@Solve et Coagula,
Wealth in the Light of Initiatic Science III
'The poor don't know how to use their poverty as the most effective means of evolution; they constantly rebel against it. Why? Because they want the money that the rich have. They would like others to think that they find wealth offensive but, in fact, they long for it with all their might. If the rich had a clearer understanding of the question, they would distribute all their wealth to the poor, and the poor would refuse it and say, ''No, no; we don't want anything; we're very well off just as we are!'' If they were truly enlightened, the rich would want to strip themselves of their wealth and the poor would want nothing more than they have. For the sake of their own salvation, therefore, the rich should turn to the poor and beg them to accept their riches, and the poor should refuse adamantly. You will say that I'm turning everything upside down. Exactly! Because this is how we can get everything right side up again!'
how people would scoff at the idea that the rich should offer their wealth to the poor and the poor should refuse it! So why do I talk about it? Is it for your amusement and my own? No. Be patient and you will hear some very interesting explanations. Can the rich or the poor explain the reason for their circumstances? Do they know why some people are rich and others poor? If you ask a priest he will tell you that it is the will of God. What have the rich rich done to deserve their fortune and the poor to deserve their poverty? Nobody can answer this because they have rejected the notion of reincarnation which explains every individual situation. Those who are rich today have earned their wealth, in one way or another, in previous incarnations. Initiatic Science tells us that, sooner or later, we always get what we ask for. Whether what you ask for be good or bad, you will get it. The Lord gives every creature what they ask Him for, and if it turns out to be bad for them, it is not His fault. If you ask for a burden and then find yourself crushed beneath its weight, you cannot blame the Lord. It is a terrible thing not to foresee the long-term consequences of what you ask for. If you knew in advance how things would turn out, if you foresaw that the satisfaction of your desires would lead to unhappiness or illness, you wouldn't ask for them. This is why, in Initiatic Science, the disciples begin by learning that some things should be asked for and others should not.
In any case, one thing is certain, and that is that the rich are rich because they have cultivated certain qualities and worked for their wealth. The law is always faithful and true. You will say, 'But they cheated and lied. They got rich by fraud and violence'. That may well be, but, even if they did use such means, the law says that they must be given wealth because they have done everything in their power to get it. Of course, what the law does not say is whether they will keep their wealth for long nor whether it will satisfy them and give them peace and joy. But they will get what they asked for. They may have succeeded by using illicit means, but they have succeeded. What they don't know, of course, is what the consequences of their success will be. To be sure, not all the rich have used deceit and dishonesty to achieve wealth. some have become rich through their own hard work or thanks to an inheritance, by chance or thanks to a discovery. It is not possible to enumerate each particular case.
Take the case of the Jews, for instance: most of the major businesses are in their hands today. And who made this situation possible? Christians. In their ignorance and hatred, Christians persecuted the Jews and this persecution led to their developing some exceptional qualities that enabled them to survive even in the worst conditions. It is true that a practice such as circumcision (which is based on an age-old science), through the modifications it produces in the functioning of the endocrine glands, has contributed to a particular trend in the evolution of Jews. But it is Christians who, without realizing it, drove the Jews to develop their financial skills and, today, it is they who rule the world. To be sure, there are also Christians and Muslims who have become immensly rich through the oil industry but none of them has the abilities and that special intelligence that Jews have. In one way or another, therefore, the rich have earned their wealth.
And now, let's talk about Initiates. Initiates have no desire to be rich because their aim is not to settle down in the world nor to rule over it. An Initiate wants, above all, to become a luminous beacon, a shining light and, cosequently, he has no wish to encumber himself with things that would prevent him from devoting himself to this divine task. An Initiate wants to be free and detached in order to work on himself and others; it is because he refuses to burden himself that he is able to make continual progress and go from strength to strength until he becomes truly formidable. He doesn't need to worry about protecting his money from thieves, falling prices on the stock exchange or the devaluation of the franc of the dollar. This is why I say that those who are always in hot pursuit of wealth are fools: they don't understand that, because of this, their soul will never know anything but emptiness. What good wil it do them to swallow up the whole world? I would be different if they used some of their wealth to help very gifted young people to become outstanding artists or scientists, for instance. But, no; they keep it all for themselves and never help anyone; they are only interested in opening more and more branch offices or shops and ruining their competitors. And, as they know nothing of the laws, they don't know that, when they come back to earth in their next incarnation, they will be beggars.
Believe me, many beggars we see everywhere today are the reincarnation of people who were very rich in a previous incarnation but who were also very selfish and tight-fisted. It is good to be rich. Yes, but it is only good to be rich if it allows you to be useful to others, not if it means that you despoil them and give a free rein to your craving for destruction. So many people use the power their money gives them to pull strings behind the scenes and do all kinds fo despicable things. If they only knew what they were storing up for themselves! But they don't care one jot about that: they have other irons in the fire: And this is why, one day, the Invisible World will decide to pull the floor out from under their feet and let them all collapse. And they will collapse - all of them. The time is drawing near. The Invisible World gives each human being the chance to manifest himself, and all that he does is recorded until, having given a free rein to his basest inclinations for long enough, the time comes for him to be judged. And the laws are terrible! This is what human beings don't realize. They live in darkness and, even when great Masters come to enlighten them, they reject them and refuse to believe what they say.
Of course, anyone can see that: all those great Masters, all those Initiates who have dedicated their lives to discovering truth, who made such great sacrifices and proved their absolute disinterestedness, kindness and greatness of soul - they are all misguided. It is the idiots, brutes and criminals of this world that are on the right track. No, no; believe me, nothing could be further from the truth! In fact, I will show you that you don't know how to read the book of living nature; you have never learned to read the language of plants, mountains, lakes and animals - or of mankind. Let me give you just one example ot of thousands: when the sun rises who sees it first? Those who are at the bottom of a canyon or those who are on top of a mountain? Those at the top of the mountain, of course. In other words, it is those who are purest, most noble and most elevated who are the first to see and grasp the great truths. Goodness knows how many hundreds of years it will be before the common run of benightend fools begins to grasp few smatterings as well. This image of the mountain tops lit by the first rays of the rising sun is a lesson. The great book of Nature is laid out before us and we have to decipher and interpret it; we shall never be misled if we do this. Most human beings trample this book underfoot, that is why they are so deeply plunged into error and illusion.
Go and look at all those who set out to swallow up the whole world and see what a state they are in a few years later: they are preparing to end their days in clinics or asylums because their nervous system cannot stand the strain. They believed that wealth would give them security, pleasure and power, and it does give them these things; that's true. Unfortunetly, it is also gives them something else. They are constantly harassed and have nothing solid to hold on to inwardly. But Initiates, whose only desire is for light, love and purity, live in a state of total fulfilment. Their only concern - apart from the barest necessities in the way of food, clothing and shelter - is how to help others. No one is happier than they and yet, instead of imitating them, the poor spend their time moaning and envying the rich. They fail to understand that their poverty gives them spiritual conditions that could help them to discover another world and to dedicate themselves to a sublime ideal. They are free but, as they don't know how to use their freedom, they are no better than the rich and are just as much to be pitied.
I know, of course, that the rich will never beg the poor to relieve them of their riches. Nor will the poor refuse the invitation. The idea is ludicrous. But I simply wanted to make the point that a rich man is so weighed down by his burden of wealth that he needs to be relieved of some of that weight. Look at how he walks: shoulders bowed and hands behind his back, his fingers constantly moving as though they were autmatically counting. And, as he never looks where he's going, he stumbles against a branch and falls down. And a poor man who is an idealist is no better off: walking along with his head in the clouds and not looking where he is going, he ends by tumbling into a ditch. You have to be sensible and learn to look both up and down while you're walking. A whole philosophy is contained in the way one walks.
Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov