Selling Your Soul for Money?

This is a thoughtful piece about money, life and balance.

It was sent to me from the Himalayan Institute.
Here is the text:

"Must you "sell your soul" to be financially successful? This question has long troubled spiritual seekers.....Buddhist teachers regularly "renounced the world" and relied on donations for their livelihood. But what if you want to run a successful company, live in a nice neighborhood, send your kids to a private school . . . and live a spiritually rich life? Is it possible?

That's the question that Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Ph.D.—spiritual head of the Himalayan Institute and author of the autobiographical book Touched by Fire: The Ongoing Journey of a Spiritual Seeker (Himalayan Institute Press, April 2005, ISBN: 0-89389-239-4, $16.95)- addresses.

"Real spirituality means to come to the center of your own life and become aware of who and what you are and not be affected by other people's opinions of you," Tigunait explains. "You gain respect for what you are and for what you are doing. You have full confidence that your work, your lifestyle, your job, and your business support what you believe in and support your own self-understanding. If you become financially prosperous in the process, that doesn't negate the spirituality."

Here are just a few of the points that Tigunait addresses:

Prosperity Defined

* The real meaning of prosperity. People think that prosperity means you make lots of money. You can buy the car of your choice, go on vacation to the island of your choice, and do anything you want to do. That is fine. However, prosperity to me is that which makes you really become a happy and healthy person, that which makes and brings happiness in your life. That's called prosperity. So it's inner prosperity that infuses your external world with happiness.

The End Goal of Money

* How money furthers your spiritual growth. Money has one simple purpose: to help you gather all the means and resources to make your life comfortable so that you preserve your time to do something that is more meaningful. Without those tools and means, without the comforts and conveniences, you would have wasted that time running after worldly success. Now that success is at hand, how will you further reinvest that success? How will you reinvest your worldly prosperity, your worldly wealth, to further regain and further recapture that inner wealth that is inside you? This is what spirituality does for you.

Spirituality does not mean detaching yourself, renouncing the world, and becoming a recluse. On the contrary, says Tigunait, it means to become successful, to become useful, to become productive . . . concepts businesspeople understand very well.

Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Ph.D., the spiritual head of the Himalayan Institute, is the successor of Swami Rama of the Himalayas. Lecturing and teaching worldwide for more than a quarter of a century, he is a regular contributor to Yoga International magazine, the author of twelve books, including the best-selling At the Eleventh Hour: The Biography of Swami Rama of the Himalayas, and the force behind Sacred Link-The Healing Revolution.


For more information, visit Himalayan Institute"