Purpose, Spirituality and Materialism

[RT Wolf]

I was reading through old posts (just a compilation of steve's old posts would make a fantastic book) and found this:

8. What do you believe is the relationship between wealth and spirituality? Is there a connection between the two?

For years I feared that the pursuit of wealth would hamper my spiritual life, distract me from my spiritual path; that was one of the limiting beliefs I had that prevented me from succeeding. But I realized somewhere in my early thirties that that belief, like all others, wasn’t true in itself. There is no conflict between wealth and spirituality, unless you create it in your mind. I can pursue financial success and still have plenty of time as well for my spiritual life. And, ultimately, they’re not even two separate things: My spiritual life encompasses every moment of each day and night.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/200...len-interview/

How do you reconcile spirituality and the pursuit of betterment of others and everyone with materialistic pursuits such as, say, getting an Aston Martin?

Thanks!

Just realized that there is also a spirituality forum that this would probably be better suited for, as well as potentially finding answers there. If some passing by mod would kindly move it there if they deem it better, although I do want to know more from a down-to-earth perspective.

[SonoranBob]

Originally Posted by RT Wolf

How do you reconcile spirituality and the pursuit of betterment of others and everyone with materialistic pursuits such as, say, getting an Aston Martin?

I agree with Steve Pavlina but would word it a little more carefully than he did. There is no inherent conflict between wealth and spirituality, but there can be, and it is not just a construct of your mind.

I regard wealth not as a hindrance to spirituality, but as a test. Wealth, if you regard it as something other than a tool to accomplish the goals guided by your spirituality, can be a distraction. For example people say, "So-and-so has more money than sense". If money isn't scarce, then it affords you the opportunity to experiment -- to afford failure. But, it also affords you the opportunity to screw around and waste time, or to insulate yourself from the consequences of witless or careless or self-indulgent actions.

So the effective and ethical uses of wealth, guided by your spirituality: good. The ungrateful, self-indulgent uses of wealth, guided by your whims: bad.

I regard wealth as a responsibility -- a specific kind of responsibility known as a stewardship. If god as you conceive him has provided you with wealth, be grateful for it and use it responsibly.

--Bob

[smartile]

Hi RT Wolf,

I agree with Steve P on this one. The world is perfect and you are perfect in your body, mind and soul. The fact that we are given the gift to think can also be our greatest enemy. It's our false beliefs that prevent us from seeing the truth - the truth that we are abundant human beings that resonate with wealth, health and abundance.

In the past 8 months I've come to realize something. I had false beliefs about money. These beliefs were preventing me from living on purpose, feeling connected and increasing my wealth. I'm by no means a millionaire but I have increased my income by 26% in 8 months.

My previous experience, ‘money is bad’ was preventing me from attracting more money because I didn’t want to be associated with money - because money was bad. My new experience, ‘money is good’ came about as a result of using the JARS money management system. Since I started to feel better about money, I started to associate ‘good’ with ‘money’ and therefore attracted more money. Like attracts like.

If you want to learn more about my story, see:

How to Change Your Beliefs with Praxis, Part 2

If you focus on eliminating false beliefs, you will begin to experience your true connection and understand who you really are.