Free-Reprint Article Written by: Mark Silver See Terms of Reprint Below.
***************************************************************** * * This email is being delivered directly to members of the group: * * [email protected] * ***************************************************************** We have moved our TERMS OF REPRINT to the end of the article. Be certain to read our TERMS OF REPRINT and honor our TERMS OF REPRINT when you use this article. Thank you. This article has been distributed by: http://Article-Distribution.com Helpful Link: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act - Overview http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/dmca1.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------- Article Title: ============== Is Tithing The Road To Abundance Or New Age Nonsense? Article Description: ==================== You may be familiar with the principle of tithing- giving a certain percentage of your earnings to those in need. You may have also heard that what you give, will come back to you twice-over, three-times over, seven-fold, or ten-fold. Different traditions have different formulas. Some people swear by it. Others just end up swearing as their financial obligations mount. Additional Article Information: =============================== 866 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line Distribution Date and Time: 2006-06-14 17:34:00 Written By: Mark Silver Copyright: 2006 Contact Email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For more free-reprint articles by Mark Silver, please visit: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/d/index.shtml#Mark_Silver ============================================= Special Notice For Publishers and Webmasters: ============================================= TEXT Copy-and-Paste and HTML Copy-and-Paste Versions Of Article Are Available at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/s/tithing-road-to-abundance.shtml#get_code If you use this article on your website or in your ezine, We Want To Know About It. Use the following URL to let us know where you have used this article, and we will include a link to your website on thePhantomWriters.com: http://thephantomwriters.com/notify.php?id=2976&p=load --------------------------------------------------------------------- Is Tithing The Road To Abundance Or New Age Nonsense? Copyright © 2006 Mark Silver Heart Of Business http://www.heartofbusiness.com/ You may be familiar with the principle of tithing- giving a certain percentage of your earnings to those in need. You may have also heard that what you give, will come back to you twice-over, three-times over, seven-fold, or ten-fold. Different traditions have different formulas. Some people swear by it. Others just end up swearing as their financial obligations mount. Which begs the question: Does tithing really work to increase abundance, or is it a bunch of new-age nonsense? Do you give in order to succeed, or because you've already had some success? What if the loaves and fishes run out? My spiritual teacher, who was visiting from Jerusalem to teach here in the US, loves to cook, and had prepared some food. He started handing out portions to folks, and my friend was one of the first to get some. She had received a generous portion, but she became increasingly anxious as the portions became smaller and smaller with each additional serving. It soon became clear that some people wouldn't get any at all. Since he -IS- after all, her spiritual teacher, she began to ask her heart what was going on. Why should she get so much when others received so little? Her heart showed her, in a flash, that we are all links in the chain of giving. Just because she got a larger piece, doesn't mean that she should keep it all. The teaching was about being awake, responsibility, and the true nature of generosity. She had to participate in the giving, and not just the receiving. Tithing is not charity. Charity is defined, by Merriam-Webster as 'generosity or helpfulness... a gift... benevolent goodwill.' A tithe, on the other hand, is 'a... part paid... as a tax.' 'obligation... small tax or levy.' The Sufi teachings say this: to give generously in charity is a great thing. But, before charity comes an obligation. If you receive abundantly, you owe some of what you received to those less fortunate. Why do you owe this? Why can't you just keep it? After all, you worked hard to get it. The tithe is a recognition that we are all interconnected, that none of us is independent. It is impossible to amass any amount of wealth solely on your own efforts. Tithing is recognizing the contributions that others have made to your success. By paying this obligation, you recognize that you aren't the source at the beginning of wealth, and you aren't the stopping point at the end of wealth. You are in the middle. Letting some of the wealth you receive flow downstream is the best way to assure that you stay in the flow. So how do you tithe? How much? When? And, is it only about giving- what about the receiving back ten-fold? How does that work? Keys to Playing the Middle * There is no vending machine. Wouldn't it be nice if life worked like a vending machine? Put in a prayer, get out a candy bar? Put in a donation, get it back doubled? Although some people would have you believe this is true, it ain't. Our relationship with the Divine, and the world around us, is more complex- it IS a relationship. And, no relationship works like a vending machine. It has more subtlety to it. This means when you give, give whole-heartedly, from your natural generosity, and not simply as a strategy to try and force an outpouring of abundance. And... just keep your eyes open... I wonder what you notice does come back? * Yes, you do have to do the dishes. Tithing is a spiritual obligation that comes when you receive abundance, to acknowledge your place in the middle of the flow. No one can take 100% credit for what comes his or her way in terms of wealth, and tithing is simply the inspired action that grows out of acknowledging this healthy humility. However, this obligation is not like your parents forcing you to do the dishes or mow the lawn. If you've ever experienced the joy and happiness that comes from giving a gift, then you already know how enriching tithing is. Marshall Rosenberg, author of the inspiring book Nonviolent Communication, says that human beings are happiest when they are trying to make life more wonderful for each other. * If you ain't got it, you can't give it. I've seen people make donations by borrowing on a credit card, only to feel crushed under the weight of this debt later. Remember that tithing is not you being the source of the giving- it's merely acknowledging that you are in the middle. You can't give what you don't have. How much to give? Different traditions have different formulas. The Sufis teach to annually tithe 2.25% of all you own free and clear. This means that Sufis total up what they have, subtract what they owe, and give 2.25% of what's left to help support those who are poor. Many often give more than that, but that's the minimum. If your business is feeling stagnant and you don't have a tithing plan in place, it might be time to add this part of the flow to your giving and receiving. Enjoy! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com --- END ARTICLE --- Get TEXT or HTML Copy-and-Paste Versions Of This Article at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/s/tithing-road-to-abundance.shtml#get_code ..................................... TERMS OF REPRINT - Publication Rules (Last Updated: May 11, 2006) Our TERMS OF REPRINT are fully enforcable under the terms of: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281.ENR: ..................................... *** Digital Reprint Rights *** * If you publish this article in a website/forum/blog, You Must Set All URL's or Mailto Addresses in the body of the article AND in the Author's Resource Box as Hyperlinks (clickable links). * Links must remain in the form that we published them. Clean links should point to the Author's links without redirects having been inserted into the copy. * You are not allowed to Change or Delete any Words or Links in the Article or Resource Box. Paragraph breaks must be retained with articles. You can change where the paragraph breaks fall, but you cannot eliminate all paragraph breaks as some have chosen to do. * Email Distribution of this article Must be done through Opt-in Email Only. No Unsolicited Commercial Email. * You Are Allowed to format the layout of the article for proper display of the article in your website or in your ezine, so long as you can maintain the author's interests within the article. * You may not use sentences from this article as an input for any software that steals sentences from others in order to build an article with software. The copyright on this article applies to the "WHOLE" article. *** Author Notification *** We ask that you notify the author of publication of his or her work. Mark Silver can be reached at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** Print Publication Reprint Rights *** If you desire to publish this article in a PRINT publication, you must contact the author directly for Print Permission at: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ..................................... If you need help converting this text article for proper hyperlinked placement in your webpage, please use this free tool: http://thephantomwriters.com/link-builder.pl ===================================================================== ABOUT THIS ARTICLE SUBMISSION http://thePhantomWriters.com is a paid article distribution service. thePhantomWriters.com and Article-Distribution.com are owned and operated by Bill Platt of Stillwater, Oklahoma USA. The content of this article is solely the property and opinion of its author, Mark Silver http://www.heartofbusiness.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX --------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> You can search right from your browser? It's easy and it's free. See how. http://us.click.yahoo.com/_7bhrC/NGxNAA/yQLSAA/FGnolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* To have your article appear in this distribution list, you must absolutely be a client of thePhantomWriters. We offer a paid article distribution service, and this is one of the more than 60 groups where we submit our client articles. To learn more about our program, visit: http://thePhantomWriters.com/x.pl/tpw/index.htm Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thePhantomWriters/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
