Money is Sooooo Evvvilllllll: Or, Why Spiritual Types Struggle with Money

The Correct Attitude to Money for Spiritual People: Or Why Your Bad Attitude is Keeping You Poor

Me: Master, in the last post, you said that money is not evil, and that there is nothing wrong about wanting a happy and fulfilled material life.

Can you talk about this more? What should our attitude to money and material success be?

Teacher: The answer is simple, and yet it confuses so many.

The Universe wants you to be happy, and if living in a big house with air conditioning and a comfortable car will do that, then there is no harm in asking the universe for this.

Now, most people do ask for stuff like this. They pray to their Gods, they visit psychics or astrologers, or they just moan. But nothing happens. Why is that?

Me: urrghhh, they block the light or something? You told me last time, I forgot…

Teacher: The Universe, or God, or Being, always give you more than you need at any given moment.

Note, need, not want.

God wants you to be happy, and will happily allow you as much wealth as you want. The problem?

Me: We block the Light of God?

Teacher: Exactly. By your own thoughts, which are usually ones of anger or hate or unforgivevess, you block the Divine Light falling on you, so much so that the Light cannot work anymore.

And then you have these mental ideas about the future. You plan every small detail of the Future, and then get angry when it doesn’t come true.

Your own mental ideas of what the future should be block the Divine Light from working.

As an example: You want to start your own business selling whatever, and spend all your spare time working on it. Your business fails, and you quit, angry at God and yourself, having to go back to a job you hate.

But if you had just relaxed and gone inside (via meditation etc), you would have known that selling widgets wasn’t your path. That your hobby, which could be writing, or painting, or playing the Guitar, is the path that would have brought you joy and wealth.

But you were too scared you woudln’t make money from your hobby, so you never tried.

It’s like you ask God for a house in London. You pray everyday, spend hours visualising this (like some of your manifesting books teach you), until you get the house.

But all the time, God had wanted you to have a huge villa in Cambridge, but since you wanted a small house, that’s what you got instead.

We don’t know what’s good for us, which is why we ask for stupid things. Like a child crying for a lollipop, when his father wants to buy him an XBox.

Me: So how can we know what is good for us?

Teacher: The simple answer, the one you don’t want to hear, is you can’t know what is good for you.

Hear me out before you get all offended and start writing a letter to the editor.

The reason most humans are miserable is precisely because they don’t know what they want.

Anytime you feel depressed, and think to yourself If only I had a million dollars / better job / sexier wife / bigger house, you are lying to yourself.

Does this agree with your experience, S?

Me: Yes.

Side Note:

In 2017 when I lost my job, I was running out of savings, and very desperate. As in, willing to move back with my parents desperate. It would have been very humiliating, but I had a little baby to support, and the ego would just have to accept it.

I sat down to meditate, and was really, really angry. Insulting, throwing F words at God.

That’s when I heard the voice of the Inner Teacher.

S, do you think money is the reason you are upset?

Fuck YEAH! I said mentally.

Very well, said the Inner Teacher. I will break the Laws of the this world, and deposit a million pounds in your account RIGHT NOW.

(Laws of the World- the Inner Teacher once told me The Universe / God / Spirit does not break the laws it created, which includes not just the Laws of Science, but spiritual laws like Karma. In this case, the Teacher said it would happily break its laws).

I will put a million pounds in your account, if you tell me, with an open heart, that it will make you happy. You can Lie to Me if you want, I will accept it.

I closed my eyes and meditated on this. No, I said. A million pounds would not make me happy. I would find something else to be miserable about.

This is the lesson I learnt: Any time you are faced with a problem, and you say money / beauty / good looks / worldly power would help you, you are lying. To yourself.

Teacher Yes. The thing to understand is, your problems are created with your mind, and so your mind CANNOT come up with the solution. All the things it thinks you need: A new job, a new car, a new wife, more money, all lead to the same old problems.

The solution is simple: To ask the Universe to make you happy. That is all the Divine wants for you, to be happy.

That does not mean you need to starve. Oh no. By all means, ask for a comfortable life, but never forget your peace DOES NOT depend on the world.

Me What if we do want a good material life, as not all of us want to spend our lives sitting in cubicles or stuck in traffic jams? How do we ask for money?

Teacher: In which case, sit quietly in meditation, and ask your inner child, what would really make you happy.

Do you really want more money, or do you want to spend more time with your family? Do you really want a new job, or do you want a new career, a job that might pay less but have less stress?

Be honest with the Universe, and the Universe will provide.

Me

Another note: For a long time, I wanted to run my own business, become a millionaire, smoke hundred dollar cigars, you get the idea. I did start an online business, but it never made much money.

While meditating, I realized I didn’t care about the money so much. Instead, I wanted the freedom, that if I wanted to drop my son off at school, or take the day off to attend his school play, I could. Without having to apply for permission etc.

So that’s what I ask now. Whether that happens because I run a business, or I win the lottery and don’t have to work, I don’t care.

We need a deep faith, a faith that goes all the way into our bones and even deeper, that the Universe is taking care of us, and that it will choose the best path for us. As the Course in Miracles says, our ego is often surprised and hurt at how little our role is in our spiritual growth. All we need to do is accept the help of the Divine, and everything is provided.

Teacher Yes. So by all means, ask for money. Ask for lots of it. Don’t be shy, don’t hold back, don’t think God will judge you or anything.

But keep doing the Inner Work at the same time. Because the more you purify your mind by meditation, the more you get in touch with the Divine Intelligence. And the easier your life becomes. Coincidences start happening, random people will start helping you, it will look to others like you have become “lucky”. But of course you haven’t.

The difference is, earlier you were blocking the Light of the Divine. The Universal Intelligence was trying to help you lead the perfect life FOR YOU, but you kept interfering with your own plans, trying to get your own way and failing.

(A crude way to describe this, a quote by Marc “Animal” McYoung: Make sure your dick doesn’t become so big you start to trip on it. All men will understand this).

If you get out of the way, by which we mean your ego, or your constant stream of thinking, stops trying to control your life, stops trying to make plans (I will become a millionaire enlightened Guru in exactly 2 years, 7 months, 3 days and 27 minutes, plus/minus 20 seconds); instead, the mind has become quiet enough that it can get help from the universal intelligence.

Sometime ago, I was meditating when the Inner Teacher told me, Becoming rich etc is the EASY part. The hard part is changing your mindset so you can accept all the wealth already coming your way.

The Universe, call it God or Buddha Nature, has a perfect life for each one of us; one where we do what we love, and still make enough money to lead comfortable lives. Lives of joy and peace, where we make others happy too. God isn’t a communist, as the Course in Miracles says, God knows what your rent is.

So the Universe would never have us do something we hate, or something we can’t make money at. God knows what your rent is.

By relaxing inwards, by quieting the mind, we reach the mental state where we can get in touch with our Buddha Nature (our Higher Self). And in this state, our perfect life, our perfect career, starts to flow thru us. We don’t need to “do” anything, as all the doing is done by Existence.

Our goal is to become harmonious with our Higher Self, so we can live the life we were meant to live.

And yes, that life can include lots of money, a big house, a huge business. I never understood the hostility to business / entrepreneurship many spiritual types have. Don’t you want to run a big business where you employ dozens of people, give them a great salary and great work environment, and help your employees achieve their spiritual goals without them worrying about money or playing office politics?

A great example of this is Zoho (an Indian company) founder Sridhar Vembu . Like many companies, he faced a shortage of IT professionals. Unlike other companies, he went into the slums and poor areas, and took poor children (about to leave school) and trained them in programming. More than 90% of them stayed with him, and became productive programmers. Not only did he solve his business need, he also helped the local community, helping children who otherwise would have been stuck in slums.

Why don’t more business people follow this spiritual approach? I think it is because spiritual types think themselves as too good for all this “business nonsense” . And yet, companies like Zoho have done more to lift the poor of India from poverty than a thousand of the so called charities.

So by all means, ask for wealth. Ask to become a millionaire, and the Universe might even listen to you. Remember though, the money you earn doesn’t belong to you. You are merely the caretaker. The Universe will use you to help other people who need money, by using you as a means to make others rich as well.

But none of that won’t happen if you stay hidden in your meditation room, believing that money is evil, rich people are greedy bastards, the world is ruled by evil bankers etc etc.

In summary,

What should the Spiritual attitude to wealth be?

We are all meant to live our Perfect life, doing what we love, and having enough money to live a comfortable life.

They money we earn doesn’t belong to us; it belongs to the Universe. It may give us as much as we want, provided we are not closed to the Love of the Universe. And we realise our job is to spread this love and money outwards, so other people can also achieve their material and spiritual goals.

So help the Universe, and it will help you. And you will never have to complain about your job or your evil boss again 😁