There’s an old Korean tale about a magical millstone that would produce and grind anything you wanted. It was stolen from the good farmer who owned it by a thief who put it on a ship to carry it far away. Salt was very precious and rare at that time. It couldn’t even be found in the ocean. So the thief told the millstone to make salt. But it made so much salt that the ship sank to the bottom of the ocean, where the millstone continued to make salt until the entire ocean was filled with it. It continues to this day.
The preconceptions and assumptions you pick up during your life are just like the millstone. Even if you do not see them buried at the bottom of the ocean of your mind, little by little, they affect your world in profound ways. Your preconceptions are associated with emotions that came from experiences, which then inform the concepts you use to live your life.
For example, there was one man who wanted to make a lot of money. He tried and tried, but always failed. Then one day he remembered how his family used to fight about money when he was a kid, and realized that deep down, he actually hated money. That association between money and his family’s discord, and all of the emotions that went along with it, had been hindering his goals without his realizing it. But once he shed light on his subconscious preconceptions and emotions, he was able to move forward using a more mature concept of money.
Money is an area of life often affected by preconceptions and for that reason many people feel powerless where money is concerned. Why? Because true power comes from within, from the heart. Like any other relationship, money requires love. Even those who do not fear money do not actually love it. They lust after it or cling to it without letting it breathe and grow. Many have trouble maintaining the loving detachment necessary to be masters of money.
To make money grow, you need to love money. Otherwise, it runs away from you or it withers and dies. Loving money, like loving people, doesn’t mean using it to feed your insecurities or distract you from your fears, nor does it mean hoarding it in attempts to fill the bottomless pit of your ego. Loving money means accepting it as it is: a useful, impartial tool to achieve the goals of your life.
Do you think that you could really love money? There are many types of “love.” This type of love is not the “root of all evil.” In this love of money, there is consideration for the well-being of others and a goal of self-realization.
Here’s a secret, a secret that wasn’t even discussed in the movie The Secret. The goals you have for your money influence your ability to attract it. It’s true that people who are already rich have the knowledge, influence, and power to keep getting richer. However, the less selfish your goals for how you use your money are, the better you should be able to attract it. The best goals for attracting money are Hong Ik—spending money for everyone’s happiness and joy. If you have such a goal, then not only will you be able to make more money, but as you do it, you will create a strong energy field in which people’s souls will evolve and their consciousness will be raised.
So if you want to make money, then you need confidence and passion about a clear Hong Ik goal. But most of all, you need to love money. If you don’t love money, or if you’re not sure, try this exercise to examine your relationship with money:
1. Write down your thoughts about money. It doesn’t matter whether they are negative or positive. Just jot down any thoughts that come to mind. You can even repeat to yourself, “I love money,” and see what comes up for you. Or you could write down past situations you associate with money. Write everything down without judgment.
2. Write down common perceptions of money that you know about. They can be ones you’ve heard a lot or ones you want to have.
3. Circle the thoughts and perceptions on your list that you want to keep.
4. Write down in terms of percentage how much you’ve acted on your concept of money, based on your will. If you haven’t acted on your will, then what were the obstacles?
5. Look at your answers. Do you really love money? Or do you have preconceptions that inhibit you from loving money freely? Really examine your subconscious thoughts about money.
6. Set goals for how you want to use your money. Create a widely benefitting goal that touches your heart. From now on, when you think of money, think of your goal, and love money as much as you love that goal.
7. Remind yourself of your love of money three times a day for one minute. It will create strong power for changing your concept of money and how well you act on it.