? Or will the real challenge be in how we regard whatever we are doing? Either way, the perspective should be very enriching.

So let's proceed to explore what wealth really is. In section II, we will examine the simple ways of bringing out more genuine wealth in daily life. Further on, we take a fresh look at the world of economic reality and apply a wealthy outlook to some of those issues that we all must face. We'll even examine timeless principles of financial planning, investing, and running a business from a wealthier point of view. All the time looking for the magic perspectives that make our relationship to money more workable and interesting. Finally, we'll imagine how society overall might be affected if we all acted from an ongoing sense of inherent wealth. We will explore how the underlying assumptions of economics, as we know it, may be undermining the realization of inherent and external wealth. We'll contemplate what we need to know and do to create a genuinely wealthy society for everyone internally and externally. But first we have to tear down the old shack that money built for wealth because only then can we rebuild it, with a better foundation.

Back to Gold Ocean, Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three

With a median annual income for two parent family households of $49,969 in 1995, America boasts the highest per capita spending power in the world. The other developed countries are close behind or even better off by other measures.

Ironically, among the richest peoples in the world, perhaps in human history, few would claim to be satisfied with their money! Exactly how much money do we need to feel wealthy? To examine the relationship between money and wealth let's allow ourselves to be monetarily rich for a moment.

How much does it take to get "rich"?

For most of us the archetype of a rich person is "a millionaire". But being a millionaire is not what it used to be. Adjusting for inflation, one million dollars in 1954 is worth around six million today (1998).

But we're not greedy, so let's say you're rich with one million dollars. Now is that one million cash? Or one million net worth? OK, let's say you're rich when you own your house and your car etc. and you have one million in cash left over. If you have a nice house and a nice car or two or three and a cottage with a boat, that means you are worth between $1.5 and $2 million, right? So you own the house, the cottage, the cars & the boat and you've got a million bucks left over. Now that's rich. A million bucks leftover!

Of course now that you're a millionaire you don't have to work for a living, right? Then that means you're going to have to do something with that money so you can live off it forever. You could put it in safe government bonds and T-bills in which case you'll make around 5% give or take 1%. That's great! So you'll own all that stuff and have a guaranteed income of $50-60,000 (call it $55,000) before taxes to enjoy life. But taxes are high, depending on where you live. So you'll have to give up at least $10,000 per year in income taxes ($15,000, in Canada but they have free healthcare)and then there may be some sales taxes, and membership fees, a vacation etc. as well ($5000). Of course, there's property tax on your fancy house and your cottage, but that's not much ($2,000 let's say). But you will have at least $40,000 per year to enjoy (median household income Americans said it would take to live in reasonable comfort: $41,100 in 1995).

Now there's maintenance on those two or three fancy cars and the boat (only $8000/year). But that's no big deal. The house and the cottage need a new roof now and then and, uh oh, time to replace the old station wagon, it's costing more to repair than it's worth (about $10,000/year to maintain the two houses and replace cars, at least). What? Barely enough money left for heat, lights, insurance, and groceries?!!!

$55,0000

$17,000 Various Taxes & fees + $18,000 Lifestyle Maintenance

Equals:

$20,000 or $1667 per month

Well, obviously it's almost impossible to get by on merely $55,000 a year without eating up your capital (which you don't want to do because then you won't be a millionaire anymore) so you better think about investing that money or going back to work!

So now you will watch the stock market. Let's skip over the ways you could screw up there. We'll assume you buy a "tried and true", "blue chip" investment mutual fund which has been growing at almost 15% a year (averaged over 40 years) and hopefully you can rely on long term income of 10% from this fund plus sufficient growth to keep up with inflation. Assuming history repeats itself, and the management doesn't change, and the market rewards your fund manager's style, and (most threateningly) you and your broker don't panic and pull your money out at the absolute worst possible time!

But you're not going to have those problems because you're going to "watch it" carefully (worrying for a living!). Let's be optimistic and just forget about what an enthusiastic broker can do for your net worth (old saying: "the best way to make a million dollars is to start your broker with two million!").

So, you've got good advice, good investments, and good income. 10% of $1,000,000 is $100,000 per year (incidentally, that's darn close to the $102,000/year median income that Americans said would be sufficient to 'fulfill all their dreams' in 1995). Much of this investment income is capital gains which are tax advantaged in some cases, so now you're up to $75,000 per year or so, after tax income. Of course, you do have sales taxes. But who cares about those, because your son and/or daughter did so well at the $8000 per year private school, they've just been accepted to Harvard! Estimated annual cost? $35,000. Uh oh, back to work or back to the food bank (the food bank may be better because if you go back to work, you'll push yourself into a higher tax bracket!).

It looks like being a millionaire no longer cuts it. In fact, neither does being a two millionaire (including the value of all the stuff you maintain) make you feel "rich" really either. Huh, guess we'll just have to adjust for inflation and say it's a multi-millionaire you have to become in order to really feel "rich". You have to be a six million-dollar man or a bionic woman to really be "rich". Let's cut to the chase, and call it sixty million, which is great because now you can hire a whole staff of professionals to manage your various houses and cars and taxes and moneys and occasional lawsuits and insurance against loss, damage, theft, and liability of the whole thing. And, you can get down to what you really want to be doing which is: raising your kids (except they just took off in the Porsche); playing a lot of golf (except the only people available are busy or boring)(and you might get skin cancer!); working with the unfortunates (but they prefer that you ladle out money not soup!).

Free to obsess over health, safety, and stability, many rich people end up in isolation behind fences where they live a very defensive existence. They huddle with other rich folks or their professional servants! Oi! They are the only ones who are interested (or pretend to be) in your particular problems, (many problems the middle class would love to have!): " I'm paying too much taxes (on my huge income)", " my expensive imported car keeps breaking down", and "our housekeeper is always late!" " I wonder if my professional staff is taking advantage of me somehow? Maybe they're even embezzling lots of money but I don't even notice!" Because you drove up in a fancy car or you're wearing a fancy watch, everyone looks at you and in their minds they are measuring themselves against you. If someone tries to befriend you, you wonder, "what do they really want?" Sometimes people try to prove they don't want anything by being mean to you! Sometimes people may even stalk you. It's exciting at the top.

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Money Wealth is a Dream

"Money is a Dream", the third law of money,

There is nothing wrong with aspiring for material wealth, but to what extent does such wealth help? And how exactly can money be of help? We'll consider what money is worth later. For now let's consider the baggage that comes with it so we can also feel the weight of being loaded.

My old company president announced in a meeting one day that he had built a 20,000 square foot house with 10 bathrooms! Oddly, it is only he and his daughter living there. We all had a chuckle when the national sales manager inquired, how many of those bathrooms he was planning on using in the course of a day?

In many ways, modern society's image of a rich person is someone who can maximize their ignorance toward life and still get away with it (the ideal of a space cadet!). Consider these daydreams: having the cash to finance all your impulses; ignoring prices; traveling wherever and whenever you want; hiring others to perform basic tasks such as driving, cooking, cleaning; hiring professionals to manipulate your money in savvy ways (which you don't understand!); Being approached constantly by people offering you advice, exciting new products, or investment opportunities; people requesting your opinion on all kinds of things you know nothing about. You get lots of attention when you're rich.

First of all, thinking of being rich as a state of freedom to ignore money is far from the truth. Ask anybody with some. Large amounts of money are just as easily squandered. One hopes to hang on to ones money-measured wealth and increase it in order to gain freedoms with it. We lose some freedom right off the top though, because money wealth requires disciplined management.

Far more common and much worse than squandering money-wealth is the squandering of ones energy and time intoxicated with mistaken views about wealth. Not recognizing the mundane burdens of wealth, we are tethered to lives organized around poorly conceived values. In the language of economists, the "opportunity cost" of valuing external wealth e.g. money too highly is very high. This over valuation prevents hoards of people from ever "getting a life" so to speak. We are going to wait until we get the cash and then enjoy "the good life". It is a speedboat version of freedom. The money-wealth boat has freedom so long as it stays in the pond of materialism; even then it is always needing more gas and dodging bigger boats. On any but the most superficial levels, freedom requires much more than money.

One begins to wonder why are we so eager to eliminate basic challenges that usually feel good to work through? For every one of these that we face there are others among us who wish things could be so good. If we can accept that, why presume that money-wealth is so beneficial? Consider the following: saving up for things; looking forward to a nice suit on lay-a-way, shopping for a reliable used car, finally paying off a small but charming house; a hard earned vacation or retreat; fixing it yourself; entertaining on a shoestring; thorough house cleaning; celebrating on payday and not before; earning a paycheck; building a business; donating time and effort vs. money; being precisely aware of exactly how much money you make and how much you spend on each part of your life. Even most millionaires are turned on by the second list more than the first!

Could there be more "wealth" in working with less money in a resourceful way? Using money to solve too many mundane problems can relieve us of challenges that contribute to and even compose the feeling of wealth. In the absence of money based challenges, we tend to create resistance for ourselves anyway. Unless we are well trained, we automatically become more sensitive and demanding in other areas, no matter how much money we get. Maybe we become ambitious for ever-more money until the stress is back again. There is no question that more money can be helpful, but does it automatically contribute to feeling wealthier?

The confusion about wealth resides in the effort to seek shelter in external things or situations. Money aside, we often seek shelter in things like relationships or technology or activity. At any given time we can relate to these things as enrichments or as hiding places. If we relate to anyone or anything in a habitual way it ends up creating confusion. If we think about wealth in full view of the pitfalls of ignorance, then does wealth the way we have been dreaming about it still appeal?

Redefining Wealth?

Can we find a more reliable (experiential) definition of wealth? We can start by watching out for subtle messages and beliefs based on the assumption that "ignorance is bliss as long as it's paid for". To hold the confidence is part of real wealth, subtle laziness must be cut through. Ignoring the details of daily life makes us more insecure not less. The challenge of overcoming obstacles, 'pulling up your own socks', facing uncertainty, is necessary to feeling strong and self-sufficient and it is ongoing. There's no buying it off. Feeling independent or, more precisely, fully responsible for ourselves, we experience wealth in a deeper way. How we regard and manage each situation, whatever it is, is where the genuine feeling of wealth naturally occurs.

Aside from just money rich consider the other notions you have about what getting rich would be. But go one further and imagine you are already there. How would you feel then? Would you feel rich? Wealthy? Or burdened and isolated? Consider all the different types of rich you imagine when you buy a lottery ticket or watch TV. To name a few there's: "Money Rich", "Sports Car Rich", "Well Off", "Rich Philanthropist", "Private, Exclusive Rich", "Rich and Famous", "Independently Wealthy, but Down to Earth", "Socialite". All these very different, right?

In fact, the idea of being wealthy or rich is not an idea at all. It'sa whole jumble of ideas, an endless bank of lottery ticket fantasies and daydreams. The only thing they have in common is that they are on the other side of the fence from where we see ourselves right now. The actualization of any one of them brings headaches and heartaches, hopes and fears, including many of the irritations we have now. Never the less, we cherish fantasies about states of comfort that don't really exist; assuming the happiness that money really can't buy! The question is, what do these subtle fantasies block out?

It's critical to distinguish whether it's more money we want or that we want to cheer up, to feel wealthy, and we are quietly hoping, assuming that more money is going to do it? If it is a cheerful, colorful, meaningful existence we want, it is not a conflict or naïve to want more money but in this vane how much should we want? How much could money realistically do for us if how we regard the life experience we do have is always at the bottom line?

It may be one's karma to be, conventionally rich or famous; or not rich and not famous, but that does not mean we are going to be cheerful or experientially wealthy, that is still up us. Examining the legitimacy of the money = wealth dream/assumption is the first step toward discovering an experiential definition of wealth that money can be a part of but not central to.

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Jean Kerr (b. 1923), U.S. author, playwright. Sydney, in Poor Richard, act 1.

Conventional Logic and Presumptions

Conventional belief systems are the subtle prejudices that help us function in day to day life. We are prone to apply these conventional "logics" unconsciously to everything from what kind work we choose to what kind of toothpaste we use. These "logics" are assumptions about how the world is and how we can make it work for us, for example: "If I brush my teeth, I won't get cavities", "success comes from hard work" or "money = success". Unfortunately, we often forget or ignore these innocent assumptions and they become a cocoon of presumptions. They become obstacles to understanding rather than helpers. Seeing the world through a veil of presumptions and prejudices, we end up pursuing "success" in shortsighted ways that preclude us from ever really feeling successful. We pursue money goals, for example, though we really want money as a fringe benefit. Unconsciously we hope that happiness and contentment and fulfillment will automatically come along as a bonus! We think money equals freedom so of course, we would freely choose happiness. Sadly, it doesn't work that way.

The conventional logic between money and wealth can be summarized as "get money first, then you will get inner wealth later" or "with money comes wealth". But what if the reality is closer to the reverse? What if it's "Wealth first, Money later" or "with wealth comes money"? What if it is a loose relationship like "Wealthy outlook first, circumstances later, if you really want or need them" or "a genuine sense of wealth tends to magnetize money"? We have been assuming that to feel wealthy or rich we have to achieve something first, like lots of money, fame or education. But have we really looked into what real wealth is? We can say that all these things are related, but is there really a quid pro quo?

We have all met people who have arrived to some extent at wealth by external measures: money, property, education, fame. Do they truly feel wealthy? Do they have a wealthy outlook? Are they more cheerful? It's hit and miss, right? That's my observation, anyway.

Credential Mentality

Somewhere amidst the hassles of relationships, families, bills, debts, and dreams, we find ourselves with a "credential first" mentality that denies us what we desire most. We pursue external goals we presume will also bring along the contentment we long to experience or at least move us along the path toward it. We constantly think, "if I could only get this or that together, then I would be happy." or subconsciously "how could I or anyone be truly content without, blah, blah, blah." Unfortunately (or fortunately), the continuous stream of life's disappointments undermines our credential first logic. For example: The vacation you saved up for and dreamed about for a year turns out to be a disaster; You finally got the great job you were hoping for but you can't stand the office politics; You wish you didn't have to work, so you start waiting for the week to be over on Monday. You don't put your heart into your job and therefore, don't like your work! On the weekend, your family drives you nuts. You want to expand your sales so much that quality control falls off and you start to loose old customers. You inherited a million dollars, but now your relationships with family and friends will never be the same....

The problem with credential first mentality is that it belies an underlying psychological poverty: assuming that things are not just fine, as they are. We usually aspire to greater freedoms, challenges, or rewards and take for granted the subtlety or basic goodness of our immediate moment by moment personal experience (which is all we ever have!). Generally speaking we feel we should always be moving somewhere to get more good news and/or at least to avoid more bad news. If we aspire to feel wealthy, which is akin to contentment, we have to gain a larger perspective that counts the good news and the bad news as not so different. With a sense of wealth that is independent of credentials we can be energized by curiosity instead of driven by hope and fear, which is quite different.

Believing in the necessity of grasping at credentials for security or happiness is also the basis of quick, simplistic interpretations of ones' life experience. In reference to a goal, everything becomes reduced to good, bad, or indifferent, a very prejudiced embrace of life. Without reference to a goal, doesn't every experience have its own vivid character? Even with goals, is there no richness, no constructive message in a major disappointment or a crisis? Many people have said that getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to them! If we dedicate our lives to smoothing things out, avoiding all potential disappointments as much as we can, do we really ever pull it off? Would life be better if we did? One thing's for certain; in the relentless aspiration for stress-free leisure, virtue, or perfection, every little thing becomes a source of stress if it doesn't go just right.

In our culture the most widely agreed goal of work is early retirement! Deferring reflection on the sociopolitical and environmental implications, we need to ask ourselves personally, "what is the cost of such a view in terms of how it subtly, secretly, undermines the quality of moment by moment experience?"

Does relaxing the requirement to see ourselves "getting somewhere" at all times, open the possibility for fresh air, fresh perception, to come in? There may be more time for a stronger sense of direction to reveal itself. But we also could just be in less of a hurry. We never really know what the ultimate implications are of anything. So what's the hurry?

Automatically buying into any credential for happiness, assuming that money equals wealth for example is like buying a ticket on the Titanic over and over again. And missing that boat turned out to be a very fortunate thing indeed!

Credential mentality blocks our ability to experience peace. On subtler and subtler levels we are always on guard against disappointment. We are efficiency nuts, coaching ourselves and manipulating things all the time! When we are not talking to ourselves at work etc. we are spending our time and money on distractions like movies, alcohol, television etc. Even exercise becomes a crutch. We want to get the maximum results in the shortest time, which becomes yet another credential for a good time. The reluctance to be idle for any period is basically the fear of uncertainty. And it pushes us ever forward but with an ill-considered, narrow, worm like perspective. Our greatest aspiration becomes in effect to be the fastest worm in town. We gain status in the society of worms because we have been around the worm track so many times; we know how to beat all the other worms. Maybe we become a worm manager or a worm guru. All the other worms want to hear our secrets. The secrets of self imposed poverty mentality where quantity reigns way ahead of quality.

We seldom experience contentment no matter what level we are on because we can't handle the lack of drama. We can't accept that we don't really know what the long-term implications are of anything. So we pretend that the most obvious reward - more money perhaps - is more reliable than it is. And we don't look back later when we still don't feel wealthy because we still figure the answer lies outside us. We assume that somehow we flubbed up, but other people must be getting it.

Scientific formulas have little to offer us here since the issue is depending upon logic to feel wealthy. Genuine wealth is a matter of perception more than any specific result and perhaps that perception is in the willingness to appreciate our experiences unconditionally. It's a matter of choice! In many cases, scientific analysis leads us on a wild goose chase beginning with a simple, initial assumption that makes it easier to measure something. Modern economics for instance starts out on the premise that money = wealth! A coarse presumption, indeed.

In a poll published in the Wall Street Journal in the 1980s, a group including people of vastly different incomes, predominantly agreed that an extra $500 per month would solve their financial worries! While $500 per month sounds good, this is a great example of credential mentality. If you could only have that extra $500 then, of course, you would allow yourself to be content! But not until then, right? "If I could only get a raise, a promotion, a new career, a new house, one million dollars, marriage counseling, a good husband, a Ph.D., this project done, this person off my back..."

The alternative to living by conventional logic and credential mentality is pursuing the mind of wealth directly, in this case we'll call it "Inherent Wealth". How can we pursue this? First of all inherent wealth is not pursued really, it is uncovered. The substance of it is training ourselves to open to life more and more subtly and completely. What's the pay off? Inherent Wealth is moment by moment wealth so it is not predictable. But it has an intuitive feeling of wholesomeness about it. Letting go of credential mentality frees up the sense of humor, appreciating qualities in people and experiences previously unnoticed or avoided. Inherent wealth is a feeling of unconditional abundance or cheerfulness that does not preclude tears. Ironically, perceiving such abundance is based upon accepting the emptiness, longing, and sadness that are inherent to human "be-ing".

The experience of inherent wealth arises from raw openness or "emptiness". It is necessary to set aside the struggle to accumulate "fullness", "completeness". This exposes the presumptions that infiltrate our lives to a larger context. "Openness" is available all the time, to everyone, but we rarely maintain it because it is subtle, requires bravery, and can't be pinned down. Openness of heart and mind innately underlies our thought process and is the birthplace of tremendous humor, intelligence, and insight. However, it is ungraspable. If we try to make something solid out of it, like "being liberal minded" or "politically correct", it's gone.

The genuine openness of Inherent Wealth is characterized by the willingness to feel longing or sadness. This vulnerability is prerequisite to appreciating things as they are instead of skipping ahead to how we would like them or how they should be. One appreciates life experience tremendously but does not make an identity out of it or try to fix it all up. Clear perception is a discipline of letting each game plan for "happiness" go as soon as it arises. The struggle to defend one state of mind or another must be abandoned.

This last point is very interesting because it captures the difference between inherent wealth and credential mentality. Instead of pursuing yet another credential "happiness" in the form of a state of mind, it implies that inherent wealth is not one state of mind at all, but the awareness that each state of mind occurs in. In practice you could say it's a way of relating to whatever is coming up, the way of seeing everything but manipulating nothing. It is very humbling to one's ego, very insulting to our coaching mentalities, but the ongoing struggle to guard and increase one's happiness is what keeps us all basically miserable! Seeking wealth from any credential, even a state of mind, is like struggling in quicksand. (If you want to go further with this line of reasoning see the appendix entitled "Intuition, Logic, and Ego")

Nature is a mutable cloud, which has always and never been the same.

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The Wealth of the Brave

Inherent wealth is the natural birthright of a human being. It is being rich opposed to getting rich. Being rich is something that must happen moment by moment. It cannot happen any other place or time than right here and right now. It is naturally occurring wealth; and it just has to occur to you, to perceive it. It cannot be possessed or lost and it is always available and brilliant, but we have to let go of "ego clinging" in order to experience such unconditional wealth. That might not be easy to understand.

Getting rich presumes that the feeling of being wealthy is something acquired outside ourselves. But the notion of having to get rich is in many ways the antithesis of enjoying the feeling of wealth. Money is perhaps sometimes to be gotten, but genuine wealthiness cannot be bought. Genuine wealth is immediate, zap, that's it, moment by moment, fresh start. Can you appreciate what's in your face? That's wealth.

Given that all human beings want to live with a sense of confidence and prosperity and ideally even nobility. Then perhaps it's also true that we are all hoping we will be able to get closer to that with more money or other credentials. Simple immediate experience seems an unlikely source of wealth because it is often irritating and we cling to teenage beliefs about success. Discovering wealth in our ordinary state of mind or state of affairs is "too easy, too simple, and too close (to accept)", as a Buddhist teacher once said about enlightenment.

We don't trust our personal experience and feelings as much as external confirmations. It is too subtle and it can't be measured, so we don't make the effort to tune into it. Defining wealth in terms of how we regard our daily, hourly world doesn't fit the conventional logic that wealth must be acquired from the outside and presumably at great expense. So we default to measures of success and wealth chosen for ease of keeping score. Are we looking for a credential to support our confidence? Maybe we even think, "having more resources, I will finally have time to explore the rich possibilities of human perception and experience. I'll be king but a very noble king". That is a noble aspiration but a very long way around because genuine richness cannot be contacted by striving for it outwardly. Ironically, we have to give up striving for wealth altogether, if even for a moment, in order to see it. The issue is, what do we require to do that? As discussed in chapter 2 the conventional answer is a moving target.

The only time that one can quit striving is right now. Not after the errands, during the errands, not "after I make a million dollars", not "after I get dinner on the table." Recognizing the endlessness of challenges and ambitions leaves room for joy to enter. The mind of wealth is available. We only have to surrender to it! The problem is one can't just win the wealth trophy and go home. We have to tune-in again and again and again. To experience wealth we practice resting in the middle of what we do, not after. It's a process of switching ones allegiance to accepting the ground of inherent wealth instead of trying to beat back self-imposed "inadequacy".

The real energy of life is in the immediacy of experience. The feeling of your hair standing on end when you tell the painful truth to someone, the intense red of blood oozing out of a cut, the mischievous look in someone's eye, the smell of fresh coffee or something putrid in your garbage. It is possible to "tune into" the little things a lot more with a little training and effort. When we do, we discover an inexhaustible treasure chest, the ongoing parade of naturally occurring, jewel-like experiences. These experiences can be perceived on subtler and subtler and subtler levels. What you can appreciate is the source of wealth. On an absolute level, this treasure is not increased or decreased by having more or less "financial security", credentials, or "freedom", but it may be easier to discover and appreciate it with a little money, not a lot. Do you need to quit your job? Maybe the real challenge is to embrace it completely first and then see what comes out of that. Giving-in like that creates such clarity that if we need to make a decision or take a leap the answers come to us.

It is when we finally decide, "OK, I'm ready to feel the texture of my life as it is," that we can go ahead and tune into the wealth in our experience. There lies tremendous energy and good cheer in that approach. This good cheer bubbles up from beneath our cyclical happiness and sadness, it is not a replacement. We can allow ourselves to feel wealthy at any time. Isn't that the only time we feel wealthy in any case? With or without credentials, we feel wealthy, when we allow ourselves to be completely present. But instead we constantly shift from pastime to pastime, tuning in to inane shows on TV or doggedly pursuing the credentials our parents did, only "better" (i.e. in a more "sophisticated" way!). Struggling to avoid boredom, we speed past worlds of exquisite perception and communication. Recognizing and exploring immediate experience, we enjoy real wealth, ignoring it; we're hamsters on a treadmill version of life.

Seneca (c. 5 B.C.-A.D. c. 65), Roman writer, philosopher, statesman. Attributed, in Noctes Atticae, bk. 12, ch. 2, sct. 13, by second-century Roman grammarian Aulus Gellius.

The conventional logic of getting rich ignores the fact that how we feel is always up to us. Followed through to the end, it is a death sentence of perpetual struggle. Without recognizing the inherent nature of wealth we find occasional islands of exhilaration with a windfall or a relative success, quickly deflated by the desire to hang onto the gains or to climb further and higher. Good examples of this are the depressions that usually follow finals week in school and that plague lottery winners.

Our desperation to maximize our time in the form of comfort, entertainment, or accomplishments, leaves us struggling with huge parts of our existence. Unable to accept that how we feel is up to us, we use our energy to manipulate the outside world attempting to bring about or recreate a sense of wealth that has always been internal. We can label this approach "poverty mentality" since it is guaranteed to be unsatisfactory in the end. Even successful criminals can discover at some point, it is not the money that makes us wealthy, but whether we like ourselves or not along the way.

Pursuing external success is self-defeating unless we can appreciate the endless path to and from it. From that point of view it's possible to see the inseparability of ongoing failures from ongoing "success". The time we spend before and after a big "success" or "failure" represents the vast majority of our lives. The more subtle and innocent our appreciation of each moment, the more wealthy we live.

There is too much irony in life to cling to a credential or set of conditions for wealth. One minute you are a respected sea captain, the next you are slaughtering the whales. Nobly protecting your clients' assets, you caused a currency crisis abroad. Were you advocating safety and pollution standards or undermining economic development in the third world? Were you enthusiastically recommending a solution or selfishly pushing your product? You're making a fortune in the stock market, then it crashes and you're ruined. Taking out a consolidation loan, you ended up with both credit card debts and loan payments.... The world is poking fun at us and our serious plans all the time. Yes, we need them and we should pursue them, but what are we missing when we cling too tight?

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There is no denying that real or imagined, financial poverty is very depressing. It is more difficult to find the initial energy and the confidence to remember or accept one's inherent wealth. It is very hard to tune-in in the face of panic. At the real poverty level, the pursuit of income may be the first step toward discovering inherent wealth. Poverty mentality is much easier to slip into without basic financial "sufficiency". There are additional outside factors which kick in when you're broke that undermine one's self-esteem. And without a little self-esteem it's hard to remember that confidence is an option. We certainly do need to study and respect the impact of our personal financial situation on our state of mind.

Coming out of that we may also realize our financial predicaments are seldom caused or improved by monetary issues alone. An inherently wealthy outlook is very helpful in the job market, for instance. Also, is falling on hard times financially always a sign of failure? It could be a side effect of confidence and daring. Aren't some lessons learned the hard way or not at all? On the other end of the spectrum, there are more than a few lottery winners who claimed to be worse off overall after the win. None-the-less, we habitually dwell on financial fears all the time, unconsciously presuming that all money problems must be eradicated to feel wealthy. These fears are like prison bars because self-imposed worries can never be satiated from outside. Underlying most money worries isn't there the presumption that life with less money is surely less fun? The desire for an interesting and colorful existence is equated with the need of more money. We refuse to make friends with uncertainty.

Is the man with a great private library, as well endowed as the woman who happily uses the public library system? Money has great value but we also need to respect the loss of wealth from relying on it! The real wealth issue is, how much of life can we appreciate?

Even at low levels of income there is much room for interpretation. What we regard as skid row options in the developed world is considered ordinary for rich people in other countries. Three adults sleeping in a small room is normal in a wealthy Tibetan household in Northern India, for example. To us it's cramped, to them it's just cozy. They relate to the same boundaries differently and it becomes very nice.

Simple appreciation of one's own life even has the potential to improve one's ability to make money through greater understanding of the passions and predicament of others. In fact, giving end goals like profit too high priority is a major detriment to success in business. Trying too hard to advance materially or achieve "financial security", distracts energy from delivering the services that others really require (try making a sale or getting a job when you're feeling desperate).

Everyone has a basic (albeit, floating!) level of security where it's easier to turn from scheming to get more and look toward the experience of life itself. We may have suspected the futility of the rat race long before we dare to test our hunches. A lot depends on daring to experiment, to try some new approaches. It could be easier if you have or know you can make money if you have to. That is where money can contribute to the pursuit of inherent wealth. However, adversity and disappointment are usually the best teachers.

With Inherent Wealth outlook the inspiration for economic life can change. From a wealthy point of view, we are all in the business of discovering the abundant richness of the world to share with others. The assumption in modern economics that we are all trying to decide how to allocate scarce resources in pursuit of self-interest is a very limiting way to describe the process by comparison. The issue is not scarcity; it is about seeing abundance or not. Assuming scarcity as the starting point, it is easier to apply scientific logic perhaps, but it overlooks the self-described quality of reality. Even scientifically speaking, a scarcity of one resource in usually the abundance of another (e.g. the lack of development is the abundance of nature!). Beyond that, what we regard today as "resources" arise exclusively from creative discoveries in the first place. How can we say the issue is how to work with scarcity when all the resources we acknowledge today have arisen from someone seeing the abundance in them where none was seen before?

It may seem like reverse logic but it's when we reject our boundaries that we are faced with the poverty mentality of scarcity. If we embrace them we can see the overarching abundance. It's like standing in the Garden of Eden with a quarter in your hand. Are you going to fixate on the quarter or the garden? You need to hold on to that quarter because at some point you may want to make a phone call; but realistically, how long are you planning to be on the phone?

If we agree that the issue is one of seeing abundance rather than working with scarcity, the question becomes "how can we learn to see abundance?" How do we learn to appreciate anything at all? The more we embrace the mundane details of each moment, the more abundance can present itself because we are not so preoccupied chasing credentials. The more we can accept our own naturally wealthy nature, the more we can look to the abundance of our world and the inherent wealth of others. It is a matter of overcoming poverty mentality having done so creates the vacuum for abundance to present itself in. Quantum physics has already discovered that the expectation of the researcher is a material element in the outcome of experiments. In order to see reality then, we have to be pretty much open to anything. How convenient that when we are, we also discover inherent wealth!

Unconditional compassion is the ultimate expression of a wealthy outlook. The more we let go of credential or poverty mentality, the more we realize we can afford to pay attention to others. Everything we do could be endowed with a compassionate intention or wish even if we can't see how it all fits together right away. Nobility of intention is under-rated. But genuine compassion, genuine wealthiness requires some training. You don't just flip a switch and act nice. The compassion that sees inherent wealth must be very intelligent. The challenge becomes passing on that recognition. Much is done in the name of compassion that is really more undermining to recipients in the end. Bill Gates once said it is very difficult to give away money properly. That is certainly true.

How can we help others? We don't have to quit our jobs and become Mother Theresa or Florence Nightingale. We certainly don't help others by making an ego trip out of being "a great helper". The most profound ways are founded upon learning how to live a wholesome and decent life ourselves. Before accomplishing this, we are just imposing ideology on people, trying to make ourselves feel good. Really helping people to see and "magnetize" their own inherent wealth is done mostly by example in the context of everyday life, as we know it. This type of help is realistic, penetrating, and lasting. You don't have to become a tycoon or a pauper to help others; you can just become an unconditionally cheered-up, whole-hearted, person like you. That is a lot more powerful.

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