Legend Of Wealth

(continued from Part One)

by Bob Mandel

After explaining what happened, the children took their parents to the Valley of the Sleeping Giant.

As they neared the place where the Giant slept, they realized that He was gone. They searched everywhere, but there was no sign of the good Giant.

Finally they led their parents into the cave where the town's gold and jewels glittered brilliantly. There, lying in the middle of this gigantic, golden glow was a radiant newborn baby, fast asleep, with the sweetest little smile on his face.

Meaning Of The Legend

If we want to wake up to true wealth, the story of the Sleeping Giant can provide valuable lessons. Primarily, it says that we, like the Giant, are asleep. If we don't recognize that we're asleep, how can we ever awaken?

What does it mean that we're asleep? It means that we're unconscious and that we're dreaming. We're unconscious because our reality is distorted by perceptions and sensations of a limited consciousness. We are trapped in a world we have imagined, a world of suffering, struggle, and scarcity. This world is like a movie; and we are sleepwalkers in a dream. Each of us is both the dreamer and the dreamed.

The problem is, we think it's real. It certainly looks real, feels real, smells real, tastes real, and sounds real. It seems scientifically measurable and governed by natural laws. Of course, there are always the interesting exceptions and questions. If a tree falls in the forest and nobodies there, does it make a crashing sound?

The more we have learned about the nature of reality, the more we have revised our definition of reality. Before Copernicus, reality was that Earth was the center of the Solar System. Before quantum physics, reality was linear, time and space clearly separate dimensions.

Our reality is rapidly changing with computers, satellites and intergalactic telescopes feeding us more information every day. But what if the very reality we are investigating is not the real thing at all? What if it's just a fragment of our imagination, a collective hallucination, culturally induced and passed down from generation to generation. What if we're dreaming?

The Giant sleeps by the cave of endless wealth. Is He the guardian of the treasure and the town or is he the enemy? Why did the Giant sleep and why by the cave?

Clearly He decided to sleep until the villagers awakened from their dream of conflict. And His bed was by the cave to symbolize that the villagers could reclaim their magnificent commonwealth when they awakened to their personal magnificence. And they could not awaken to their personal magnificence until they healed their relationships through prayer and forgiveness.

"Hard times gripped the village." The fall from grace is the descent into purgatory, which is the consequence of thinking we are sinners. Until we are forgiven, we remain in a state of separation from grace, doomed to struggle and poverty.

Following The Children

And then along came the children. The children must be the ones who save the day. They not only represent the innocence that must be reclaimed before true wealth can be attained; they are also symbolic of the inner child. The parents are emotionally crippled and mentally disturbed. There can be no healing without the heart of a child. The children embark on their adventure after school. They are the true students, unlike their parents who failed to learn their lessons.

Of course, the children love their parents and are motivated by their desire to save them. As Gurdiieff said, "All children want to take their parents to heaven." At first the children, much like their parents, argue amongst themselves whether the Giant is good or bad. Children learn from imitation. They are born mimics. They learn how to relate to each other by observing their role models. Naturally, the children copy their parents and dispute the Giant as did their elders .

It is a young girl who leads the way. The feminine is the capacity to receive, which is what is needed here.

All one hundred children surround the Giant in a circle and hold hands. The circle represents the unity of consciousness that is required to confront the Giant. The children know this instinctively. Their parents knew this once when they formed the commonwealth, but they have long since forgotten.

The children are propelled by a force greater than the Giant, an important point. They are aware that the source of power is not in an idol or demigod, but in themselves.

We can each tap this force for our individual and collective betterment, but we can neither contain nor possess it. It's bigger than all of us, even giants. The Giant is thus reduced to His appropriate role, an example of the way but not the way itself. Your higher self can lead you to your guru, but a true guru always leads you back to your higher self.

Awaken To Your Wealth

The earth rumbles, the Giant wakes up, and what does He do? He yawns, smiles and quietly tells them, "I am yours. You are mine."

Then He lovingly extends His arms to them. The Giant is powerful, but gentle, wise, and happy. His yawn is a taking in of new air, new life renewal, rebirth. His smile indicates the joy of awakening. He belongs to the children and the children belong to Him because there is no separation between His giantness and their innocence. They have undergone their rite of passage.

The Giant inhales and exhales, demonstrating the power of the breath of life. The children are transformed into giants. Releasing their fear of the Giant; having the courage to approach, touch, and stand on him; and then demanding that He awaken, the children have reclaimed their own magnitude.

The children, now giants, complete the healing of their parents by transforming them into giants, as well. This can be accomplished in unison because fear has departed and the feeling of commonwealth has returned.

Now everyone can be equal, parent and child, villager and villager. When the children lead their parents to the Valley of the Giant, He is no longer sleeping outside the cave. He is now a radiant, newborn baby, lying on the village treasure, with 'the sweetest smile on His face." This evokes the symbol of the baby Jesus, transferred from the manger to the cave, from poverty to wealth.

He can have it all once we release our fear, trust our children, and allow the child within us to lead the way to our true magnificence. We can wake up to wealth, but first we have to acknowledge that we are asleep.

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 "Wake Up To Wealth" 
by Bob Mandel.

About The Author

Bob Mandel has been a pioneer of self-improvement for over 20 years and is co-owner of Loving Relationship Training International and International Seminars Leadership Programs, Inc. He is the author of: Heart Over Heels (50 ways not to leave your lover), and Wake Up To Wealth. Bob can be reached through: ISLP, 21 Sabbaday Lane, Washington, CT 06793, USA. Visit his website for info on seminars and more: http://www.bobmandel.com