Riches

This post expresses an almost fundamentalist judge-mentalism. Everyone should avoid black and white thinking and use common sense. Full disclosure: I have gone to many seminars and retreats. I use a meditation app called 'Insight Timer.' I think it's wonderful that some young people are excited about meditation. The point is about the commercialization of spirituality. May you be free.


“Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.  But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
~ John 4:13-14

“Spiritual teachings, which show the way to experience spiritual development and enlightenment, become a well from which the seeker can draw truth. Just as water should be available to all who thirst, the timeless spiritual teachings that illuminate religious truths should be available to all who seek.” ~ Gabrielle M. Wood

“During the last fifteen years while sharing the Buddha’s Dharma in the West, I always urged my Western friends to go back to their own traditions and rediscover the values that are there, those values they have not been able to touch before. The practice of Buddhist meditation can help them do so, and many have succeeded. Buddhism is made of non-Buddhist elements. Buddhism has no separate self. When you are a truly happy Christian, you are also a Buddhist. And vice versa.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ

“Corporations and individuals who sell spirituality select fragments of ancient spiritual concepts or teachings and then repackage them to be more appealing as a product to sell. In the process, however, they violate the integrity of the original source and distort the original meaning and purpose. Additionally, by charging money to access the majority of their products, these merchants of spirituality break the timeless cycle of freely giving and receiving spiritual knowledge (which is a fundamental spiritual principle found within the origins of many spiritual traditions).

Throughout history there are many examples of spiritual seekers who found a spiritual teacher and dedicated their lives to those teachings – for example, the disciples of Jesus or Buddha. Communities like the Christian Gnostics, Essenes, Cathars, Rosicrucians, and Sufis all taught outside of the mainstream… In the western world during the 1960s and 70s, a surge of alternative spiritual groups appeared on the scene, many of them influenced by an infusion of teachings and spiritual practices from the east. Today, alternative spirituality still exists much in the same way. While beliefs and practices vary, many consist of a spiritual lifestyle that requires discipline, commitment, and an aim to transcend the materialistic world and desires, in order to reach salvation or enlightenment… A life dedicated to those aims can be full of challenges to overcome in order to gain spiritual rewards. Mainstream institutions have long sought to suppress anything that threatens their dominance…

The self-help movement is now a multi-billion dollar industry as people move away from mainstream institutions and consider themselves “spiritual, but not religious.” Many people naturally have an interest in alternative forms of spirituality and search out a spiritual practice that is more mystical, personal, or experiential than what traditional religious institutions provide. The notion that you can purchase your spiritual progress has become common place. Putting a monetary value on spirituality limits it to those who can pay, contradicting what is found in original spiritual teachings found throughout history. This distorts the very perception of what “spirituality” is held to be.

It  is normal to pay for something we value, especially if we feel it will change our lives in a positive way. But when you look at spiritual teachers like Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu, or Krishna, they all gave their teachings freely to anyone without expectation of financial reward. Jesus told his disciples “freely ye have received, freely give.” Buddha encouraged others to find peace and “share the way.” Lao Tzu spoke about how the wise “take care of everyone” and “abandon no one.” This has been utterly lost within commercialized spirituality. Another aspect that you’ll find mixed in with commercialized spirituality is the importance placed on materialistic gain. Many spiritual “entrepreneurs” and celebrities promise to hold the keys to a better life where you can become better looking, own a better house, become more successful and incredibly rich. This is something that also differs greatly from many of the world’s greatest spiritual teachings from ancient history, which in most cases taught about the importance of detachment or denial of temporary and superficial “worldly pleasures” when in pursuit of self-knowledge and enlightenment…

Today, modern day spiritual entrepreneurs are selling spiritual concepts which in many cases they themselves do not even practice. What then gives them the authority to teach these spiritual concepts, if they lack direct experience themselves? By packaging their product in an appealing way, and with all the marketing, branding, and publicity support that large corporations can provide, many of these individuals have gained celebrity, fame, and significant fortune.

The top ten spiritual “celebrities” combined income is in the billions, according to the Watkin’s Top 100 Spiritual People List of 2015. Can we really trust a spiritual teaching that is “packaged” for the sake of profit and fame, instead of spiritual value and the sake of others, and is only available to those who can pay?.. Much of what passes for spirituality today is almost unrecognizable compared with the spiritual teachings of the past. Today, commercialized spirituality has extracted all of the pleasant or positive aspects from ancient spirituality, and have left out the hardship, self-sacrifice, struggle, and standards required to gain spiritual knowledge. The original spiritual concepts become distorted and taken out of context all for the sake of profit…

Many of the original teachers venerated today in mainstream religious institutions were initially rejected, and then later had their teachings taken, changed or interpreted in ways to fit the agenda of mainstream political and religious organizations. This resulted in the formation of powerful religious institutions that strove to stamp their authority over those teachings and control how they could be used. After taking out the struggle, hardship, and serious commitment, what is left is a feel-good, watered-down version of spirituality that misleads the spiritual seeker from the original meaning and purpose of the spiritual teachings of the past, while simultaneously deceiving them into feeling like they are partaking in something that will bring them closer to the Divine and self-realization. This reduces the seeker to become nothing more than a repeat customer going from one spiritual “best seller” to the next, as the teachings are so fragmented from their original source (and in some cases, even plagiarized) that real spiritual “enlightenment” or “liberation” never comes...

Unfortunately, the opportunity for people to practice spirituality freely has become extremely limited. The socially acceptable choices seem to be between mainstream religions or watered-down, corporate-backed, commercialized spirituality. This results in greatly limiting the development of human consciousness in a serious way. Genuine alternative spirituality is essentially being drowned out by spiritual businessmen selling appealing but shallow options for salvation and inner peace… While commercialized spirituality can appear like a wonderful influence – advocating peace, and happiness – it can also serve as a justification for hedonism and materialism while parasitically using and distorting the messages of spirituality while obscuring the source… The decision to live out a spiritual life, (or not to) has always been a part of the human experience, and it is still considered a fundamental human right; however, that right is at risk of being further eroded if those who are interested in pursuing it do not speak out." ~ Matthew Butler and Justin Norris

Images ~ Jesus and the rich young ruler being told he would have to let go of his riches if he hoped to reach salvation.
~ 'Meditation App'

~ Quote by Eckhart Tolle (Formerly homeless man who is now a multimillionaire.)