There is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
We have all heard the saying, "There's no such thing as a free
lunch." The way most people interpret that saying is from the
human point of view. To them, this saying means, you may think
you are getting something for nothing or getting "away" with
something, but in the end, that something will end up costing
you.
This can be applied to anything from cheating on your taxes (and
ending up in jail) to having to return a bunch of favors by
doing something you don't want to.
Look around you; there are examples of this everywhere. The
woman who finds a rich man to marry but must put up with his
extramarital affairs. The businessman who provides handsomely
for his family but never spends any time with them because he is
always at work. The person who treats his friends poorly to make
himself feel important until the day he has no friends left.
There is always a price to pay.
Sure, this is human, you might say, but this is not a Spiritual
concept. If God is all-giving, there is a free lunch.
Yes, God is all-giving. God is all potentiality. But God has to
work through us, and this Universe operates by Law. Law that is
impersonal, mechanical and exact -- a mathematical equation with
a big equal sign (=) in the middle of it.
So, as dollars and cents are US currency, the Universe has a
currency. The currency of the Universe is Spiritual or Mental
Coin.
What exactly is Spiritual or Mental Coin? Mental coin is the
work it takes in consciousness to create the mental equivalent
of what you want. There is no other way to demonstrate
something. If you do not have the consciousness for something,
you will not have it.
The coin that you pay is the time, effort, consistency and
constancy to stay in the consciousness you must have to
demonstrate the object you desire.
Let's say you desire a new luxury car. You have test-driven a
few. You like the handling, you like the ride, you like the
comfort, you like the smell of the leather seats, you even like
the looks you get as you drive around.
The Universe is not going to give you a car just because you say
you want one. There is no free lunch. There is a price to pay.
Your price for a new luxury car may be: 1) believing you deserve
such a car; 2) believing you can afford such a car and all that
entails (car payment, increased insurance, higher maintanence
costs, garage space, valet tips for taking care of it); 3) not
worrying about what other may think of you having that kind of
car, and 4) believing you are "the kind of person" who owns a
luxury car (self-perception).
Whewwww. No wonder luxury cars cost so much!
These are some hefty issues to deal with: your worthiness, your
sense of prosperity, your self-image. Having doubt or feelings
of unsureness in any of these areas will keep you from
experiencing that luxury car. Your mental coin is whatever it
takes to develop a consciousness that you are worthy of luxury,
that you are prosperous at all times, and that you are whatever
your idea is of a "rich" person.
How about something less materialistic, but equally concrete.
Say you are experiencing headaches every Monday after you get
home from work. You want to get rid of these headaches.
There is a price to pay. Your price is to figure out why you are
getting these headaches from a metaphysical standpoint and
rectify the situation. Headaches are usually caused by
self-criticism and fear. So you take a look at self-criticism
and fear. Are you criticizing yourself about something? Why is
the headache happening after work on a Monday? You realize that
as you face the first day of the work-week, you tell yourself
you can't possibly do all the things you need to accomplish this
week because you are not capable enough, you are not competent
enough, you are not smart enough, you are not organized enough,
and you are sure that this is the week your boss is going to
find that out and fire you. You have discovered the cause of
your headaches. Now the real work begins to develop a
consciousness where the self-criticism stops and self-image of
competency, capability, intelligence, etc. starts. That is the
mental coin you must pay. Don't cop out and take an aspirin.
Aspirin never made emotions go away.
What if you just yearn for more joy and happiness in your life.
There is a mental coin price for everything, concrete or not.
Again, your price is to develop a consciousness for experiencing
joy. You must see where your sadness or anger comes from. If it
comes from feeling helpless, not in control, the cost is knowing
you have total dominion in your life. You control everything by
what you think and feel. The power of the Universe is behind you
100%. When you accept that and believe that, you will lose your
feelings of helplessness and joy will have a place to enter your
life.
The concept of mental coin is not to be viewed discouragingly.
It may sound overwhelming to have to change your consciousness,
but work in consciousness can be done in minutes or years. It is
your choice. We must accept that this is the way the Universe
works, just as we accept the way gravity works. And when we
reach that higher consciousness, we can never move backwards. We
only have to pay one time.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, but once we accept the
price, we are more than half-way there to paying it. And what
rewards we shall reap!