ADVANCE PRAISE FOR The Art of Abundance
An operating guide for how to live a whole life.
John W. Lee, founder and former CEO of Learning Curve International
The Art of Abundance is universally grounded and rooted in great truth. I loved every page! This is a must-read for a new era of financial leadership.
Leanne Jacobs, author of Beautiful Money
The secret to a life worth living is found in our total emancipation from the fear of not enough, and Dennis Merritt Jones succeeds brilliantly in awakening us to this truth.
Dr. Kenn Gordon, spiritual leader at Centers for Spiritual Living
Dennis Merritt Jones is one of the canniest and most pragmatic figures in modern metaphysics. In this to-the-point guide he combines mystic idealism with workaday insights to help you think epically about the kind of life you want.
Mitch Horowitz, PEN awardwinning author of One Simple Idea
Picking up where most other prosperity books leave off, author and spiritual teacher Dennis Merritt Jones offers us a deeper dive into understanding the principles and practices for creating a life truly worth living.
Wendy Craig-Purcell, CEO and senior minister at The Unity Center
Dennis Merritt Jones has not written another get rich quick book. Instead, he has created a handbook for a life worth living, a mindfulness guide. With exercises to delve into, power points to personalize, parables, and beautiful writing, The Art of Abundance is one of those books I can imagine enjoying, again and again, finding gems with each re-reading.
Edward Viljoen, author of Ordinary Goodness and The Power of Meditation
Dennis Merritt Jones walks us through the bumpy terrain of self-limiting boundaries into the self-empowered garden of material and spiritual freedom.
Barbara E. Fields, executive director of the Association for Global New Thought
Embrace and enact the ten foundational rules in The Art of Abundance. You will unleash dynamic growth and prosperity in your life.
Roger Teel, author of This Life Is Joy
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Copyright 2018 by Dennis Merritt Jones
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Minimum portions of this book originally appeared in different form in the following publications: The Huffington Post and Science of Mind magazine.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jones, Dennis Merritt, author.
Title: The art of abundance : ten rules for a prosperous life / Dennis Merritt Jones.
Description: First Edition. | New York : TarcherPerigee, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references. | Identifiers: LCCN 2018001581 (print) | LCCN 2018002766 (ebook) | ISBN 9780399183942 (Ebook) | ISBN 9780399183935 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Self-actualization (Psychology) | Happiness. | Success. | BISAC: BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Inspiration & Personal Growth. | SELF-HELP / Personal Growth / Success. | SELF-HELP / Personal Growth / Happiness.
Classification: LCC BF637.S4 (ebook) | LCC BF637.S4 J666 2018 (print) | DDC 299/.93dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018001581
Cover design: Jason Heuer
Cover photograph: Valentyn Volkov / Shutterstock
Version_1
This book is dedicated to my parents, Russell and Evelyn Jones, who, by example, demonstrated that a prosperous life is evidenced, first and foremost, by an abundance of love.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
A Life Worth Living
Understanding the Art of Abundance Changes the Rules of Engagement with Life
When I think about creating abundance, its not about creating a life of luxury for everybody on this planet; its about creating a life of possibility. It is about taking that which was scarce and making it abundant.
Peter Diamandis
It is my sincere belief that the world doesnt need yet another self-help guru or prosperity book outlining the latest techniques on how to win the lottery or how to go from rags to riches in twenty-one days... or how to manifest the right and perfect job, relationship, or parking space... or even how to heal ones various physical ailments. What the world needs is a new perspective regarding what gives meaning and value to life; to recognize that everyone strives for essentially the same thing. No, it isnt money or stuff on the material plane; its something far less tangible and far more rewarding. Behind every thought, deed, and action of every human being of rational mind on this planet is the desire for freedom, inner peace, and a life worth livinga life that is filled with purpose and meaning, a life of fulfillment and wholeness. However, for the majority of the more than seven billion beings who share this planet, the idea that this type of life exists is impossible to conceive. Instead, they hold the erroneous belief that moneyor material successalone will garner the life they desire. This collective belief has been the cause of untold suffering for millennia. If you sit with this idea for a moment, you may discover there is a place within you where this same belief resides.
The point is to understand that beyond everything you think you want, what you truly seek is quite basic: a life of wholeness, a life of peaceful satisfaction. The irony is that such a world already existsbut only for those who have eyes to see it and faith to claim it. The problem has been that the majority of humankind doesnt know where to look for such a life. That is the purpose of this book: to help one open their eyes to the limitless amount of wholeness and abundance that lies waiting just beyond their current belief system. However, it is important to understand at the beginning of this journey that The Art of Abundance is not a book about prosperity; its a guidebook to creating wholeness in every area of our lives. Creating a prosperous life is quite different from creating prosperity. This is a book about creating a prosperous lifea life worth livingthrough accessing and utilizing a principle that is as old as the Universe itself: the Principle of Abundance.
Throughout this book it will be made clear that there is a distinct delineation between abundance and prosperity; they are more than two different words that many people take to mean the same thing. Robin Williams is quoted as saying, No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world. I invite you to embrace his words and open yourself to exploring new and different meanings for the words hereinyou may discover new ideas that will modify your perception of the world and deepen your understanding and experience of what living an abundant life really means. My desire is that