Is it right for someone who does not want to live attached to materialism to attain wealth? Is there a justification? How can we balance these two desires?
Burcin Cevik
An interesting discussion on this topic is taking place at Intent Blog. Here’s a quote with Deepak Chopra’s response to this question, taken from an article written by David Beers, author of Blue Sky Dream:
“You need accept no limits, physical or financial. Noting that the title of one of his books is Creating Affluence: Wealth Consciousness in the Field of All Possibilities, I tell Chopra I was raised by my Catholic mother to curb material longing, to remember Christ’s teachings about the rich man and the eye of the needle. Growing up blue-collar in the Depression era, this teaching no doubt afforded her people some comfort. Chopra replies that “wealth is an expression of the spirit” and that because those without money always obsess about getting it, “the solution is to help everybody have wealth.” But is there a conflict between desiring wealth, and seeking God? “Why should material success be an impediment to spirituality?” he responds. “Keep increasing your desires until nothing satisfies you except God. Wanting material wealth is part of that.”
Materialism is generally seen as the belief that the material world of the senses is all that exists, and that there is nothing beyond it. As such, of course this view is incompatible with a desire for spiritual attainment, for there is no notion of anything spiritual in materialism.
Yet what we usually mean by materialism is merely seeking to improve the material circumstances of our lives. We’d like to have more comfort, or have a bit more freedom, or the ability to surround ourselves with beauty, or to pursue our interests more fully, or have more time, and so on. We all must solve the economic problem: how to secure our livelihood. And we all make a choice of how to best do this with our limited time, and in a way that is consistent with our principles.
What if, instead of imposing a conflict between spirituality and our desires, we could see our desires as coming from the One Heart that is within us, yet holds all beings and all things. The One Heart gives rise to our own desires, for its own desire is for progress, fulfillment, development; in short, for the living manifestation of perfection itself. What dimension of the heart is your development taking place in right now? Take our Heart Index quiz for some insight on this.
love,
Puran & Susanna
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November 8th, 2007
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My husband has a heart pacer and it will be triggered if his heart rate goes below 50 beats. Will this be a problem for him during meditation? He is thinking that as he relaxes his heart rate will go down, inducing a deeper state, but which will be made obsolete by the start of his heart pacer. Is this correct?
I would appreciate an answer on this subject as we are very interested in exploring this meditation technique.
Thanking you for your time and attention,
M.-A. Cardinal
Ottawa, ON
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November 7th, 2007
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Mark Oppenheimer has written an interesting piece for the NY Times magazine this week called “The Turning of an Atheist”. The article is about the elderly philosopher Antony Flew, and his back-and-forth position on atheism or ‘deism’ - between belief that there is no God versus what he describes as the belief that there is an intelligent Supreme Being who does not intervene in human affairs.
Oppenheimer presents Flew as a sort of good-natured pawn in a political struggle between two opposing sides, one side which believes there is no credible scientific evidence for the existence of God, and the other which believes, well, perhaps there is, if not proof, at least some persuasive science-based ideas.
We do not wish to intervene in this debate, except to note that the kind of passion that motivates both sides is the heart, the home of all that is most sacred, most holy. Whether one worships God, science, reason, the Universe, Energy, empiricism, Christ, Buddha, or nothing that can be named, the feeling of worship resides in the heart. We want to be able to see in what you worship, the essence of what it is we worship, so that in the end, there can be no argument about belief. What is sacred to you is sacred to us, even if we call it something different.
Also, we’d like to invite you to consider whether your current beliefs are helping your heart or holding your heart back. Some beliefs change over a person’s life; others remain constant. As our understanding our ourselves, the nature of reality, and our relationship to each other and to the unity of being changes, our beliefs must also change to incorporate our new understanding. Yet we often cling to our old beliefs, like a snake that refuses to shed its skin.
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November 6th, 2007
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Hello,
I have began practicing meditation following the instructions in your book Living from the Heart for about three weeks, concentrating on my breath and focusing on my heart. Now, I am in chapter 6 of your book and would like to know for how long I need to practice the full exhalation meditation (I began two days ago doing 10 full exhalation breaths followed by the meditation where I breathe normally and try to focus on my heart) before I should go on to the next exercise: retained breath?The first time I tried the 10 full exhalation last Saturday, I began to feel extremely hot in my body about 30 minutes later, as if I had hot flashes; I am 49 years old, could it trigger pre-menopausal symptoms or is it a normal reaction? I also have a low metabolism rate, I usually am cold when I do not move physically. Are there any psychological, emotional, spiritual changes that may occur when practicing these breathing exercises? How many times a day do you recommend I practice the 10 full exhalation breaths? I do notice that I would not fully exhale when I normally breathe, I usually find it more difficult to inhale than to exhale. My mother has been diagnosed with bi-polar disease since she was 60 years old, she is now 79 years old and I have been in therapy for many years now as I have been sexually abused as a child by my father. Because of my dysfunctional past, do you think that by practicing the heart meditation it will heal my heart?
Thank you very much for your advice as I don’t have anyone to refer to as I live in Montreal, Quebec and know no one else who practices this type of meditation.
Carole
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November 5th, 2007
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An enthusiastic member of the audience at St. James Church: Joshua Manasseh
Puran and Susanna, right to left, at St. James church, with Caroline Dale, Chrissy White, Tony Dickenson, Frashostra Manasseh, Christopher Head, teachers and instructors of “Energize Your Heart” in London
150 people heard Puran and Susanna speak about the four dimensions of the heart in London.
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November 3rd, 2007
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Puran Bair, Caroline Dale, Howard Glasser, Frashostra Manasseh, Susanna Bair
We held up traffic several times as we played with the famous Beatles scene at Abbey Road, much to the delight of on-lookers.
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November 2nd, 2007
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Don’t avoid emotional pain; instead, experience your heart’s pain with all your awareness, until it becomes a physical sensation. Go so deeply into pain that it becomes the pain of humanity. Let the pain turn to joy, to all feeling.
This Exercise for Life develops the depth of the heart; this is where we’re all connected, all held in perfect love. The depth is where we realize our unity, where we drown in an ocean of love. The pain is given to you as a gift, to help you remember that your heart is bigger than any pain, and that along with the pain is joy. There is nothing to great for your heart to bear. When you give your heart attention and breath you give your heart the resources to face any challenge with grace, humility, and dignity.
Puran and Susanna
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November 1st, 2007
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Halloween is a day that marks the fullness of the harvest and the turning toward winter. It is a day that often represents transformation, seen in the wearing of costumes, symbolizing the the bringing out of a different side of oneself than one normally shows the world.
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October 31st, 2007
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Each one of us has a heart filled with greatness. Yet we often cannot see it, because we get impressed by our mistakes, flaws, and limitations. We are so aware of our shortcomings that we overlook the greatness that underlies our limitations.
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October 30th, 2007
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Deepak Chopra has written a nice blog entry on Intent Blog on the idea that everything in a person’s life is reducible to the person’s genetic code.
It is a bit surprising that Dr. Chopra includes in his post a rather controversial idea (especially for one trained in Western medicine): “Genes are affected by the environment, including upbringing and behavior.”
In biology, the notion that non-genetic traits obtained through a given environment can be passed on is associated with Lamark, and is called ’soft inheritance’. It is a sort of heresy in biology. Here is an interesting article about a researcher who provides some evidence for soft inheritance.
Our interest is in the development of the heart. A wonderful quality of the heart is that it constantly seeks development, constantly longs to move forward, toward love, harmony, and beauty; toward the perfection of its qualities. And this is true regardless of what has been given by one’s genetic inheritance.
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October 29th, 2007
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