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Money & Spirituality 
As long as we live in a world where money
exists as a mighty force, for most of us it is very important to look
after our finances. Consider:-
- You
need money to drive the motor of your spirituality... we are here to
collect experiences, many of which cost money. (Stuart Wilde, Kindred Spirit
magazine Summer 1990, p.11)
- It
is better... that you decide to become
independent and self-supporting, for not only is it metaphysically
correct, but
in it lies the secret of true freedom... As you commit to your own
freedom, the
level of discomfort dissipates, and bit by bit, you discover a new
person, a
person who has no need to alleviate his or her discomfort by taking it
out on
others... basically, you need enough cash so that life is not a pain in
the
neck [PIN]. At what financial level you cross the pain-in-the-neck line
depends
on you... The name of the game is to simplify your life to such an
extent that
the PIN line is reduced so that your emotions around money rest in a
constant
state of comfort and balance. (Stuart
Wilde, The
trick to money is having some!, pp.18-20)
- You
cannot be a proper [spiritual] master if you cannot make
money and be of the Earth. (Lilla Bek in a personal reading citing a Jewish
Kabbalist's mother)
Being able to stand firmly in
the world and earn adequate money for your needs and some over for
fun and growth is indeed satisfying.
- Research
shows that happiness increases with
earnings – up to a point... Happiness [and life satisfaction]
rose with income...
but plateaued when people reached an annual salary of $75,000
[£50,000]. For
those on more, happiness appeared to depend on other factors... The
researchers
warn that the emotional strain of negative experiences, such as getting
divorced or being ill, appear to be exacerbated by being poor. "More
money
does not necessarily buy more happiness, but less money is associated
with
emotional pain," they write. (The
Guardian, posted 6 September 2010, accessed 1 November 2017)
But beware of
becoming immersed in materialism! Ponder:-
- Remember
that the primary reward of work is
finding meaning and well-being, not money. Forget that and you'll stop
being
well. (Linus Mundy, #22 in Keep-life-simple
therapy Elf-help book)
- Making
$60,000 (£48,400)
more in annual income has less of an effect on your daily happiness
than
getting one extra hour of sleep a night. (Norbert Schwarz,
a professor of
psychology at the University of Southern California, cited at BBC,
posted and accessed
1 November 2017)
- Strive
to have access to things, not ownership of them. Possess something and
it possesses you. (Linus Mundy, #28 in Keep-life-simple therapy
Elf-help book)
- Real
riches are the riches possessed inside. (From Happy Thoughts
edited by Toby Reynolds)
[So you need to build up your 'cosmic bank balance' through noble and
virtuous acts and thoughts, through spiritual work and
self-development.]
- No
one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the
other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You
cannot
serve both God and money. (Jesus Christ, Matthew 6:24, New
International
Version (NIV))
- You only truly possess that which you cannot
lose in a shipwreck. (Abu Hamid al-Ghazali)
There are/were
alternatives to having to be financially independent, such as:-
- Spiritual
Community life. You contribute to a spiritual community and receive
food and lodging. Examples:
(1) The Jewish Essene
community - who prepared the way for Jesus Christ - were busy
transmuting
their energies to 'gold', so they did not believe in making money,
preferring
to share and make exchanges of skill rather than buying/selling. They
never really put themselves first; everything they did was offered and
shared. (See Lilla Bek, The Essenes on the Etheric, tracks #2 & #4; excerpt) (2) The Hadza tribe has sharing as a fundamental ethos. If
you have more personal possessions than you have
immediate use for, then you distribute them. It is not about generosity, but rather a moral
obligation to give what you have without expectation of return. (See Survival,
image
8 of 18, accessed 30 October 2012)
- Spiritual
Culture. In
certain cultures, people who pursue a spiritual path were valued and
had their food needs supported by local householders. In
Hinduism,
this is bhiksha
(also see here),
where ascetics daily beg for food and water alongside seeking spiritual
enlightenment.
- Universal Basic Income and Services. Learn more at Money System. These are possible to deploy today in the modern world. In my view, they are essential...
Finally, consider simplicity.
Both at a personal level:-
- Even
if you were offered all the treasures in the world, in order to
really benefit from them you must know how to use them; otherwise you
would
remain inwardly as poor as if you had nothing. Imagine you are
presented with a
table laden with the most delicious dishes: even then, you have at the
very
least to make the effort to stretch out your hand, to take the food,
bring it
to your mouth and chew it. Whatever you are given, it is always up to
you to
make the physical, emotional and intellectual effort that will really
make it
yours. Who wouldn’t like to find a method that gives
extraordinary results
in no time! Well no, it is the opposite: in the spiritual life you need
only
very simple methods and a lot of time. You’re obviously
disappointed... But
that is how it is. To acquire light, peace, love and strength, make a
few
gestures, take a few deep breaths or say a formula or a prayer and you
will
gradually feel yourself entering the rhythm of cosmic harmony. And
then, nature
will say to you, ‘I recognize these words, these gestures:
they vibrate in
unison with what is most beautiful and harmonious in me. Here, I give
you my
blessings.’ (O.M. Aïvanhov) [So, making
enough money to survive can be sufficient to drive your spirituality.]
- If
you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich. (Lao-tzu, Tao
Te Ching)
But
also at a collective level. The way the Rich World lives is
unsustainable and is destroying Mother Earth. Do you want future
generations to even live??
- The
economy has become the great preoccupation of people today; and in the interest
of the economy, they feel obliged to hurry everywhere, to strain and exhaust
themselves because they have to produce more and more, in order to sell more
and more, so they can buy more and more, and so on. And all those we do not
find sufficiently ‘profitable’, are eliminated.
But what is this economy in which we find it acceptable to sacrifice human
beings? It may certainly be flourishing more and more, while humans destroy not
only their nervous systems; their hearts, their stomachs, and their lungs
suffer as well. Because all this activity, all this production and accelerated
consumption bring with it pollution which poisons the atmosphere, water, earth,
food, and so on. Where is the intelligence in this? What has happened to
reason? An ‘economy’ which spoils, destroys, pollutes, and squanders, is this
really a true economy? (O.M. Aïvanhov)
- If
everybody lives like the rich people, we need
two other planets. Live on this planet with seven billion people in a
way that
we can all live. (Ervin Laszlo, 2006)
- A
poor man shames us all. (Tribal saying)

Resources
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Also see:-
Simplicity
Money & Spirituality Quotes
Money articles
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