Is It Possible To Be Rich, Enjoy The Material Life, And Still Be Spiritual?

Me: Teacher, the general belief amongst spiritual types is that money is evil, money is bad.

They try to lead simple lives, and have been told again and again and again that running after the materialistic world is the cause of their problems.

This leads to a feeling that being poor is more spiritual, and even better, one should become a monk, living frugally. Is there any truth to this? Can one be both spiritual and rich / well off?

Teacher: This is one of things that has caused a lot of has caused a lot of harm in spiritual students.

While it is true that attachment to the material world is the cause of most of your problems, the solution is not running away from the world.

There is such a thing as negative attraction to wealth, sex, and all other things the spiritual types run away from.

Negative attraction because they are constantly in fear of what they are running from. It is like some monks wont even tough money. When walking around, do you think they are thinking of God, or avoiding touching money?

Me: Money.

Teacher: Exactly. It’s like the Buddhist tale. 2 monks had taken a vow of celibacy, including not even touching a woman.

Once, they were crossing a flooded river, when a old woman begged them to help her cross as well. She said she was weak and had to reach her village, as her grandchildren were all alone.

The first monk ignored her, but the second one lifted her and took her across.

The two monks then walked another three days till they reached the monastery. As soon as they did so, the first monk ran in to the head monk and complained the second one had touched a woman.

“Brother”, said the second monk, “I left that woman three days ago, and you have still been carrying her in your head.”

Let’s get one thing right: Whether you run towards money or away from it, there is no difference spiritually.

Whether you are obsessed with sex, or force yourself into abstinence, there is no difference spiritually.

There is nothing spiritual about being a millionaire or a beggar. One can be as, or more, spiritual than the other.

When most people think the material world is evil, they are in a state of negative attraction to it. They are still obsessed by the world, except now they can pretend they are spiritual.

Me: What should our attitude to the material world be, Teacher?

Teacher: Listen carefully, for it might go against what ask your religions and holy types have told you.

The Universe, Existence, Spriit, call it what you want, DOES NOT CARE AT ALL about the material world.

Which means it is happy for you to enjoy the material world.

You can enjoy money, sex, big houses and big cars; there is no harm, and NOTHING unspiritual.

But enjoy it with the feeling that it is a gift; all these things do not belong to you, but have merely been lent to you for a small time. Enjoy them while they last, and wave them goodbye when they are gone.

Do not cry for money, but don’t hate people who have it. You must have a sense of gratitude and respect for the material world. You live in this world, so you must honour it. Honour your body, honour the natural world, the trees, the grass, the sky, the clouds. But also honour the fleeting pleasures of life, like money, beauty and other outer pleasures.

These outer material pleasures will not give you ever lasting happiness, but then they are not supposed to.

Like that talk you listened to by Elkhart Tolle: If the whole world was green, the word green would have no meaning. We only know green because of the contrast in colours.

Similarly we can only know of the infinite, the Deathless, the Divine, because it contrasts with the fleeting momentary pleasures of this life.

Listen with attention, S. This is where our teaching diverges from most traditions. They will say that because the material world is temporary, we must avoid it, or at least not enjoy it, as these traditions believe we will get stuck in the world.

We do not believe that, and there have been a few brave traditions that said you can enjoy both the material AND the spiritual world. And why not??

You must remember your essence as the undying, as the infinite, as the Being that lives beyond Time and Space.

BUT

At the same time, you must accept the Being is trying to manifest through THIS BODY at THIS POINT IN TIME AND SPACE.

To insult the material world, to treat it as dirty or unholy or un-spiritual is to insult the Divine that is trying to flower, to manifest THRU the material world.

As the Upanishad says:

They go to a dark place who worship ignorance, But a darker hell waits for those who worship the Light

(My own translation, from memory).

Most people are stuck in the material world, and think there is nothing beyond what they can see with their senses.

Some people go beyond the manifest world, but then get stuck in the Spiritual world. They get stuck in heaven, as it were.

None of these paths are for us. We must live in this world and enjoy it. Why suffer? Why live in poverty? There is enough abundance in this world to make everyone happy PROVIDED they are open to the light.

I know what you are thinking about now?

Me: You do? Golly, you must be psychic.

Teacher: Even better. I don’t read your mind; I don’t need to. Instead, I know I AM YOU, just as you are Me. The only difference is, you do not realise this at the moment. Just intellectual knowledge isn’t enough.

You are wondering why everyone isn’t happy, why there is suffering in the world, and whether the law of karma is real, and whether people are being punished for their sins; and how could God, if s/he exists, allow this?

Me: I was wondering about this. You have often said to Me that the universe wants us all to be happy, and is willing to give us wealth / money if we want. So why are people struggling?

Teacher: The short answer is that the Universe does not interfere in our Free Will. Hard to accept, but the reason we suffer is because we turn our back to the universe, and stop the Love of Being from flowing through us. Until we are ready to show the same Love to our fellow brothers/sisters that we get from the Being, we will never be happy. And the Universe wants us to be happy over everything else.

It’s not that the Universe is not willing to give us enough money to lead a happy life; it’s that WE HAVE BLOCKED THE LIGHT OF BEING, which means the universe can no longer flow through us, and hence no longer share its gifts with us.

WE block the light, WE invite our suffering. Note 1

A second answer is that the Universe always gives us what we need to grow spiritually. And for most people, that is suffering.

But worry not, suffering is the best Teacher. The Gift of Suffering is the best gift the Spirit / Being / God can give us, as we will talk in next lecture.

Note 1: and for people who will complain: But what about the starving children in Africa, are you saying it is their fault? To which I will quote Marianne Williamson: The reason those children are starving is not THEIR fault, but OURS. We are the ones who let them starve, the ones who look away, trying to lead our own merry lives. We should stop blaming God or Karma or other such bullshit for the misery of the world, and accept that WE ARE RESPONSIBLE for everything wrong with the world. We are the Masters of this World, after all, not helpless victims.