28. Choose Your Focus and Energy Flows into it
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A Small Story:
An old, rich widow remarried for the second time. One day she was infuriated by a mistake her husband made. She shouted, 'But for my money this furniture would not have been here. But for my money this house would not have been here. But for my money you would not be having such a big car. But for my money you would not have all these comforts. How dare you misbehave with me.' Her second husband replied in a cool and sober tone, 'But for your money I would not have been here. Your value is nothing but your money.'
In the society, we are weighed by the paraphernalia around us. Our value is higher if the paraphernalia that surrounds us is extensive. Cars, houses, jewels, houses, and other things add value to us. Naturally we ask the question, 'am I nothing more than these?'
It is our choice. There are two things in us, our being – energy, and our outer life – matter. When we choose the materialistic things, matter adds value to energy. We add all our energy to materials. When we add all our energy into matter, we are constantly chasing it. We are not happy with what we have. If our neighbor or friend buys an air conditioner the temperature in our house will become unbearable!
When we are weighed by matter, we become paralyzed. We live in fear, our life becomes a series of circuits. We expend all our energy trying to get one thing more, something bigger and better than the crowd we move in.
Is there another way of living? Yes. We can add value to matter by living with awareness. In people who live consciously, people who have become enlightened, value is added to matter by energy. We can see, when a conscious person touches anything, everything becomes holy. Even small things like an old coconut shell, a piece of wooden furniture or a staff, even those things become objects of worship. The enlightened Masters receive respect because they lived consciously. Energy guided their lives. Conscious decision guided their lives. When we actually decide to live, when we consciously decide to live life starts happening to us.
Whether matter should get value by energy or energy should get value by matter is our choice.