Do Good Do Well

Prospering By Understanding The Ten Commandments

Ten Keys To Success In Business

CHAPTER ONE

"Joy is the emotion excited by the expectancy of good."

                                                                 --Science of Mind, Page 603

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

If the First Commandment seems a bit unfamiliar to you, don't be too surprised. It's a safe bet that most people haven't impressed the Ten Commandments into their memory banks in a way that will allow them to recite them word for word. Even those who have studied for the ministry sometimes don’t get it right. Only 34 percent of 222 Anglican priests, when once surveyed and asked to recite the Ten Commandments strictly from memory, couldn’t do it without help. So you're not alone if your first thought was that you're not sure this is way the first commandment appears in the bible. But rest assured, that’s basically how it’s written in what has become the accepted as the the most popular version of the Bible, the King James. And we want to make the point right up front that it’s important that you get this commandment, because getting it will help you get not only it, but the other nine commandments as well.

Many people are surprised that all the commandments (except for the one that is allegedly only about honoring our parents) don't begin with the phrase, ‘Thou shalt not.....’ After all, for most us, that's the way we heard them. They were recited, mostly in a piecemeal fashion, to teach us something at any given important "learning moment." Maybe we heard these bits and pieces from our parents, or maybe we heard them from a friend, or maybe we heard them while we were barely paying attention during a Sunday morning sermon. Or, maybe your most memorable exposure to the Ten Commandments was via what is best described as a grossly misleading caricature, the Cecil B. DeMille film that starred Charlton Heston as Moses.

Whatever the situation, what we usually heard of the Ten Commandments had to do with ‘Thou shalt not...’

And that's one of the first issues we want to address....the ‘shalt not’ point of view. When applying the Ten Commandments to life and to business, rather then consider them from a ‘shalt not’ point of view, they should be understood from a ‘cannot’ point of view.

To help you make the leap from ‘Thou shalt not’ to you simply ‘cannot’, we'll turn for a moment from the traditional bible to what's known as a Living Bible. Here's the way the first commandment is written in living bible format.

For most of us it's easier to understand the real concept that the bible is trying to teach us when we substitute the word ‘may’ for ‘thou shalt not.’ Admittedly, the difference between the two ideas is a fine line, but it's there all the same. We understand when we may not do something it really means that we cannot do it, that it's an impossibility.

In other words, the ‘Thou shalt not’ commandments are not really saying that you shouldn't do something, and if you do that certain something that you'll be condemned and punished for it. What they're really saying is that because the world is the way it is, it's impossible to really do those things, and that when you try to do those things, the law of cause and effect kicks in. And, cause and effect, a theme that we'll be reminding you about throughout our discussion on the Ten Commandments, is what it's all about.

Cause and effect aren't about punishment. They are simply about fact. The way the world works is that when you present a certain cause, there is a certain effect from that cause. The laws of nature and the universe simply cannot be denied. When the right cause is put forth, the result is the right effect. When a wrong cause is put into motion, the end result is a wrong effect.

So, rather than interpreting ‘Thou shalt have no other God before me’ as something you'll spend an eternity in damnation over if you don't pay attention, interpret it as ‘It's really impossible for you to honestly worship’ any God other than the Creator.

Which brings us to our next point regarding understanding the Ten Commandments and how adhering to the life principles presented in them can help catapult us to success in the world of modern business. You may have noticed that we’ve already used the "G" word several times, and it may not be an issue for you. However, for some, whenever the term "God" is spoken or written, it promotes a subtle, maybe even almost imperceptible guilt-trip/fear sense within them. And, since we want to make sure that everyone’s experience during our discussion on the Ten Commandments is a positive one, we want to address the issue.

If your perception of God is an anthropomorphic one, meaning that if your concept of God is one of a solemn and judgmental white-haired, bearded man who is sitting on a throne up above on a piece of heavenly real estate, all the while recording all the terrible things you do so you'll get clobbered on Judgment Day, then your understanding of the Ten Commandments may be clouded.

God, which is fundamentally the Lifeforce within us all, knows nothing but love and kindness. All we have to do is open up and let the goodness and abundance flow, which, as the first commandment tells us, will bring us ‘out of the house of bondage.’

At the heart of this matter is the point that the Bible was created to be an incredible reference text that explains and reminds us how to live right and do the right thing. And the way it accomplishes that task is in a universal way that can be understood by all is through stories and parables that explain, teach and guide. When you consider a metaphysical approach to the Ten Commandments and the story that is told in Exodus, you come to understand that Mount Sinai is a symbol that describes attaining a higher consciousness, not literally accomplishing a physical climb up a mountain to bring back stone tablets. And it was going within this higher consciousness that allowed a character we call Moses to find a way to help his people achieve freedom. They had been under the rule of Egypt and were far away from being a self-sufficient group that could function in a way that would guarantee their survival as a people, or, tribe, if you prefer.

Whether or not you believe that Moses was a real person and that he led six hundred thousand Hebrews as they wandered in the desert for forty years isn't the point. The point is that this story in the Bible is there to help you understand that the Infinite Universe, the Creator of all things, is the only thing you can truly worship. Other things that are best described as idols cannot truly be honored and worshipped because they are superficial.

And, yes, money, or a bottom line profit if you prefer, is superficial. There's certainly nothing at all wrong with doing the best you can do and being the best you can be so you can enjoy the profits from your business, but worshipping the bottom line is something you simply cannot do. The Infinite Wisdom that is within you is the only thing you can truly worship because It in itself is responsible for taking you out of whatever bondage you have broken away from. The bottom line (profit) that allows you to provide for yourself, and if you have others in your life, your family, is only a product of your efforts, not what you are supposed to be worshipping.

Whatever your "Egypt" was or is, it is the Infinite Lifeforce within you that gave or will give you the strength, stamina and skills you needed or will need to ‘get out of bondage’ and achieve happiness and well-being. Succeeding, doing, having the things you enjoy.... whatever... are all dependent upon the Universal Lifeforce that is within all of us and in every thing.

So take a moment to consider any situation or belief that may be your bondage, your ‘Egypt.’

Is it lack of confidence that you can close the sale, make the two networks compatible before your assigned deadline, or employ Solomon-like skills in solving a dispute between two key staff members who report to you?

Is it the belief that you don't have enough education to succeed in business? Or is it a load of limiting belief baggage that some authority-at-the-time saddled you with at some point in your teens or even earlier?

Whatever your ‘Egypt’ is, applying and interpreting the First Commandment as it was intended to be applied and interpreted can be the first of your ten keys to success in business. To show you how this can be done, let's take a second look at the commandment as it's written in the traditional Bible, and while we're doing it we'll divide it into two segments.

Segment one: ‘I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.’

In this segment of the first commandment, the "book of books" is helping us to understand that the power to accomplish whatever we want to accomplish is within us, and that any limitation we perceive comes from our outer environment and external exposure, whatever that might have been or may be at the moment. For example, if some one lacks the confidence to tackle a project, where did that lack of confidence come from? It certainly didn't come from the Infinite Intelligence that is responsible for our creation and the creation of all things, for this Intelligence knows only goodness and righteousness. Only positive things can be created by and out of the Infinite Source of the Universe. Any ideas of negativity or lack come from our human side as it is exposed to information and experience. And many times, that information and experience we believe to be true, isn't the real truth at all.

Often, a person is amazed to discover at different points in their life that they have been carrying around false beliefs about themselves, their abilities, and the world around them. It's the Universal Lifeforce within them, or, if you prefer, ‘the Lord thy God’ that helps them to make this discovery.

Until we closely examine some of our beliefs, we don't consider that we may have formed those beliefs at a time in our life when we were quite young and the authority-at-the-time was also quite young. A twelve-year-old learning about life, for example, may find himself or herself looking to a fifteen-year-old.... the person in authority at the time.... for guidance. And that fifteen-year-old may well deliver the guidance and information that the twelve-year-old was looking for at the moment.

This is O.K. for the twelve-year-old at the moment, and one would think that in the course of natural progression that the twelve-year-old would be able to immediately discard any incorrect information that had been supplied by the fifteen- year-old. However, sometimes our human side is, to put it bluntly, a bit lazy, and once we have settled an idea in our minds and filed that information away, we have a tendency to leave it there and use it to make sense of our world without challenging it.

Unless we make and effort to change a belief, it remains our truth and we continue to own it when we're dealing with whatever we're dealing with in life and in business. Another way to point this out to you is to ask if you, at twenty, thirty, forty or fifty years old would ever dream of seeking advice from a fifteen-year-old on an adult subject. The answer of course is that you wouldn't consider making business decisions or assessing your abilities on the basis of an opinion expressed by a fifteen-year-old unless you were trying to "get inside the heads of", meaning market to, fifteen-year-olds. But the fact is that people may be making business decisions or assessing their abilities based on beliefs they formed when they were twelve and the authority-at-the-time was fifteen.

This is an example of the bondage or slavery that they should be free from and it is the Infinite Lifeforce within them that allows them to find a way to achieve that freedom. This is what the first segment of the First Commandment is written to teach us.

And now, a reminder about segment two:

To understand this segment of the first commandment, remember the point we made earlier regarding turning ‘shalt not’ into ‘cannot’, meaning that it's simply not possible to do so.

One of the best examples we can use to explain this concept is one of the very commonly misquoted statements regarding money. Perhaps you've heard it said that money is the root of all evil.

First, let's get the concept right. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that money is the root of all evil. The concept that is presented is that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil.

Once you get this particular concept right, you can see how it helps to explain the idea that it's not possible to truly worship money.

Money is a superficial by-product of your activity in the world of business, and that being the case, it's not something that can be truly worshipped, only used. When some one attempts to worship money they are, fundamentally, getting things backwards.

They are trying to worship, or if you prefer, ‘have a god’ that has no real essence. It's only paper and ink that's put together in a certain format and used as a method of exchange for goods and services. So, worshipping it, rather than the Divine Mind within all of us (which is the only thing that deserves to be worshipped) is, as we said, getting it backwards.

And there's another benefit of getting this concept right and recognizing the idea of things being done backwards rather than in divine order as they should be. If you have a need to take some of the sting out of the word evil, you can consider this idea:

The underlying principle of the Ten Commandments is that they explain what we can do in order to "live" right. If there is ever a time when things are being done backwards, it could be simply stated that the word "evil" is nothing more than a way to express "live" backwards.

And, while we’re on the subject of money, another phrase that’s appropriate to discuss is the one we’re all familiar with... the one that says, ‘Money doesn’t buy happiness.’

We would like to point out that while we are in complete agreement with the concept that money ‘doesn’t buy happiness’, we would also like to say that one factor that cannot be denied about the world we live in today is that while money itself doesn’t buy happiness, the lack of money can buy you a lot of misery.

This concept is one of the ideas we’ll be applying to each of the Ten Commandments….call it your prosperity consciousness. It may be a surprise to some that there are elements of prosperity teachings within the Ten Commandments. However, when they are viewed from the perspective that there’s nothing wrong with doing well while you’re doing good, this idea becomes clear. It’s all related to the idea of cause and effect.

In real estate, it’s often said that there are only three things that are important, and those are location, location, location. When considering the Ten Commandments, there are only three things that sum up what they are all about, and those are cause and effect, cause and effect and cause and effect.

We’ll be closing our discussion on the first commandment, as we will be with each of them. We'll present it its traditional fashion, the re-state it from a metaphysical perspective and integrate an appropriate explanation as we do so. And, we’ll also be providing you with another re-statement of each commandment from a prosperity perspective. First, our simplified, metaphysical re-statement:

Within each of us dwells the Infinite Intelligence, the One Presence, One Power....

....and it is through the Divine Mind within each of us that we are able to free ourselves from false beliefs that limit us and prevent us from experiencing the abundance of the universe.

You cannot truly worship superficial things.

The first key to success in business (and in life) is to remember that it is impossible to truly worship the superficial things that surround you, and that the Lifeforce within you is what expresses your true essence. Hold nothing higher than the Creator and your rewards will be peace, happiness and abundance.

And, our re-statement of the first commandment from a prosperity consciousness perspective:

"You may not consider any source other than the Infinite for your supply."

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