LAW #6

Giving and receiving are one movement.

Whenever we close ourselves to one, we inevitably close ourselves to the other.

 

Wherever there is fear, some spiritual law is being violated. Every part of life is affected by this principle: fear keeps us from living in alignment with the divine.

For example, when we have a desire to be healthy because we fear being sick, we prevent good health. When we’re afraid of growing older, we keep ourselves from feeling young. If we fear being poor, we block abundance. Fear of loneliness keeps us from finding real companionship. And if we fear life with a companion, we stop ourselves from enjoying self-containment.

It’s the same with giving and receiving. If we fear giving, we can’t receive. It’s impossible; it’s a matter of psychic incompatibility. This is a simple mathematical equation—a law of spiritual physics. Such laws express an order that can’t be broken.

As a result of our unwillingness to give, we are constantly shortchanged. Whenever this happens, it seems to confirm our belief that it’s not safe to give—because we don’t get a fair return.

In such an untruthful stance, a person’s psyche can’t possibly be in alignment with spiritual law. We are closed off and can’t respond to the truth. As a result, we can’t open ourselves to receiving.

All because we refuse to give.

Gaining renewable energy

When we learn to give, we will, paradoxically, experience that the more we give, the more our energy is renewed within. That’s the law of the universal life principle working through us.

When we operate from the separated state of the Lower Self, however, we are stuck in duality. Dualistic logic says the more we give, the less we have. So to the limited ego mind—where we are caught in the illusion of duality—it seems giving depletes us.

But that’s not how life works.

Taking this a step further, consider that in truth, giving and receiving are one. For if we have something we want to give someone and the other will not receive it, we are hurt. But when they take what we offer, they give something to us.

In the receiving is the giving, and in the giving is the receiving. There is really no difference between the two.

The law of giving and receiving is important to understand. It’s taught in every religious scripture that’s ever existed.

Unfortunately, many people believe that giving is a religious command issued forth by an arbitrary authority. It is therefore a demand being made on us by an outside force. We only hope they will reward us with something good in return.

It is like a form of bargaining.

The greater truth of life

We all have a mechanism built into us. This mechanism makes it impossible to receive when we withhold our innate desire and ability to give.

Since the two movements of giving and receiving are really one, it’s not possible for one to flow and not the other. If we won’t trust life and we hold back, we can’t enter the flow of life.

Then the whole process of giving and receiving comes to a halt. This is what stops the grace of God from flowing through us. It’s how we separate ourselves from the riches all around us that are just waiting to fill us.

Let’s take a quick look at jealousy, envy and competitiveness. Why are these never true feelings? Because they derive from the false assumption that there’s a limited supply of good things on Earth. Therefore, according to this false belief, whatever one person gets must result in less for someone else.

So if we feel deprived because someone else has something we don’t, we’re neglecting the greater truth of life. What is the truth? If there is something we lack, we are the ones cutting ourselves off from having it.

Moving with mutuality

The movement that bridges the gap between duality and unity is called mutuality. Nothing—absolutely nothing—can be created without mutuality. This is a spiritual law.

In short, mutuality is the process of two apparently opposite things moving toward each other for the purpose of uniting and creating. Together they form one complete whole.

This movement, which leads us toward unity, involves a harmonious give and take—mutual cooperation. It is what eliminates separation.

During the process of mutuality, two things must open toward each other. A yes must meet a yes for something to happen. By cooperating and affecting each other, something new can come into being.

One of the first places we can apply this principle is to the relationship we have with ourselves. We must meet our inner self halfway.

When we do this, we connect ourselves with the source of all that is. When we won’t, but instead choose to operate solely from our ego, we are closed off from receiving the abundance of universal life. As such, we remain poor.

For if we can’t receive, we must stay deprived.

That’s why it says in Holy Scripture that the poor will become poorer and the rich richer. This is one of the spiritual laws of life.

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