We’re all dummies when it comes to this recession. We have been dumbed down by a false ideology that hammers us daily with a bunch of big fat lies: there are no easy answers; there is no light at the end of the tunnel; there is no end in sight.

Enough already with all this economic trouble-talk. There is only one thing that is really happening, and that is the demise of the great hallucination of materialism: the idea of money. Where once money was something of value, a gold coin you could bite with your teeth, now it is a bunch of numbers in cyberspace completely at the mercy of—listen up, this is important—emotions.

If you want a cure for this epidemic of economic malaise, start waking up to the deeper reality that it is your own internal state that defines what is real. That’s your job.  You haven’t lost that job. You can find it by looking beyond the conditioned reality that claims to know “what is” and discovering the eternal reality that always is.  These teachings are everywhere.  The invisible institutions that are responsible for the truths that underlie all truths have not collapsed and never will. Let’s see how the essence of these timeless teachings can be applied to today’s crisis.

Lesson One. Imagine in one instant that money has vanished. There is nothing in your wallet. All accounting in the world turns into zeros. There is no record of what you owe or what you are due. You have no debts and you have no savings. There are no price tags and no bills to be collected or paid. Just imagine it.

Still imagining that all money has vanished into thin air, look outside your window, as I am right now, watching a bountiful rainstorm. Money may have vanished but nothing out there has changed. In fact nothing in your house has changed either. All your physical possessions are still right there, the symbols of the world you create around you.

Think deeply about your real life, that which suddenly comes to the forefront whenever disaster, tragedy and trauma disrupt the status quo. What is your real life? It is the people you love, the family you are bound to, the various communities you cherish, the creatures that are dear to you, and aspects of the greater world that have touched you at an emotional level. It is the world of your mind and your feelings, your memories and your dreams, your imagination and your ambitions. All that would still be there when, in our imaginary exercise, all traces of The Economy have vanished.

To know this is to begin to wake up to the reality of what truly is. It will ease letting go the false notion that “money is what makes the world go round,” one of the most horrible lies ever told.  Every prophecy—and there are many, coming out of every known tradition—has announced that the coming of the true new will be presaged by the collapse of the institutions of materialism. Look it up. Worldwide economic collapse is a necessary phase before we enter a new era, one that holds all of the positive prospects for human and planetary evolution. The economic contraction is generating a fertile chaos of opportunity and rebirth.

That being said, what does an individual like you and me do to navigate these wild and certainly frightening times? Most of us are going to hold on to the old falling apart bridge as long as it represents stability but inevitably we must let go and jump into the waters of the unknown. And some of us are preparing to dive in now because our job is to get the life rafts ready. You might want to decide if you are one of those, which means your time is now.  Look for your comrades and refine your skills because the times they have a’changed. 

To sum up, Lesson One is about thinking clearly and calmly about this unsettled and unpredictable time. Think outside the scary headlines and TV news bites—it will help you build your personal emotional lifeboat. Many of us have lost money, equity and investments that represented security in a future time. Because we were so conditioned to believe that money = security, it appears that what was lost was being secure in the future. In reality, only the thought of being secure in the future was affected. We can still be secure in the future, because it is our commitment to take care of each other that guarantees security, and we can invest in that right now with our thoughts, feelings and actions.

Lesson Two. When there is chaos all around, unify within. This is the time to anchor our values in personal morals and integrity. It is easy in times like this to be angry and resentful because others are apparently at fault.  Such thoughts don’t benefit us and are a distraction from seeing the new path that lies before us. Instead of surrendering to the impulse to judge those who have transgressed in one way or another, try imagining that these people are us, before we learned better.

Paying attention to our personal ethics and re-establishing the value of our honorable actions will yield dividends that include material security.  There is a quality of stability in a good reputation that attracts energy in an unstable time.  In tiny increments, become more responsible, more trustworthy, more reliable, more forthright.  This is not a time to join the irresponsible group mind of those that created our current crisis but to emanate a mindset that focuses on the cure for the sickness that has come to pass.  Do you want to be the patient or do you want to be the doctor? Make up your mind.

As we look at our personal balance sheet showing where we stand within the new economic realities, our strongest ally is a calm, clear mind.  It is calming to adapt a stance of integrity.  The opposite occurs when we engage in deception and evasion. If others are getting away with self-serving schemes do we want to do the same or make the effort to keep our dealings clear and honorable? It may look like a solution to avoid responsibility, but in the end it keeps us in the swamp instead of the clear stream.

A lot of sleazy people made a lot of money in recent times. Yes, they did, and now they, too, have lost fortunes and lost more than fortunes. Those people have a brand of unhappiness that you and I don’t want. The sickness of moral compromise sucks away at the survival energy required to pull out of the pit.  In hard times, we need all our personal resources, because it is the performance of the core of our being that will generate the recovery of the external situation.

Lesson Three. Trust time. Time is far more than a clock or a calendar that enforces service to the system. Time is a dimension of consciousness. You exist in the one and only present moment that synchronizes all possible realities. What is, is. You got laid off today. That is what is. Before, you had a reliable formula for making things work, paying bills, taking care of life’s many decisions. Now that formula is shattered. If you trust time, you can walk forward saying to yourself, “If the old formula is gone, a new formula is coming.”

The formula is synchronicity, that which comes together in time. Everything exists within that formula. Reality is a kaleidoscopic turning of all possible realities that consciousness stops, so to speak, and declares as real. Lots of factors condition consciousness so that we either see things expanded or contracted. It’s like your camera…you can zoom in or zoom out. If you open your lens you see a bigger picture. When people describe recovering from a crushing difficulty that contracts them into feeling scared, alone and abandoned they speak of gradually letting more of the outer world in.

When we come out of the dark cave of mourning and into the full spectrum world that includes, once again, infinite possibilities, we are signaling an intention to survive. The Universal Law of Attraction says what we emanate from our deepest self has the power to draw toward it that which matches this energy vibration. Isn’t a Recession a perfect time to practice the art of attracting what you need to be healthy and whole without the interference of a corrupt money system?

Time works on the physical plane like waves on the ocean. Waves rise and gather energy into a point of collapse and then dissolve back into the eternal source over and over again. The ocean doesn’t get used up making waves and every wave is unique. In nature’s reality, we are a sea of manifestation moved around by waves of time. If we can join that reality with our minds, we will realize that we are living in a state of perpetual abundance.