Money messes up everything, especially religion. That includes the type of spirituality that goes under the name of nonduality these days. As soon as a spiritual teacher starts to accept money from people for their teaching it has the potential to distort the message, the relationship, and the spirituality itself. I am not saying it is inevitable or that this always happens. But it can. Take it from one who made a living as a professional religious leader. In this episode I explore the ways that money can complicate nondual spiritual. I also look at what Jesus has to say about the topic on the Sermon on the Mount.
Money messes up everything, especially religion. That includes the type of spirituality that goes under the name of nonduality these days. As soon as a spiritual teacher starts to accept money from people for their teaching it has the potential to distort the message, the relationship, and the spirituality itself. I am not saying it is inevitable or that this always happens. But it can. Take it from one who made a living as a professional religious leader. In this episode I explore the ways that money can complicate nondual spiritual. I also look at what Jesus has to say about the topic on the Sermon on the Mount.
Nonduality and Money
Money messes up everything, especially religion. That includes the type of spirituality that goes under the name of nonduality these days. As soon as a spiritual teacher starts to accept money from people for their teaching it has the potential to distort the message, the relationship, and the spirituality itself. I am not saying it is inevitable or that this always happens. But it can. Take it from one who made a living as a professional religious leader.
For over forty years – from the time I accepted my first position as a part-time pastor of a country church in the fall of 1974 while I was in seminary, to the time I retired from fulltime ministry in 2016 – I accepted money for pastoring. I have still been getting paid for substitute preaching in retirement, most recently filling the pulpit at three different churches in May.
Money easily corrupts the spiritual life. For that reason Jesus spoke a lot about the dangers of money and so did the apostle Paul. Neither of them took money for their preaching or teaching. Jesus accepted food and shelter, much like mendicant monks have done for millennia. The gospels speak of women who supported his ministry.
Paul says apostles have a right to be paid for their ministry, and First Timothy says the same thing about pastors. So I am not saying that religious leaders should not be paid. That would be hypocritical for me to say at this point in my life! But we have to be very careful. It is dangerous territory. There are too many examples of televangelists, megachurch pastors and Hindu gurus who have gotten rich from ministry.
Paul declined to accept money for his own ministry. He supported himself by tent making. The reason Paul did not accept money is because it does something to you, your message, and your relationship to those who give. For that reason Paul decided to err on the side of caution, so no one would ever accuse him of ulterior motives
I noticed how money changed things throughout my ministry. One is hesitant to bite the hand that feeds you. Especially when that hand is also feeding your wife and children. So one tempers one’s words on certain issues so as not to offend the “powers that be” in the church and denomination. From what I am hearing and reading, this has gotten much worse in recent years with the intense polarization and radicalization in American politics.
It is crazy how conspiracy theories and political intolerance has come to dominate American public life, including church life. It has reached into many churches, especially evangelical churches and in many cases has started in churches. Pastors are being threatened with termination if they do not tow the party line in their teaching and preaching when it comes to certain political, social and moral issues. Call it the spiritual cancel culture.
For that reason I am wary of any spiritual teacher who prospers financially from their teaching. It is a minefield for the ego of the teacher. The ego can deceive even the most enlightened and sincere teacher. The ego is coddled by the adulation of others. The message is unconsciously adjusted so as to keep people coming back. It can become a money-making proposition. Marketing techniques are employed. The public image is polished with the right clothing, and props and demeanor that convey holiness.
The message is adjusted to harmonize with what similar teachers are saying. One gets a reputation and is invited to talk at gatherings and conferences and retreats and meetings. One begins to think carefully about what one is to say and how it will be received. The ego whispers into one’s ears and one begins listening without even realizing it. One begins to pay attention to people’s opinions and what people are saying about you.
There are very few spiritual leaders who can navigate those egoic waters without falling prey to it. Jesus knew what he was talking about when he included in the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
I have to be careful to keep these episodes authentic even while living in obscurity here in the woods of New Hampshire. Not many people hear or care what I have to say, which is fine with me. Those who do care will listen. I am not getting rich from book royalties and honoraria, and I like it that way. I am blessed with a pension and savings that are enough for my wife and I to live on. I do not want more than we already have.
I am going to connect these thoughts now to Jesus’ words on the Sermon on the Mount. In this passage Jesus talks about authenticity in how we give money, but his words apply more broadly to handling money in general. So bear with me.
He says, “Take care not to practice your righteousness in the sight of people, to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, so that they will be praised by people. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your charitable giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
Jesus instructs his followers not to give to others in such a way as to be recognized or honored for the gift. He is saying to act anonymously. He advises, “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” It is a principle that applies to more than charitable giving. It is a principle for all of living.
This is analogous to the Taoist idea of wei wu wei, action without action. Nondual living is selfless living. It is living disengaged from the ego. It is letting life live through you without the ego interfering and making a mess of it. The ego – the small self - loves money, which is used to bolster the ego. As soon as we see the ego trying to get involved, it is best to just ignore it. Without attention the ego loses interest very quickly. The ego loves attention. It is nothing but attention. It has no reality apart from attention, and it dissolves when attention is removed revealing that it is illusion.
“Do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.” That means that we act in a natural and spontaneous way. The Tao Te Ching calls it living in harmony with Tao. I want to say we are to act without thinking, but that could be misunderstood. It is fine to think through things so we do not act thoughtlessly, carelessly or dangerously. But the ego does not have to get wrapped up in the thinking.
In reality the ego does not think. It thinks it is the thinker, but in reality there is no thinker. There is just thinking. There is no giver. There is just giving. For that reason there is no need for credit or recognition. When one is transparent to the Divine, then the Divine guides thinking and doing. We are the vessels for the Spirit. We are instruments of the Divine. The words attributes to Francis of Assisi come to mind: “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.”
The apostle Paul calls this being the body of Christ. Christ is the head. We are the body. Christ lives through us. We are just channels of Life living in us. The Spirit is living through us. It is not us doing the living. Not us as ego anyway, but us as Life Itself, Being Itself, which is our true Self. It is foolish for us to take credit for something we are not doing. In this way we are conduits for all types of blessings – including monetary blessings - to flow through us to others.
Jesus talks about springs of living water springing up and flowing through us. Water that is dammed soon becomes stagnant and begins to stink. So do our lives when we are concerned about money or attention or recognition flowing to us. If anything flows to us then let it continue to flow through us to others without the right hand knowing what the left hand is doing. Egoless receiving and giving. That is nondual living, which is the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.