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Identify yourself with the spirit of opulenceBy Thomas Troward, Excerpt from “The Hidden Power”
 The thought of opulence must be our thought .It is quite a mistake to suppose that we must restrict and stint ourselves in order to develop greater power or usefulness. This is to form the conception of the Divine Poweras so limited that the best use we can make of it is by a policy of self-starvation, whethermaterial or mental. Of course, if we believe that some form of self-starvation isnecessary to our producing good work, then so long as we entertain this belief the factactually is so for us. “Whatsoever is not of faith”- that is, not in accordance with ourhonest belief - “is sin”; and by acting contrary to what we really believe we bring in asuggestion of opposition to the Divine Spirit, which must necessarily paralyze our efforts,and surround us with a murky atmosphere of distrust and want of joy.But all this exists in, and is produced by, our belief: and when we come to examine thegrounds of this belief we shall find that it rests upon an entire misapprehension of thenature of our own power. If we clearly realize that the creative power in ourselves isunlimited, then there is no reason for limiting the extent to which we may enjoy what wecan create by means of it. Where we are drawing from the infinite we need never beafraid of taking more than our share. That is not where the danger lies. The danger is innot sufficiently realizing our own richness, and in looking upon the externalized productsof our creative power as being the true riches instead of the creative power of spirit itself.If we avoid this error, there is no need to limit ourselves in taking what we will from theinfinite store-house: “All things are yours.” And the way to avoid this error is byrealizing that the true wealth is in identifying ourselves with the spirit of opulence. Do not “think money,” as such, for it is only one meansof opulence; but think opulence, that is, largely, generously, liberally, and you will findthat the means of realizing this thought will flow to you from all quarters, whether asmoney or as a hundred other things not to be reckoned in cash.We must not make ourselves dependent on any particular form of wealth, or insist on itscoming to us through some particular channel - that is at once to impose a limitation, andto shut out other forms of wealth and to close other channels; but we must enter into thespirit of it. Now the spirit is Life, and throughout the universe Life ultimately consists incirculation, whether within the physical body of the individual or on the scale of theentire solar system; and circulation means a continual flowing around, and the spirit ofopulence is no exception to this universal law of all life. When once this principle becomes clear to us we shall see that our attention should bedirected rather to the giving than the receiving. We must look upon ourselves, not asmisers’ chests to be kept locked for our own benefit, but as centres of distribution; andthe better we fulfill our function as such centres the greater will be the correspondinginflow. If we choke the outlet the current must slacken, and a full and free flow can beobtained only by keeping it open. The spirit of sumptuousness - the sumptuousness mode of thought,that is - consists in cultivating the feeling that we possess all sorts of riches which we canbestow upon others, and which we can bestow liberally because by this very action weopen the way for still greater supplies to flow in. But you say, “I am short of money, Ihardly know how to pay for necessaries. What have I to give?”The answer is that we must always start from the point where we are; and if your wealthat the present moment is not abundant on the material plane, you need not trouble to starton that plane. There are other sorts of wealth, still more valuable, on the spiritual andintellectual planes, which you can give; and you can start from this point and practice thespirit of opulence, even though your balance at the bank may be nil. And then theuniversal law of attraction will begin to assert itself. You will not only begin toexperience an inflow on the spiritual and intellectual planes, but it will extend itself to thematerial plane also. If you have realized the spirit of sumptuousness you cannot help drawing to yourself materialgood, as well as that higher wealth which is not to be measured by a money standard; andbecause you truly understand the spirit of sumptuousness you will neither affect to despise thisform of good, nor will you attribute to it a value that does not belong to it; but you willco-ordinate it with your other more interior forms of wealth so as to make it the materialinstrument in smoothing the way for their more perfect expression. Used thus, withunderstanding of the relation which it bears to spiritual and intellectual wealth, materialwealth becomes one with them, and is no more to be shunned and feared than it is to besought for its own sake. It is not money, but the love of money, that is the root of evil; and the spirit of opulence isprecisely the attitude of mind which is furthest removed from the love of money for itsown sake. It does not believe in money. What it does believe in is the generous feelingwhich is the intuitive recognition of the great law of circulation, which does not in anyundertaking make its first question, How much am I going to get by it? but, How mucham I going to do by it? And making this the first question, the getting will flow in with agenerous profusion, and with a spontaneousness and rightness of direction that are absentwhen our first thought is of receiving only.We are not called upon to give what we have not yet got and to run into debt; but we areto give liberally of what we have, with the knowledge that by so doing we are setting thelaw of circulation to work, and as this law brings us greater and greater inflows of everykind of good, so our out-giving will increase, not by depriving ourselves of anyexpansion of our own life that we may desire, but by finding that every expansion makesus the more powerful instruments for expanding the life of others. “Live and let live” is the motto of the true opulence.
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