Spectrum of Spirit: A Digital Sanctuary for Spiritual Discourse and Community

I’ve written about wealth previously this year, so this introduction will be quite short. The first definition of wealth by Cambridge is a large amount of valuable possessions that someone has. Due to my personality type I am still trying to explore, physical possessions aren’t as valuable to me as mental possessions, or as I would like to define it as an understanding of myself. Individuals with monetary wealth, have substantial influence and power in our modern day world, figures like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos seem to have the ability to explore the passions of their heart at anytime. However, I would like to challenge our modern concepts of richness, spreading the opportunity to gain wealth to all, rooted in being present, connected, and grateful. 

This year is almost coming to a close for me, and I believe this year has been a year of growth, a year of growing in my awareness, culturally, artistically, and spiritually. Though my financial status is quite similar to how I started the year, I believe my growth this year could not be bought with any amount of money, beating almost any amount of prosperity I could have imagined. As I continue this journey in to next year, I am excited to keep observing, inhaling, and expressing with a sense of gratitude for the experiences I have. I plan to use the power I have found in perspective to contribute to being present, diving deeper into the riches already inside of me.

The Power of Wealth

I am not the biggest fan of morals, as I believe it is beneficial for authority to come from within, not from an external domineering force. However, I have no problem with an ethical structure, a way of going through your world balancing beneficial opportunities and harmful opportunities. I believe finding what is beneficial and harmful to an individual can help the derive their own values from the world, personally observing the world to balance what we desire spiritually, emotionally, and materially.

On the Stay Spiritual channel, James and Justin share a dialogue about a different perspective on wealth. Justin opens up the conversation, discussing “weird” sayings like, any man with friends is right in spirit, and how people dismiss the sayings almost immediately. Justin emphasizes that he doesn’t think we benefit from dismissing sayings like above and to question what one really needs. Justin proceeds to attack Disney, an example of a corporation that enslaves people to walking, and charges double for food you could make twice as good at home. Justin clarifies that there is nothing wrong about going to Disney, but he’s trying to make a bigger point around what some people might think they need. James jumps in, adding a would you rather to the mix, would you rather not be afraid, or have buckets of money? James invites Justin to imagine what life would be like if they were never afraid anymore, or never had to worry. James questions what’s real wealth, what going on inside of a person and acknowledges he doesn’t have all the answers.

James and Justin start the video with their foot on the gas, Justin dismissing and showing the harm that could come from big corporations, like Disney. I believe Justin expresss how being oberservant of one’s perceptions, of one’s tendencies, is a smaller way to explore the journey of freedom. James adds his own complexity to the dialogue, splitting the seas of the divine and the mundane. I believe James’ question, never be afraid again, or buckets of money, seems to be getting at what is the value material wealth? It brings to question what is the use of material wealth if it doesn’t benefit or even harms our well being. 

Everyday Wealth

In my work week, a lot of my days are very robotic. Monday is my catch up with emails day, Tuesday is my meetings day, Wednesday is my student activity day. Thursday is my weekend planning day, and Friday is my advisory day. Every week can feel like another week if I only focused on the activities I do one a weekly basis that justify the money I make. However, what makes each day standout is the conversations I have with the kids that stop by during my lunch break. Hearing about their growth leaves me with a sense of awe. Hearing about their relationships, or desires for relationship let’s me see their kindness. Hearing about their accomplishments gives us an opportunity to reflect on the gratitude we have for others and opportunities. These moments, my spiritual income, renew everyday, giving me infinite reasons to live in the moment.

Continuing with the episode, Justin takes the microphone inviting his audience to another imagination exercise. The imagination exercise consists of a magical guru, offering their wisdom in how to get rich or they could get rid of the sick illusion in one’s mind, that sickness is what they need. Justin acknowledges that hand in mouth poverty is a different thing and questions how people end up in difficult circumstances. Justin believes if one is not in the third world, he sees a lot of complaints of people not getting to live the luxury life. Justin even jokes about people in biblical times complaining about not being able to live like pharaoh, why can’t I have a million people marching under me. Justin lays out that there are people who have food, shelter, and insurance yet are upset they don’t have more. Justin steers away from judgement, recognizing his “I want more” tendencies, and questions why are humans so sick, and we can’t enjoy what we have?

Justin’s analogy to the interaction with the magical guru first reflects the magical relationship I share with some of my advisees. Though I can provide the students with a place of comfort, or an opportunity to think about future possibilities, what is valuable to me is the trust and willingness of my students to invite me into their lives, each story like a wealthy deposit into our shared spiritual bank account. Though most of the time i don’t give them the answer my advisers are looking for, I believe their complaints bring them to a future sense of inner comfort, comfort within themselves that brings them confidence in who they are becoming. I believe the accruing wealth in our spiritual bank account, allows us to be more harmonious in our being, even in our efforts to deal with the judgement and discomfort with the deeper questions of life.

Living Wealth

My professional life consumes a lot of my time, though my work may not be as intensive as other occupations, my job requires me to be emotionally available for kids almost 24/7. I always have my ringer on and notifications on for a student who needs assistance in their dorm room, faculty who need help with transportation, and parents trying to assist their kids in the life they think is best for their child. I am apart of our schools service team, aiming to educate our youth in the value they get from helping others without receiving in return, while expemplifying a cheerful servant mindset to children navigating maturing through life. 

James takes the mantle back, suggesting one way to move past our sickness is to stop putting ourselves in comparison to our neighbor. James elaborates further, acknowledging how people look at what other people have, thinking they are better than them, and letting feelings of jealousy grow. James explains how jealous can spark even deeper emotions when people learn how other people got the accomplishment they want, believing they worked harder than someone else and got less than what they received. Justin adds his two cents, digging into the phenomenon of jealousy, kids wanting the toys other kids have, and how much parenting influences future behaviors. However, Justin adds to this, saying if your parent doesn’t raise a child to be petty and comparative, capitalism can get a hold of an individual. Justin believes commercials and advertisements that compare you to other individuals around you on what they have and what you don’t have engineer humans to want what they don’t have. Justin continues, stating the game we participate in, drags us into a game of domination over one another, while some of us are sick of the game altogether.

Comparison is the thief of joy, a saying I try to live by, but riddles my life sometimes. I agree with Justin, comparison leads to jealousy and sometimes envy, ingrained from parenting or societal structures. In the USA, I believe a lot our communities and cultures lack the connectivity other countries hold that don’t promote capitalistic ideologies as much as the United States does. Though I don’t belive capitalism is inherently harmful, I do believe the way it has been actualized in the USA and other countries has traits of power hungry oppressive structures that have led to a decline in humanity. I believe embracing a new perspective on riches, spiritual wealth build through connection and understanding of one’s self and others, could lead to one’s individual gain, without sacrificing community wellbeing. Similar to Justin, I don’t think we need to drag ourselves through harmful primitive thought patterns of domination, but rather beneficial ideologies of sustainability and growth shared amongst one another.

Invitation to Wealth

Encourage authenticity. Develop community wealth. Find something to engage in. Own your comments. Observe your power. Enjoy everyday stories. Feel alive. Invite spiritual abundance.