Money vs. The Divine Triad of Spiritual Evolution
Money & Happiness
I was wondering, because as a new user to Steemit.com, I was browsing through some the trending and hot posts and noticed a lot of topics and titles around trading, cryptocurrencies and money. On one hand that makes sense, since Steemit is a cryptocurrency based platform, but on the other hand, money is only # 9 on the list of things that actually make us happy and fulfilled in life, once we have food and a roof above our heads.
Because of that, I wanted to dive a bit deeper into the spiritual realms. Before I do, I must say that I do sincerely believe that we need sufficient money to create a lifestyle that is in alignment with our higher selves. I'm not going full hippie on you with some airy fairy bullshit, saying that we don't need money to thrive and that everything is just energy, because that's only partly true. In my eyes, balance between materialism and spirituality is key. Taking action versus actually being in solitude to strategically plan out how (and why) we're going to improve the conditions of our life and the quality of our state of consciousness. I call it the never ending dance between the physical and the metaphysical realms.
If we fail miserably at this dance, it becomes really hard for us to feel secure, fulfilled and emotionally stable in our lives. On one hand we lack security, comfort and freedom if we don't meet our material needs such as food, shelter, transport and other needs but on the other hand we human beings tend to feel blue or frustrated if we don't make progress over the long, which is something a lot of people living the 9-5 rat race start experiencing once they graduate from school. If we don't feel ourselves emotionally, mentally and spiritually evolving on a consistent basis, we start to feel anxious, frustrated, guilty and ashamed.
The Way Out
To avoid feeling these emotions, creating balance between our inner and outer worlds is key. This is simply so because our own perceived image of reality is nothing more than an exact mirror of our inner world, which includes all of our childhood insecurities, limiting beliefs self sabotaging tendencies, addictions and ignorant intentions. The fact that our subjective experience is a mere result of our state of consciousness is pretty basic metaphysical stuff, but once you truly realise that your reality is constantly and continuously being shaped by the vibrational frequencies of your day-to-day thoughts, everything changes.
And that all sounds well, but what is the secret to align with our higher self spiritually? What is the key to keep the fire burning? What aspects of life are essential to truly evolve? To me, spiritual evolution is about growth of being, an ever brightening of the divine spark that is our consciousness. Knowledge is the crucial cornerstone of this process, but only developing our minds is not enough. Unaccompanied by other principles like faith and love, knowledge stagnates and fails its purpose.
There seems to be one overarching, universal and overlapping formula that tends to cover all aspects of spiritual evolution. I call this the divine triad of spiritual evolution in this article, simply because it sounded like a catchy title, but the main principle is easy to understand really. It's all about making a conscious effort to pay some attention to certain imbalances in the pyramid below.
I will attempt to define each principle within the limits of practicality, so suitably modify these for yourself.
Knowledge is gained by the conscious reflection and integration of experiences, observations, and thoughts. Conscious reflection is what distinguishes memory from understanding, as the latter requires it while the former does not. Knowledge encompasses both, being not just the memory of facts but also the understanding of objective truth.
Awareness is attention of the present moment, applied in context of prior knowledge. Knowledge broadens awareness by highlighting aspects of reality previously not noticed. With greater awareness comes a wider field of perception, sharper focus and alertness, and better readiness to acquire new knowledge and apply what has already been learned.
Wisdom transcends linear time and concerns the understanding of absolute metaphysical truths. It applies to our past, present, and future without fail. Wisdom is the understanding of divine principles, of the relation between self and others against the backdrop of Creation. It is knowledge tempered with love, or love tempered with knowledge.
Faith is trusting that in Creation, all things are possible. It is the suspension of disbelief. It works where knowledge fails. While knowledge stops at every precipice, faith leaps across it. While knowledge further refines knowledge, faith expands it. Simply put, knowledge is deterministic and faith is non-deterministic. Expanding knowledge requires leaping into the unknown, an act that knowledge finds irrational but faith finds necessary. Making paradigm leaps requires faith – not blind faith in what one chooses to ignore, but pure faith in what one cannot yet know.
Hope is knowing that in Creation, all things are possible. It is the reconciliation between faith and knowledge, of knowing that having faith allows one to accomplish the impossible. Hope is confidence in non-determinism, freedom from bondage to causality. It comes not from the ignorance of facts, but from the recognition of higher truths demonstrated by miraculous experience.
Love is the vibration of infinite truth. What resonates with love aligns toward the Creator. Seeing with love means seeing with the eyes of the Creator, a perspective chosen to be undistorted by prejudice, intolerance, ignorance, or separation. With love, all things are made possible because anything that is of the Creator is understood, allowed, accepted, and forgiven. To feel love is to feel the joy of remembering the divine unity of all existence and acknowledging the absolute truths within and before you. Loving another means recognizing the common godspark within them and therefore caring for their spiritual evolution as much as you would for your own. It is compassion without pity.
Humility is having awareness of one’s relation to the finite and infinite – that everything with a beginning has an end, and that any being regardless of rank is infinitesimal in the framework of infinite Creation. Humility is not about belittling or exaggerating yourself, as that is either false modesty or hubris, but about knowing your place and size in the grand scheme of things. It is choosing truth over ego, verity over self-importance. Humility begins with gratitude, an attitude that allows you to acknowledge truth without resentment by being thankful for whatever learning opportunities you receive.
Forbearance is knowing that every event has its proper time. This builds tolerance for difficult situations and patience for events whose time has not yet come. The doors of opportunity open when time is right. Having forbearance means aligning with the pulse of synchronicity; rather than choosing which doors to force open, you choose which open doors to walk through. This requires faith in letting things fall into place, and awareness of opportunities when they arrive.
Levity is having a sense of humor and a lighthearted approach to life. Without it, you overestimate the reality of illusion. Levity puts situations in their proper context, the divine framework in which everything is a learning lesson and learning is fun. You can laugh at what once seemed serious because you learned its lesson and since realized its purpose in your life. Levity is the choice to see this humor not just in past experiences, but in present and future ones as well.
These three groups provide the minimum requirements for stable spiritual evolution. So that being said, try to be honest and see which of these values are missing your life. Seeking to restore the imbalances will results in a feeling of accelerated flow in your life.
So next to earning money in order to create the external reality that you wish to experience, remember that true satisfation can only stem from transmuting our limiting beliefs into empowering ones while setting loving, authentic and harmonious intentions, since these are the foundational energetic building blocks or our existence.
The only limits are the ones put upon you by your conditioning, so stay aware and question everything dear friends!