{"id":10759,"date":"2018-10-22T03:09:02","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T02:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=10759"},"modified":"2026-01-22T18:18:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T17:18:22","slug":"money-and-the-spiritual-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/money-and-the-spiritual-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Money and the spiritual life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many spiritually inclined people have conscious or unconscious problems with money. Assagioli clarifies his position on money and gives us an opportunity to reflect on our use or misuse of money.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

By Robert Assagioli<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong> , August 1937, The Beacon<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"MoneyIf we observe and examine ourselves with that complete and fearless sincerity which ought to characterize all true and earnest aspirants to the spiritual life, we soon discover that the thought of money arouses in all of us deep and intense reactions. It is a tumult of conflicting emotions, of passionate attitudes, which proves that money constitutes\u2014adopting the convenient psychoanalytic terminology\u2014a strong complex.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In my opinion, it is well to analyze the money complex, to allow all that rises up from the depths of our unconscious to emerge to the surface, and then to throw upon it the clear light of our spiritual understanding. In this way we can correctly interpret the facts and correct erroneous attitudes and unwarranted or excessive reactions. This will help to dispel in some measure the intense glamor which surrounds money, and consequently, to avoid mistakes of judgment and of action which may have serious consequences and constitute real obstacles to our spiritual progress.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The chief and most general aspect of the money complex is attachment. This is an obvious fact, but we must not be content simply with this acknowledgment. In order to successfully free ourselves from attachment, we must try to find out its causes, its roots. It is not difficult to realize that they reach down to some of our most fundamental instincts and emotions, which accounts for the intensity of man’s attachments to money. These instincts, tendencies and emotions are: Self-preservation (with its outgrowth, the search for security), covetousness and fear.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But since money has more and more become a means of achieving social prestige and of acquiring real power, another root of the money complex is constituted by the instinct to self-assertion, the will to power, which manifests as pride and ambition.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To these primordial and direct causes of the money complex, many other causes can be added, which greatly complicate the problem.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

All those who are sufficiently evolved to possess living, ethical principles and an incipient sense of spiritual values \u200b\u200bcannot fail to realize the bad consequences\u2014individual and collective crimes of all sorts, physical and moral prostitution, etc\u2014brought about by the greed for and the attachment to money.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n