The Power of Giving
In the 15th century, Ignatius of Loyola, a Spanish nobleman and founder of the Jesuit order came up with a prayer that included the words “to give and not to count the cost” – I’m sure you’ve heard of it and how the rest of it goes.
I have found that the meaning of ‘giving’ is something very few people really understand.
Sometimes it’s seen as an obligation – something we ‘should’ do, like giving to charity and so on and more often than not this ‘giving’ is done under a level of duress, however minor.
Look at the charity ads on TV – they all attempt to create some sort of feeling of guilt about what ‘you’ should be doing to support their particular interest.
They propose that if you give to their charity you’ll be seen as ‘good’ or you may feel ‘good’ that you have satisfied an obligation.
But in most cases people ‘give’ with the expectation of getting something back.
They give their time and effort in exchange for a salary or wage – but this isn’t ‘giving’ it’s just a formal transaction of ‘selling’.
Selling has nothing to do with giving.
When you or I sell something whether it be our time and expertise, our labour, or our book or training programme, we do it in a formal or informal ‘contract’ – there is an agreed price for what we do.
Sometimes ‘payment’ is ‘in kind’ rather than money, where the purchasing party provides a service or product to us that ‘matches’ the value of what we ‘gave’ them.
In these circumstances what you or I do for someone, what we might feel we are ‘giving’ them (our time, expertise etc) is a sale, not a gift.
And that’s the thing. If we give someone a ‘gift’ then we don’t usually expect something back – or do we?
Do we ‘count the cost’ of what we have given, and expect ‘equal measure’ in return, or even ‘greater measure’.
If there is any expectation of some sort of return directly related to any gift, then it’s really selling and not giving.
Whenever we believe we’re giving but are expecting anything in return we’re operating on the lower level of Hawkins’ ‘Scale of Consciousness’ or Esther Hicks’ ‘Low Flying Disc’.
Hawkins scale of consciousness, which I’ve discussed previously, is divided into two areas, the higher area of ‘Power’ and the lower area of ‘Force’.
‘Giving’ in order to receive, whatever it is, is an expression of ‘force’. If you don’t get what you expect in return than you resent what you’ve given.
This is ‘giving’ in order to receive – or in other words selling.
But here’s the rub.
Even if you simply expect ‘thanks’ or gratitude for your ‘gift’ rather than measurable reward you still have an expectation.
You expect to get ‘something’ back.
And if you don’t get thanks for your ‘generous donation’ then to say the least you feel a little ‘put out’.
The more you operate in the lower levels of the scale the less you are operating in harmony with the Universe.
You see, when you are in the ‘Power’ level you naturally give without expecting any reward and without ‘counting the cost’.
When you or I love someone, especially if that love is unconditional (on our part) then it should end there. Unconditional love is giving of your soul without any expectation of the person you love returning that love. It’s a one-way thing.
If we expect love, or anything else, back, then it becomes a transaction – a sale.
My love for your love – never going to work is it?
Apply the principle to everything else you give – true giving is a one-way thing.
But – when you’re operating at the power level, in the 5th dimension of consciousness, there is a Universal ‘blockchain’ that records everything you do – what you gave to whom and when.
And it all adds up.
Things start to happen, you start to ‘receive’ from the Universe ‘out of the blue’ as they say.
The difference is that what you receive from the Universe is not usually related to what you’ve given. It’s more likely to be a result of whatever you’ve been manifesting for which could be something completely different, nothing to do with whatever you’ve been ‘giving out’.
Certainly, when you give without thought of reward and without counting the cost, you will receive in equal or greater measure – but you must not have ‘expectations’.
But, there is a catch!
The Universe will offer you rewards, it will offer you what you have been wishing for or manifesting using the Law of Attraction and Vibration, but often when this happens, we don’t recognise it!
It arrives in a different way or form than what we thought we’d asked for.
(Be careful what you wish for!)
Its very common that people have difficulty receiving, receiving thanks or gifts from others – it’s because we’re not taught to receive, or to give’, we’re taught and trained to operate at the lower level, to undertake transactions.
I’ll do this for you if you’ll do that for me.
That’s how the world works, we’re told.
Well it may be how ‘the world’ works but its not how the Universe works.
Only when you and I fully understand this, will we be able to start to move away from the transactional state of mind (the Force level) and towards the higher levels of what we might call ‘disconnected’ giving and receiving (the Power level).
Let go of the idea of ‘exchange’ – then we can grow and evolve.
