Making A Loss
"When you make a loss, at least, it will be someone else's gain!"
Introduction
Defining Making A Loss
Making a loss is defined here as the experience of losing money, i.e. not making a profit. It's also about gaining something less than one expected, i.e. being underpaid at work.
For example, you may lose money on an investment, or perhaps you brought a piece of furniture only to find later another store selling it at a cheaper price. Or, you may have discovered that the house you'd brought a few years ago isn't rising in value as much as you hoped to.
Making a loss is a subjective experience. Thus what kinds of experiences will make one feel as if they've made a loss will differ from one mind to another.
This article is about addressing the suffering states of mind that one can experiences the feeling of having made a loss so that one can experience greater happiness.
Making A Loss In Depth
In life, we will eventually make a loss. This is because life is just full of unpredictabilities.
No one can know whether there will be a discount on an item that one has just brought. And it's impossible for one to accurately predict whether a profit or a loss will be made from one's investments. Perhaps one has brought a house. But how much money would it cost to fix all the problems that the house will have in the future? Would one end up making a loss?
No one knows.
So, we can't predict the future. And because we cannot predict the future, we will all ultimately make a wrong choice from time to time. So it's natural that some of our choices will take us to an undesired outcome.
Making a loss just a part of life.
From a spiritual perspective, that unpredictable part of life is the part that is fun and most rewarding. It's full of disturbances, changes, lessons that can help one to experience and learn about the world and oneself in enlightening ways.
So, why can't one just be happy in life?
Importance
Importance Of Addressing Making A Loss
Let us look at some of the ways one can suffer when one cares too much about making a loss.
When one hates the idea of making a loss, one can experience the suffering states of the mind, in particular, the fears of losing money or being taken advantage of. When one carries such fears, one can often feel vulnerable and unsafe.
One can also experience negative states of regret if one ends up making a mistake. One can even dwell excessively in past events in self-judgemental thoughts of the things one could've done to have minimized the loss.
Do you often judge yourself whenever you've made the wrong choice?
When one has fears of making a loss, the fears can drive one to spend a lot of time and effort to avoid such scenarios from happening in life. For instance, constantly analyzing situations whether one is making a loss or a profit, checking prices for items in different stores for the best bargain, analyzing the pros and cons of relationships, and so forth.
Certainly, to a degree, we all naturally do things like these to protect ourselves from making a loss. There's nothing wrong with being smart with our investments, choices, and purchases. However, when one is driven by the suffering states of mind to do these things, it will lead to greater unhappiness. The fears can make one overthink situations; we can become stressed about little things instead of just enjoying the life experiences that pass us by.
The negativity towards making a loss can also make one fear spending their money and going towards risky experiences, which can be enlightening. Sometimes, doing something unpredictable outside our comfort zone can help us spiritually because it's there that we can learn more things: to love ourselves when we fail and to develop trust when we do succeed.
So, if one wishes for greater happiness, one will have to assess whether one's relationship with money is currently a suffering one or an enjoyable one.
Path Of Creator
Making A Loss In Relation To The Path Of Creator
The Path of Creator is about creating greater happiness in life inside. So, it's about addressing the Suffering States of the mind at the deepest level.
The most predictable part of life is Change.
Every moment, something is changing, even the price of that apple you are eating!
The journey can begin with becoming aware of this truth. The more one can become aware of this truth, the more naturally willing the mind will accept the unpredictable changes that can happen in one's life.
Sometimes, the weather is good, sometimes it's bad. Learning to accept change is about being happy whether the day rains or shines.
As one develops the Knowing, one will eventually realize that one can never make perfect decisions. Mistakes are bound to happen because one cannot foresee the future. The only thing one can really do is make a good guess and hope for the best!
So, the only thing one can really do is to learn to Accept oneself and the world no matter what happens. Doing so will take one on a journey towards greater happiness. Failing to do so will only lead one towards greater sadness.
So the journey towards greater happiness is to develop greater Self-Acceptance, learning to forgive The Self for making bad choices and the world for allowing it to happen, and then move on.
How to accelerate the journey of Self-Transformation?
Experiences of making a loss, or more specifically, intense experiences of losing a lot of money, friends, and opportunities are great catalysts to accelerate the journey of developing Self-Acceptance. Because in these miserable situations, one will have no choice but to accept The Self / to accept reality as is. These trauma-inducing experiences can help one to see that unless one submits and accept the experiences, the Sufferings will continue.
Of course, these catalysts can only be used if one incorporates the practice of meditation in one's life. Without developing the Stillness of the mind, one will simply end dwelling in one's negative reactions when going towards such experiences, which will make it difficult for one to see the wisdom beyond the negative reactions.
As one develops greater Self-Acceptance, one will also become wiser.
With time, one will be able to make their choices out of wisdom, rather than the fears of making a loss. For instance, to check the best prices on a computer out of wisdom than out of fear. To make investments out of trust rather than greed. To create relationships with people out of love rather than out of expectations. Although it's the same action, different intentions will bring different outcomes to the state of one's mind!
So, on the journey towards greater happiness, one will also gradually see the experiences of loss as lessons to grow from rather than experiences to criticize oneself on.
The destination is towards a state of Contentment, without attachments to the ideas of gain or loss, to see that The Self is already perfect as is no matter if one has less or more.
Know and Transform The Self!
Reading articles helps with understanding, but to transform the mind, one realizes the truth from experience.
For such an enlightening journey, the Self-Transformation Course has everything you will ever need!
