Ending The War Between Dollars and Sense

Growing up in southern Louisiana, I heard a lot about something called "poverty". As a child,  I didn't know what that meant. I knew that sometimes I wore old clothes, sometimes my clothes were new. I knew that sometimes I played outside without shoes and I loved the feel of grass on my feet. I knew that most times I didn't get the toys that I saw other children playing with but I loved pretending that leaves were boats sailing on the tiny streams made by the rain. I knew that I did not like eating rice and peas with no meat but I really liked cold sugar water as a treat. I knew a lot of things when I was a child but I did not know poverty.   I didn't know that the clothes, food, family, school, and fun that I did have were not enough.

I didn't know that I was missing something. I had no idea that a lack of money automatically deprived me of necessary things, relationships, connections, and feelings.  I was clueless to the fact that money was so important.


Have you ever heard the sayings, "Money makes the world go round" or "The love of money is the root of all evil", or "Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will" or "If you want to reap financial blessings then you have to sow financially"?

I don't have to share dozens of quotes or go into a long history of money for all of us to understand that money is serious business in this world. We're either making it, hoarding it, trying to make it, wishing we had it, denying that we need it, trying to get rid of it, or hoping for more of it.

Money is a central component of our lives. Not only does it largely determine the things we have or don't have, it largely determines our mood and our feelings. With money in the bank, we feel secure, happy, joyful, safe and content. Without money and the security it seems to bring, we feel vulnerable, worried, anxious, depressed, and afraid.

When people say that money does not matter, it's either coming from a place of plenty (like Jim Carrey saying, "I think everyone should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed so they can see that it's not the answer") or a place of "sour grapes" (like someone who is piss poor preaching about how unnecessary money is).

Because money appears to be such a cornerstone to a relatively happy existence, we've got to approach this in a different way.

Normally, I'd tell a story, or engage you in some other way to slowly lead to the central point; but not this time. The concept of money is so central to the concept of lack that we have to hit it head-on.

Money is so important in maintaining the illusion of scarcity, that we can't beat around the bush. We can't pussyfoot around. We have to take off the kid gloves and put on our big girl and big boy pants.

Let's take the bull by the horns and go straight to the truth.

Are you ready? Let's go.


Money is not just the paper and metal we use to buy goods and services. It's much bigger than that.

Money is movement. Movement (through the 5+ senses) is the currency we use to navigate this world and to get what we want.

And what we want is experience. That's it.

More precisely, what we want is a personal experience. Forget about judging it as right, wrong, good, bad or whatever. Personal experience is the bulls-eye and, like champion marksmen, we hit that bad boy every time.

We are whores for personal experience. Mooji says we're "promiscuous", Jeff Foster says we must "admit everything".

Sounds like a whore to me.

Movement is a critical mechanism of experience. It's movement/money that is the root of all evil...which means it's also the root of all that's good. Movement is the 5(+) senses.

Is your sight selecting what it wants to see?
Is your hearing selecting what it wants to hear?
Are you selecting the thoughts that are arising?
Is your "body"  choosing from a menu of feelings and only selecting those that it wants to feel?

Nope. Nope. Nope and.....Nope.

You're wide open...just takin' it.

You accept feelings of offense, shock, anger, disbelief, joy, and confusion with no resistance at all. You're hot, cold, sick, well, high, and low whenever the opportunity presents itself.  You see blue, red, black, orange, yellow and brown with abandon. You hear birds, cars, people, wind, music and the voice in your head all day long.

You're sensing it all and there's nothing you can or want to do about it! You're like the open space around us that just allows any and everything to happen within it.

Who wants to stop hearing, seeing, tasting, feeling and moving?

Can we see and tell the truth about this.

Just like our flag symbolizes America, money symbolizes personal experience. Is that the right comparison?

Fundamentally, you do not care what the experience is. You honestly don't give a shit. Heaven and hell are both experiences...and that's what you really want, so either will do.

So what about mo money, mo problems? (shout out to the late Biggie Smalls)

Money, or lack of money, and the problems and pleasure it seems to bring is not the problem. Movement and experience are not the problems. Sensing is not the problem.

If there is a problem, it's the attempt to capture experience. The movement to try to capture it, is the thing you're trying to capture!

The truth is the drive to get, keep, and get rid of money is redundant.

"Well, that's all fine and good, but how do I pay my bills, feed my kids, and everything else"? I'm glad you asked.

I said earlier that money is movement and movement is the currency we use to navigate this world. Movement and currency don't need our help. Experience will take care of itself, but personal experience does require some attention.

From here (wherever we are right now) is where we can cease to strive to capture experience in the hopes of making something happen.

I have attended to personal experience (which includes my career, care for my children, my relationships and my own well-being) by practicing letting come and letting go.

Letting experience come is easy, but letting go (at least for me) is a nightmare. It is hard as hell to let go of experience.  It takes a butt load of practice because initially, it felt like I was losing something. Trusting is also something that requires practice but if I want a say in what my personal experience is then trust needs my attention. Not trust in anything, just plain old trust.

I called a truce between dollars and sense when I began to remember my childhood.  Back then, every moment was now...now...now...and now. Back then nothing was missing. That state has never changed. Every moment is still now and nothing is missing.

From this safe place, I observe how movement is taking care of itself. I see how currency is flowing. I feel what sensation is doing. And all of this without my interference.

There is no war going on here.

I originally wrote this blog about 5 years ago and at that time, my house was being foreclosed, I was going through a nasty divorce, my car had just been towed and I was living in my sister's cold, unfurnished basement.  Still, nothing was missing because experience is the target...and I had that in the bag.

Plus, all of that was happening to ME, so personal experience was a homerun!

We really do have exactly what we want right now with and without money.  All that other stuff is icing on the cake...or a kick in the teeth (whichever way you want to judge it).