Spiritual Materialism

Spiritual Materialism - (435)

When we are working with a spiritual practice and we focus on 'doing' and 'having' we are leaning into spiritual materialism.

The true heart of every spiritual practice is 'being'. That is, the work 'to be'.

The interesting trick of spiritual materialism is that we go into having and doing for purposes of benefiting our spiritual practice.

For example, buying a big new car to drive people to and from retreats. It's not really to drive people around but to have a big and new car (the one we always wanted).

Travelling here and there to attend retreats in different places. It's not really for the retreat but to be able to travel and do 'something', getting out of the boring routine.

Working in a well paid yet very consuming job, earning more money, to donate more to the spiritual centre. It's not really to give more, but to enjoy the large paycheck and the status of the job title.

Spiritual materialism is also when we want spiritual things fast, and when we try to place a time frame on them.

When we compete against others in our spiritual practice environment, and feel happy or sad about our progress in relation to them, this is also spiritual materialism. Spiritual materialism is to do what we do in life, compare who has the bigger house and who earns the most etc. etc. but in the spiritual field.

Spiritual work is outside of time and is about being. Being the being can not be compared, it is something that lives from instant to instant...

End (435).

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Attention with Mind, Attention with Essence - (5197)

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