The Spiritual Economy

Last time we looked at the fact that the Spiritual Path requires consistency, commitment and discipline, just like any other important reality in life. It is not something that can be put on a shelf and done “when we have time.” To live the life that most of us want to live it takes putting our Spiritual Path first, and then seeing that everything else will fall into line.

This is a reality in what we might call “The Spiritual Economy.” The Spiritual Economy is simply a recognition that an old, somewhat off-color, bumper sticker is true. It said “Ass, Gas, or Grass, Nobody Rides For Free.” While one might object to the reference to riders either prostituting themselves or breaking the draconian substance laws of our current police state, the sentiment is very real and very accurate. Everything costs something. TANSTAAFL: “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.” You pay for everything somewhere, somehow. It must be this way because there must be balance. You simply choose the coin…and some coins are worth more than others.

A friend of ours was recently in a car accident and her car was totaled. Being in the Spiritual Realm of things, she simply manifested a different car given to her…in about two days. Now she could have waited for the insurance to pay off, gotten a loan for the difference between the pittance that evil insurance companies pay and what cars actually cost, worked a few extra hours in her own business to pay for the car payments…but why? Instead, she manifested someone giving her a very nice car to replace the one she lost. I have done the same thing in the past. While I was in grad school, even though I wasn’t making any money, I drove a very nice sports car — which a friend gave to me. It was much better than taking the bus, and a heck of a lot better than having to work to pay a car payment.

But this doesn’t mean that either Diana’s car nor my cars were free. They were paid for with years of discipline to learn how to manifest thoughts into reality rapidly. People who know me now but haven’t known me for very long are somewhat puzzled at how I can rapidly manifest things that I want or need. What they didn’t see was the years of training and discipline of the mind, going back to my teens, and moving into great intensity in my late 20’s and early 30’s.

These years of training, with some frustrations and setbacks, but many victories and great times, have allowed me to stay alive many years past the many dire “diagnoses” I have received of a very short time to live (I never believe these doctors, anyway), being in a very serious car accident which, by any natural lights really should have at least destroyed my body, and probably killed me, being hit by a bus, and so on. They have allowed me to manifest my beloved wife and great people in my life. They have allowed me manifest money and success, although, as I went off the Path for a time, I also experienced the opposite side of that. (If you ever think about going off the Path, please ask me about what has happened to me when I’ve done so. I didn’t dig it, and you won’t either.)

The discipline of a true Spiritual Path is the coin with which people walking the Path pay for the things they manifest. It is an investment that pays off richly. But, like any other investment, it requires discipline and watching. I learned this about worldly investments that I didn’t watch close enough in the year 2000. I was heavily invested in a stock that had been a sure thing: Cisco. “Nuff said.

The strange and sad thing is that most people don’t think that Spirituality requires any true investment of time and resources. I partially blame the Western Christian Church and the Calvinism that permeates America in warp and woof for this. The Christian Church has trained people that one hour on Sunday morning and one tenth of their income in the collection plate is all of the spiritual involvement that they need to “get to heaven.” The absolute absurdity of Calvinism and Western Christianity is a whole other Oprah, but this is simply one of their destructive legacies among many.

Now, someone who could change his or her paradigm instantly, and at every level without question, would be able to spend very little time before seeing the desired results in a Spiritual Path. But those people are few and far between. Maybe Jesus, the Buddha, Ghandi, and so on could do this. But not me, and I’ll bet not you, either.

We’ve been soaked in the negativity which pervades America from the Calvinist legacy for our whole lives. One odd part of that legacy is the concept that Spirituality exists as an end in itself. This is partly true, but highly misleading.

Union with God/The Universe/Great Spirit/The Force/Whatever is an end in itself. It is surely the ultimate goal of anyone walking a Spiritual Path. But why?

God is a hedonist. God is the Great Hedonist. The Universe is set up to give us Pleasure and Joy. Every discipline that is meaningful is toward that end.

Now we understand this in worldly life. I play guitar and gain great pleasure from it. But for several months I didn’t get much pleasure from it, I got bloody fingertips. Reading is a pleasure, but I had to learn to read. And even sex has gotten much more pleasurable as I’ve learned more about it. If you ski, ride horses, sail, snowboard, sky-dive, fly, or play Parchese, there was a learning curve. There is little that we get pleasure from that doesn’t require some discipline and some of that can even be brutal discipline. We pay for our pleasures in a variety of coins. But one of those coins is the discipline to learn about the pleasure and how to enjoy that pleasure. Even a good Single Malt requires acquiring a taste for it — followed by a great deal of pleasure over the years. And I don’t even want to talk about my first cigar. (It probably would have helped if it had cost over 10 cents!)

What we don’t seem to understand is that these pleasures, as pleasurable as they are, are transitory. Union with God might be partially for God’s pleasure. There are hints that it is pleasurable to God to have us with God, although I can’t imagine why. (“It is the Father’s pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”) But that union, we are assured, will be better than the best orgasm, the best chocolate brownie fudge delight, the most expensive cigar, or whatever pleasure you want to name. So the goal of union with God is not, as the dried up and pinched faced Christians have told us, is not for some high-blown “spiritual” reason, but because God is a hedonist and wants us to be hedonists, too. The problem God has with us is that we set our sights on pleasures that cease giving pleasure, and God wants us to go for the eternal multiple orgasm that goes on and on and on.

But this doesn’t mean that the Spiritual Path is solely focused on that goal of union with God. That is, yes, the end game. And the Christian Church will tell you that getting to the end game requires you to live your life in misery. But that is absurd. God is a hedonist, not a sadist. God isn’t going to make you suffer for a lifetime on a promise of pleasure. God wants us to have abundant lives now, and any Christian who doesn’t agree with that has never cracked that Bible they claim to love so much, but don’t ever seem to actually listen to.

So the discipline that must exist at first is simply to turn our minds from the paradigm we have been “soaked” in to the paradigm that we are here for Pleasure and Joy, and, in operating in Pleasure and Joy, we will see that eternal Pleasure and Joy on other planes — perhaps after more lives or more lessons — but we will see it. We are eternal creatures created to have fun, obtain pleasure and operate in joy.

Unfortunately, because we’ve been soaked in toxic religiosity we have to break toxic brain, body and spiritual patterns. So we “pay” for this life of fun, pleasure and joy with a bit of learning up front. This is the discipline, consistency and commitment that I keep talking about. It doesn’t exist for its own sake, but so that we can break out of paradigms that keep us lonely, broke, in pain, ill, scared, and so on. This takes some work for most people.

Now, this is why Teachers are sent. We weren’t drafted by God, you know. We all volunteered. You might well question my spiritual intelligence for doing so, but every Teacher I know admits that s/he is a volunteer. We aren’t here for ourselves this time. We’re here because we love you and want to bring you into Joy, Pleasure, Fun, Life, Abundance, Prosperity, Health, and so on. Many of you are Teachers, too, and simply need to remember this. When you do you’ll also remember that you volunteered for this, and will thank the Teacher who “wakes you up” to why you’re here.

Be aware that the Spiritual Economy is very pragmatic. This isn’t religion and, frankly, I’m not sure even how “supernatural” it is. As we grow in Spirituality our lives get better. They may fall apart for a few months at first as our paradigm changes, but, in the longer run (and after a short time) as we learn our lessons and move into deeper and deeper Spirituality, our lives will get better and we will achieve the things we desire for a good life. Our evaluation of what that is will almost certainly change. But the manifestations we want will manifest.

That is the Spiritual Economy. It means that, as we give ourselves over to a discipline carried out with commitment and consistency, we will obtain more and more life. It is that simple.

It is a “leveraged economy,” in that obtaining the things we want spiritually is, in the end, a great deal easier than trying to obtain them in the natural world. But to get there we have to learn how to “trade” in the Spiritual Economy. And that takes some time and dedication.

Peace, love, joy and prosperity,

J.