The Truth About Money Meditations, Wealth, and Spiritual Growth

Today, money meditations are so widespread that a whole direction has formed in the network, referring to itself as mystical — "money esotericism." The internet is filled with techniques for attracting wealth, success, and prosperity: fr om ten-minute voice recordings to multi-day training sessions. The idea is presented that to improve one’s financial situation, one does not need to work hard; the universe has enough for everyone — just practice a certain method and you will be rich. Despite the dubious results of such practices, they remain in high demand. The number of views is measured in hundreds of thousands, and likes and comments — in the thousands. People eagerly apply techniques of money-attracting meditations without even thinking about the true meaning of meditation.

Reasons for the Popularity of Money Meditations:

1. Lack of satisfaction (violation of the principle of Santosha). Discontent with life, inability to appreciate what one has.
2. Desire for spending and acquisitions (violation of the principle of Aparigraha). The urge to obtain more material things driven by desires and advertising rather than needs.
3. The pursuit of free things (violation of the principle of Asteya).
4. Envy. When it seems that others possess undeserved goods while "I deserve more."
5. Idleness, disdain, laziness.
6. The desire to appear as someone one is not.

This leads to a willingness to take an easy path wh ere no effort is required, but a significant result is promised. Despite the fact that the mentioned tendencies of the mind lead to poverty, people continue to use meditations for instant money attraction, blindly believing in their effectiveness.

The desire to become rich is not bad. It is natural to strive for expanding opportunities. However, a knife in the hands of a cook is good; in the hands of a murderer, it is bad. The same goes for money. They can quickly lead to degradation if one becomes attached to them. But they can also quickly advance one on the spiritual path.

It is reckless to be attached to money; it is unwise to neglect them; both are harmful and lead to spiritual harm through various confusions. Money itself is a very useful thing. It replaces the lack of simplicity and love among people. Without money, there would be eternal disputes, fights, murders; with small coins, people rid themselves of all this without even realizing it. The harm comes not fr om money but from reckless greed.

Elder Ambrose of Optina

Buddha also did not deny the significance of financial sufficiency but only on the condition that the desire for it does not become the sole purpose or an all-consuming passion. He emphasized adherence to spiritual and moral principles in earning a living. The main thing is to understand the true goals of wealth.

1. Self-knowledge and liberation.
2. Caring for others, helping them attain liberation.

The primary resources of a human being as a rational creature should be directed towards spiritual growth and serving people. Very little is needed to satisfy material needs: food, clothing, shelter, medical care.

If one understands that finances are necessary for personal development and helping others, their perception changes.

1. Imagine a poor person who finds a bag of money. Will he become happy? Rather, he will quickly spend it all and accumulate a lot of problems. Recall at least the story about the Indian government that decided to give apartments to homeless people only to find them back in slums without a penny after a few months.

   It is known that 95% of people who win large sums in lotteries end up back at square one after some time. In 1961, an American woman who won 3 million dollars spent it within five years. During this time she became widowed, married five more times, suffered a stroke, became an alcoholic, was hospitalized in a psychiatric clinic, and attempted suicide.

2. The need for happiness is endless while material nature is temporary. All material objects exist only in the external world and are thus limited. The ability to enjoy these objects also has limits. You can take a bucket of food, but enjoyment lasts only seconds. You can add ten spoons of sugar but won’t get a sweeter taste beyond that point. A new dress brings joy for a few days at most; then it loses its charm. A new apartment lasts slightly longer than a dress but will eventually bore you too. Any material pleasures are transient. Then new thoughts arise; new needs form. Financial wealth provides only temporary happiness.

The concepts of "rich" and "poor" are often limited to having or not having money. However, true wealth is defined by the state of one's soul. Today it is common to value material wealth while other areas of life are considered less important.

By considering money as paramount, people strive to acquire it by any means possible and then experience decline in other areas of life.

The Concept of "Wealth" Includes Many Aspects:

• Mental and physical health.
• Respect and trust from society.
• Close relationships within family and with parents.
• Nature around us: its beauty and elements.
• A sense of security about tomorrow that does not depend on account balance.
• Developed intellect and positive attitude.
• A state wh ere there’s nothing to hide or fear.
• Knowledge as one of the most important components of wealth.

However! True wealth lies in the spiritual sphere. Spiritual energy easily converts into other forms of wealth.

To him who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance; but fr om him who has not even what he has will be taken away.

Gospel According to Matthew 13:12

This phrase from the Bible contains a profound karmic principle: one's current level of sufficiency is determined by accumulated gratitude (merit). This universal energy predetermines future opportunities. If someone is currently wealthy, it means they have done many good deeds and followed moral principles leading them to their current prosperity. Conversely, if someone is poor, they have likely violated fundamental Laws of the Universe by being selfish.

Poverty Is Fair. It comes as deserved and provides certain lessons:

1. Aparigraha — conscious asceticism: do not abuse resources for pleasure.
2. Satisfaction — Santosha: learn to feel happy even without money.
3. Sacrifice as healing from greed.
4. Spiritual happiness in absence of money: being able to find spiritual purpose without dependence on material (Ishvara Pranidhana).
5. Work as healing from idleness.
6. The ability to listen to intuition when it shows that perhaps you are not doing what you should be doing.

• They create attachment. Attachment equals greed; it blocks energy; we lose everything we are attached to.
• They awaken fear. Fear of loss arises when there’s no faith in Higher Consciousness or kindness among people; deep feelings of insecurity emerge.
• They divide people. They make one think in terms like "yours" and "mine." If we compare money with natural forms of wealth like food which spoils quickly — hence needs sharing — finances do not spoil; there’s no motivation to share leading to hoarding and greed.
• They create feelings of incompleteness. An eternal search arises.
• They give an illusory sense of ownership. A person feels they can own anything with money.
• They foster ideas about power, they prevent understanding interdependence laws.

Money itself is neither good nor bad but has become the cause of global disasters, wars, conflicts, technological catastrophes, excessive destruction and exploitation of nature.

The Vedas say that with the advent of Kali Yuga — personification of degradation — Kali was assigned roles in various manifestations of sin: alcohol, gambling, places wh ere innocent animals are killed, debauchery; but also Kali was assigned roles in gold and money.

Material values are created through labor exchanged either for value or something valued in society. Meditations on accepting money or magical rituals aimed at attracting wealth are realized not through labor or honest exchange but through releasing some energy and reuniting with it.

Using meditation techniques for fulfilling selfish desires creates imbalance in the Universe and within one's soul. This is Avidya Tantra or black magic when you fulfill your "I want" at the expense of cosmic energies higher than your own level. The Universe always strives for balance and will repay according to merits.

There’s a concept called "money egregor," which exists on a subtle level composed of emotions, desires, goals, ideas, enthusiasm — life forces fr om people that it absorbs in exchange for corresponding services.

By practicing meditation on money and cash flow, one is tapping into energy that one does not have. If he has accumulated spiritual potential through past experience, he will draw energy from his stores of piety and convert it into matter. Then the meditation for success and money will bring results.

However if there’s no spiritual energy then there’s nothing to convert into matter; certain forces may lend this energy temporarily but predicting repayment conditions can be extremely difficult.

When an individual receives finances disproportionate to their real potential, they begin feeling pressure from the energy associated with those funds received from this egregor leading all other areas in life — health declines along with peace-of-mind and sanity while relationships with loved ones deteriorate.

Therefore before resorting to “miraculous practices,” one should understand that nothing comes free; often paying for thoughtlessness can be too high a price.

How Money Meditations Worsen Karma

If monetary meditation brings results**, an individual becomes “hooked” on this practice becoming accustomed to receiving everything conditionally free-of-charge. In reality they become accustomed to “siphoning” their potential drawing upon past or future spiritual accumulations which develops consumerist attitudes towards life—a dangerous energy blocking further development possibilities for accumulating new merits.

Many magicians or esotericists offer techniques such as «money meditation or money magnet», «money fountain». Such people, playing with human weaknesses, propagating the slogan ‘take everything from life’, earning in this way, worsen their karma and the karma of those people who turn to them, perhaps without knowing it themselves.

Buddha referred such teachers as corrupt mentors: «They are intent on the goals of the present worldly life and do not think of future lives. They lead those who are devoted to them down the wrong path to the lower worlds. They may attract crowds of disciples who have failed to accumulate enough merit, just as a heap of dung attracts hordes of flies. But the only thing they can do for those who believe in them and wish to learn from them is to drag them down to the lower worlds. Therefore it is necessary to keep away from such teachers. If one blind man tries to lead another blind man, both will inevitably fall into the abyss sooner or later».

It is important to realise that long-term financial well-being is the result of systematic, purposeful work on the inner world. Funds come when the mind evolves, when the appropriate level of intelligence is ready to accept a certain level of income. If man is so far inclined to spend energy for purposes other than evolution, it indicates a failure of the lesson. Then, even after becoming rich, he will revert to physical poverty again. If one repeatedly abuses free will, one will be thrown back to the lowest stage of evolution, wh ere there are no rights to material advantages. Even the most powerful meditation on money will not save you.

10 Rules for Financial Well-Being

1. To follow the Laws of the Universe, to dedicate the life to helping people. Give more than you receive. Then personal life will be harmonised and good fortune and blessings will come. This is Vidya tantra, or the light path. If you live for the common good, the Universe will support you.

2. It is valuable to engage in spiritual practice, invest in self-development: study, buy spiritual literature, attend retreats, travel to places of power. Giving priority to spiritual practice, you get into the flow of harmony, then the Universe starts to provide you with more opportunities for righteous life.

3. Find your purpose and work every day. Choose honest labour that benefits living beings.

   He who tills his land shall be satisfied with bread; but he who follows vain persons shall have poverty enough.

   Proverbs of Solomon

4. Cultivate generosity. Donate a portion of income. Spiritual traditions give a figure of 10%. It is necessary to help society under any conditions, even if there is practically nothing. This will allow you to position yourself correctly in relation to the Universe.

   The best investment is to be a contributor to people. Gratitude is a ‘bank account’. If you do good deeds, you replenish your account. When a sufficient amount of money accumulates there, material funds come for necessary projects. Sometimes from the most unexpected source.

   The first law of karma states that whatever you want to get out of life, you must first give to someone else.

   Jey Rinpoche, teacher first Dalai Lama

5. Do not succumb blindly towards desires: When a person restricts himself, space has no need to restrict him. Forced restriction makes one feel very uncomfortable, while self-restraint leads to contentment, a sense of inner happiness and freedom.

6. Develop a sense of gratitude. If one thanks God for what one already has, for each new day, then the lesson of aparigraha is learnt.

7. Develop an equitable attitude towards money.

8. Learning to keep promises. Many people easily make promises and then forget about them five minutes later. But the energy does not disappear anywhere. This is how debts are formed on the subtle plane, which are realised as material deficiency. This is how the habit of inaction is formed.

9. Always pay for everything and only use what is rightfully yours. The habit of taking other people's money is a big obstacle to well-being. This applies not only to direct stealing, but also to small tricks, such as taking more bags in a shop or sneaking stationery from work, downloading a film or book for free on the Internet. Envy is also a form of theft, when a person tries to steal someone else's success, love, friendship, ideas.

10. Practice meditation. Not for money, but for curbing the mind. This is the most powerful practice to help accumulate inner wealth. Only such wealth as a calm mind can give a sense of abundance in all spheres.

Why there is a financial problem?

In the Parabhava Sutra, the Buddha lists the factors that hinder the attainment of material prosperity:

• twaddle,
• immorality,
• wastefulness,
• drowsiness,
• laziness,
• anger,
• feasting,
• uncertainty,
• falsehood,
• hypocrisy,
• addiction to alcohol and gambling,
• jealousy,
• parental neglect,
• contempt for others.

How to manage income

Finance is like the ‘circulatory system’ of society, filling the ‘organism’ with energy and purifying it. The ‘blood’ must circulate. If someone selfishly paddles under himself, a ‘clot’ is formed and the whole ‘organism’ is polluted. In order for there to be prosperity, each ‘vessel and capillary’ of the society must learn to take care of the whole organism, to let the flows pass through itself, and not to think about how to keep more for oneself.

It is favourable to invest at least 10% of income in the development of society. This is the minimum. The more, the better. The average variant of money distribution is to divide income into five equal parts. One part should be spent on one's needs, another part should be saved and multiplied, 20% for family, 20% for current urgent expenses, 20% for society.

The ancient sages did not reject money, knowing that if you hate something, you can't top it. The right attitude towards money is to treat it like any other material object, not exalting its importance but using it when necessary. This is achieved through spiritual practice rather than meditation on money.

A person who has mastered true knowledge and has attained complete satisfaction is considered to have realised his own self and is called a yogi or mystic. Such a person always remains unperturbed. He sees no difference between cobblestones, pebbles and gold.

Bhagavad-Gita