Chapter Seven

Oracle Chapter Seven

Author: Lorilee Technetium

All For The Love of Money

What has become of us? In our frantic pursuit of a manufactured success, we have managed to lose everything that truly matters. We have forgotten our origin and become so entangled in the lower reality that the truth is now invisible to us. We wear masks of happiness to hide the exhaustion, all for the sake of the house on the hill and the two-car garage. But we must ask: Is it worth the cost?

Since the day we were born, we have been conditioned for this disaster. We are dazzled by images of a 'perfect life' while those around us wash our minds into believing we are worthless unless we achieve goals dictated by others. If your vision does not align with the script, you are branded a failure. Consider the artist living in a hollowed-out apartment, sacrificing comfort for his craft; even if he paints a masterpiece to rival Michelangelo, the world calls him unsuccessful because his work lacks a price tag. Or the seeker who abandons worldly desires to unlock the secrets of the universe, he is deemed a washout because his progress cannot be measured by a bank account. The message is as simple as it is cruel: you are nothing unless you adhere to the standards of the crowd. They ignore the fire of your quest unless you can prove its value in the currency of the stage.

Whose standards are we living by, and who granted them the authority to label our souls? We are taught to categorize lives into 'success' or 'failure' based on the scenery of the stage. But would you still call the man in the house on the hill 'successful' if you saw the ruthlessness required to build it? If his wealth was purchased with the lives of others, is he a mentor or a predator? Would the young billionaire still impress you if you knew her ascent was paved with discarded morals and the exploitation of every soul she encountered?

True power is a divine paradox: The Master does not pursue power, and thus, he is truly powerful. The ordinary man frantically reaches for it, and thus, he never has enough. When you are content to simply be, without the static of comparison or the friction of competition, you command a respect that status cannot buy. We must ask: Which is more destructive—the high of worldly success or the low of worldly failure? When you realize that you possess everything without 'owning' anything, the entire world belongs to you. But when you reach for what you lack, the world becomes a sea of suffering. To follow the script of the crowd is to betray your own spirit. Free from the hunger of desire, you perceive the mystery of the Great I Am. Caught in desire, you see only the void.

When we label one thing as beautiful, we inadvertently create the category of 'ugly'; when we define one act as good, we define another as bad. These dualities are the walls of a prison built by other people's standards. To label one person 'successful' is to condemn another as a failure, yet these are only words. Labels fixed to the stage by those who do not know the soul. Do not chase a perfection defined by the crowd; follow only the resonance of your own mind.

Within every human heart, there sits a Book of Truth. Its pages may be weathered by time and its cover tarnished by the world, but the text remains indelible within us. We must realize that misfortune and fortune are not external events, but states of the mind. A burning desire for gain is nothing more than a pit of fire, and the indulgence of greed is a sea of suffering. If 'success' requires you to plunge into that sea or cast your morals to the wind, what have you truly won? To succeed by mortal standards, one must 'want' with such desperation that they surpass all spiritual limitations to possess a thing. To be true to yourself, you must realize that your essence cannot be bought; you cannot serve the Great I Am while worshiping the currency of the stage.

Consider the moth fluttering around a light in the dead of night. The brilliance dazzles its senses so completely that its own life becomes secondary to the glow. It cannot differentiate between the warmth of a candle, the hum of a bulb, or the lethal spark of a bug zapper. In its desperate pursuit of the light, it exhausts itself for a prize it can never truly possess. And in the end, it dies for nothing. Money often acts as this same blinding force.

A truly wealthy man is not measured by his hoard, but by his capacity to understand the sufferings of the poor and humble. True success is found when the how is as pure as the what. A greedy man may be materially saturated yet spiritually bankrupt; a contented man may be materially lacking yet spiritually infinite. Gain itself is neutral, but we must audit its origin. If your profit was harvested from the suffering of others or the erosion of your soul, it is not a gain, it is a debt.

Success carries a weight many do not anticipate. The kings of industry may live in physical luxury but remain mentally imprisoned by stress, while the laborer may feel physical fatigue but enjoy the tranquility of a quiet mind. Which of these is a gain, and which is a loss? Only a man of insight can look past the dazzling lights and see the reality of the spirit.

Your success is measured solely by the integrity of your journey, regardless of the height of your position. If you build your empire through honest labor and morally driven ambition, every asset you acquire is 'good’, a tangible reflection of your internal light. But if your climb was fueled by deceit, greed, or the abandonment of your morals, you possess nothing more than a hollow vessel.

Many view money as a universal solvent for all difficulties, yet they fail to understand the new complexities it brings. Wealth is not a 'quick fix'; it simply changes the nature of the trials you must face. While money can purchase pleasure, only a mind free of greed has the capacity to enjoy it. Consider the tragedy of the man who possesses millions but is too paralyzed by fear to spend a single cent; this is the most primal form of greed. If you chase security at the cost of your soul, your heart will never truly unclench. Like a parasitic force, greed will devour your being from the inside out. True inspiration requires very little, and true appreciation is found exactly where you stand. If you are not content with what you have now, you will find that 'more' is a horizon that only moves further away.

True success is never found in the quantity of your harvest, but in the purity of the soil you cultivated to grow it. On the world's stage, it is irrelevant whether you are bathed in favor or cast into humiliation; the only metric that holds weight is the truth you speak to yourself. The moment you crave the approval of others, you become their prisoner, granting them the power to cage your spirit. To chase a dream that was scripted by another is to pursue a hollow prize. Yet, to achieve your own vision, no matter how small it may appear to the world, is to gain everything.

A man of insight can look upon a dull, jagged stone and perceive the magnificence of ancient mountains and vast, winding rivers. He can look into a single sentence from the sages of old and read the very mind of the Infinite. In doing so, he adopts the vision of the noble and the mind of the wise. This man has successfully unshackled his heart from the love of money and discovered the only success that is eternal.

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