Giving up on materialism.
When your mind and heart are truly open abundance will flow to you effortlessly and easily.
Question:
Of late I have been reading a lot of books on quantum physics, spirituality and leadership. I have read your books as well and in fact keep reading them repetitively. The more I think and ponder, the more I am convinced that the path to true joy and happiness is through living with less and giving up on materialistic attitude. I teach leadership and systems thinking approaches to Corporations and teenagers. My question is “How do I tell my CEO’s and Teens to pursue their goals of growth and prosperity on a material plane and yet teach them to live a simple, selfless life? The more I wish to grow the more I wish to give away my material wealth. I am caught in this duality and ambiguity. Am I being a hypocrite?
Response:
I think you need to become clear that your path to happiness through giving up your material wealth may be right for you at this time in your life, but it is not necessarily right for everyone else at their stage of life.
Even though you may no longer feel driven by desires to accumulate things, you are still pursuing an external ideal of simplicity as a means to become happy. That is not that different from others who are pursuing an external ideal of abundance as a means to happiness. In truth happiness is a state of consciousness that is independent of external circumstances. If you attain happiness first, through self-awareness, then it doesn’t matter how you express that happiness in your external life—whether it is modest or elaborate.
Love,
Deepak
