Spirituality and Money

Written on April 2, 2008 by Tom Stine / 23 Comments »




With this video, I wanted to discuss a topic that seems to be important to a lot of spiritually oriented folks, namely money. I know I’ve had my share of issues with it, my clients seem to have issues with it, and, well, so does Wall Street, Main Street, Elm Street and every other “street” in the world. No matter where you turn, money is a hot topic.

But is there anything wrong with mixing spirituality and money? After lots of looking at this issue from various angles, I must say that the answer has to be no. Money is just money. It is a medium of exchange, a way for you and me to exchange our labors for what we need. It keeps me from having to grow wheat, pump oil and raise cattle just to eat and drive a car. Simple, effective system.

So why all the fuss? Well, for centuries, various churches and spiritual systems have given money a bad rap. The image of the poor priest and the Buddhist monk come to mind. Moreover, we all know a number of people with some serious money hang-ups, both in terms of poverty and in terms of greed. The image of Ebenezer Scrooge is one we all know. Or Donald Trump. Or a whole host of wealthy people we could name.

It seems to me that all of this distaste for money by spirituality probably has more to do with our attachment to money and wealth than anything else. There’s that word attachment, which seems to come up frequently in spiritual discussions. We grasp, we grab, we try to hold onto things, and we end-up suffering as a consequence. And that certainly is true with regard to money.

In my next video post, I will get into the discussion of spirituality and money more deeply. I hope to make as series of video posts on the topic.

So how do you feel about spirituality and money? Leave some comments and discuss.

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Guru Quotes

All of our thoughts are conditioned. We all are thinking exactly along the lines we are conditioned to think. Programmed like a computer. Anybody who thinks they are actually choosing of their own free will the line of thinking that they have is completely deluded by their thinking.

—Adyashanti


Behind most spiritual practices is the belief that you have to get someplace you’re not- a destination called realization or enlightenment. But realization isn’t someplace else; it’s the naturally occurring human state. It doesn’t belong to anybody. It’s who we all are. Spiritual practices also set up many pictures of what this state looks like. For example, when I described how much fear was present, people told me the fear meant that something must be wrong, because fear was an indication that I wasn’t in the proper state. But fear is just what it is, and it’s there too in the vastness of who we are.

—Suzanne Segal

In spiritual life there is no room for compromise. Awakening is not negotiable; we cannot bargain to hold on to things that please us while relinquishing things that do not matter to us. A lukewarm yearning for awakening is not enough to sustain us through the difficulties involved in letting go. It is important to understand that anything that can be lost was never truly ours, anything that we deeply cling to only imprisons us.

—Jack Kornfield

Those who awaken never rest in one place.
Like swans, they rise and leave the lake.
On the air they rise and fly an invisible course.
Their food is knowledge.
They live on emptiness.
They have seen how to break free.
Who can follow them?

—Siddhārtha Gautama, The Dhammapada

We always want someone else to change so that we will feel good. But has it ever struck you that even if your wife changes or your husband changes, what does that do to you? You’re just as vulnerable as before; you’re just as idiotic as before; you’re just as asleep as before. You are the one who needs to change, who needs to take medicine. You keep insisting, “I feel good because the world is right.” Wrong! The world is right because I feel good. That’s what all the mystics are saying.

—Anthony de Mello