What If I Suddenly Became Rich

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

1431

Abstract

ow would things sound if I stopped thinking?</li></ul><h2 id="9fa8">Somatic Field</h2><ul><li>Which part of my body is the least comfortable?</li><li>Which parts of my body are hardest to detect?</li><li>What happens when I concentrate on two body parts at once?</li><li>Do any bad emotions arise during the body scan?</li><li>How would my body change if I stopped thinking about it?</li></ul><h2 id="778a">Taste Field</h2><ul><li>Does the taste change as I roll it around my tongue?</li><li>How does the intensity compare with other things I have tasted?</li><li>How would it taste if I had never smelled it?</li><li>Does my feeling about the taste change between first contact and swallow?</li><li>How would it taste if I were asleep right now?</li></ul><h2 id="a87c">Olfactory Field</h2><ul><li>Would I recognize the smell if I had not seen it?</li><li>What adjectives are suitable? (Smooth? Bold? Sweet? Floral?)</li><li>How close must it come to me before my nose can detect it?</li><li>Does it improve my mood or worsen it?</li><li>What memories does it bring to mind?</li></ul><h2 id="5631">Cognitive Field</h2><ul><li>If my thoughts were rabbits in a yard, how crowded would the yard be?</li><li>If my attention was a dog, which rabbits would it chase?</li><li>How much of my focus three seconds ago was on the past?</li><li>How does a little circle make me feel?</li><li>What would I be dreaming now if I were not awake?</

Options

li></ul><h2 id="9690">Emotional Field</h2><ul><li>How easy or hard is it to turn each feeling on and off?</li><li>What changes will happen when I start to pray?</li><li>If I were the prow of a ship would my sea be bright under the sun?</li><li>Who have I shared this suffering with?</li><li>How deeply do I love you?</li></ul><figure id="ef74"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*31vXTbzWPAdDxN72iuu31w.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by Author | Dancing with the Goddess</figcaption></figure><h2 id="1f17">Questions After the Scans are All Finished</h2><ul><li>Did I close my eyes for most of the scans?</li><li>In what ways are mental fields like maps?</li><li>If I were only allowed to keep one field, which one would I choose?</li></ul><h1 id="010c">Note</h1><p id="4022">To the best of my recollection, all the questions are in my own words. If I copied anybody from unconscious memory it was probably my first remote meditation teacher, <a href="https://www.thegreatcourses.com/professors/mark-w-muesse/">Mark Muesse</a>, a Therevada practitioner from Texas.</p><h1 id="d3c3">About the Author</h1><p id="f104">Tom spends his workdays asking people in a big store if they would like any information about heating and cooling. He often wears an Indiana Jones hat. A grapevine in his front yard convinced him to let her live and to even provide her with a little support. That’s all. :)</p></article></body>

A thought experiment on using a cool million

“I am particularly interested in what Rasheed Hooda would do,” wrote my friend Timothy Key in one of his recent stories.

A lot of people have, over the years, offered me “a penny for your thought,” but never a cool million. Wow! I am flattered.

Funny you should ask that today, Tim, as just this morning I was saying to myself that I have always survived, I would like to thrive for a change.

By the way, you are not the first person to pose that question, or something similar. A few years ago, I met up with my friend Alvin-San Whaley in Northampton, MA, when I went on a trip of a lifetime, traversing through 40 states in eight weeks.

Over bagels and coffee, he asked me something that I will try to explain the best as I could. He said if someone came up to you and presented you with fully documented proof that you will receive 30 million dollars to do with it what you will, and you will have 30 days to use it up or forfeit it, how would you go about it.

My initial thought, even before any conscious consideration of it, was that I’d give it away, and I have a humanitarian organization in mind that I support. But somehow, I also knew that was not the correct answer, and that is not what I would do. I said I would have to think about it before I can answer it. He said I was one of the few people who even understood the question.

I don’t remember what I told him I would do with it, but I had an epiphany that day. I realized that I didn’t want to be responsible for money, that I didn’t have the capability or know-how to handle money responsibly. I made a lot of money in my lifetime, but I spent it all, validating to myself that I didn’t know what to do with money.

There is a saying, to whom much is given, much is expected. I had grown up in an environment where I felt that everyone depended on me to be the solution to their problems because I was the smartest one, and my dad had put all his eggs in one basket. It seemed like I couldn’t do anything right. Everyone else wanted me to do what they thought was the best, and no one was interested in what I wanted. At some point, I must have said, fuck it! If I didn’t have anything, nobody could expect anything.

Coming back to your question, Tim, what would I do if I suddenly came upon a cool million? The first thing would be to take out 1/8 of it as God’s right, leaving me with $875,000.

Like you, I would set up something for my two children with a 100 grand each. And give a 100 grand to their mother. That leaves me with $575,000. I would put $75,000 in a liquid fund for use as needed.

I may splurge and sink a 100 grand on something like this.

A motorhome by Mercedez Benz. Photo by Rasheed Hooda

I know I can live a nomadic life of Bum comfortably at $1000 per month, and I can earn that effortlessly with my multiple profit centers of writing, speaking, and photography. With $75k in the liquid funds, I can keep worries at bay. In other words, I would set up my lifestyle to be self-sustaining.

I’d still have half a million dollars, or at least $400,000, depending on whether I buy the motorhome or not.

To whom much is given much is expected.

I will slowly and steadily invest that money into Kiva Loans. I would mostly work with people in developing countries where the dollar goes much farther than it does in the USA, enabling them to become self-sufficient. I may set aside half of it for angel investments and half of it for microloans. I don’t know, but that’s the direction I am thinking in.

Thanks, Timothy Key, for the challenge. I am now going to pass the baton over to Gurpreet Dhariwal, Trista Ainsworth, and Amy Marley. What would you do if you came upon a sudden fortune?

As always, thank you for reading and responding.

COLLABORATIVE FANTASY

What If I Suddenly Became Rich

A thought experiment on using a cool million

If I Were Rich

Sure, we are all rich in a lot of ways, but what if we had a bunch of money too?

When You Escape Into A Trip Of A Lifetime

A tale of coincidences and serendipities.

More about me:

Illuminating Mister Weirdo

Introducing myself to the community

I Am a Bum, Maybe Not the Kind You Think

An illuminating lesson I learned about the power of words by writing consistently.