Is foregoing material things necessary to have a deeper, more spiritual existence or can you be genuinely spiritual and still be abundant?

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This is a very relevant question, deserving of a deeper dive into what it means to have a “spiritual existence,” and what material things tend to do to that existence.

So there are two types of things in the world. Physical things and spiritual things. Physical things are governed by impermeable rules. If I hit a baseball with my baseball bat, that ball will be moved into a different direction, regardless of what I believe.

Spiritual things, on the other hand, respond extremely readily to held belief. Any time I want to display confidence, say, at my job, or in communication with a stranger, the status of my belief is going to have a direct impact on my effectiveness in that endeavor. Many many many many life outcomes come as a result of held belief. These things are best apprehended as spiritual, spiritual techniques are of the most use when dealing with these situations.

Is this enough to answer the question? If you think about it enough, I think you’d find that it should be. Why in the world would materialism, the belief that material things are the only things that matter, lead to success with endeavors that primarily respond to spiritual forms of intervention?

If foregoing material things is enough to get you to focus on spiritual ones, then, allow me to suggest that yeah, if you don’t forgo these things, you are going to have a more difficult time concentrating on spiritual endeavors.

Me personally, I never felt like the material existence had much worth at all. It’s always been about the spiritual. To me, the material world has only ever been about informing spiritual pursuits. For me, the material is inescapable from the spiritual. You can try to ignore that but the real world will drag you kicking and screaming back to it.

For example, the spiritual idea of being good to your neighbor, submitting to higher authority, and doing your best undergirds our entire system of capitalism. Meaning in order to succeed in this world, there’s no other way to do it other than to accept and work with these beliefs. Changing your beliefs changes your level of success. Changing your level of success changes how much material wealth you enjoy.

I don’t know what the asker of the question feels about Biblically-sourced rationale, but this is also supported by the gospels. Jesus’ entire schtick was all about reading God’s law in a spiritual fashion rather than a legalistic one. The riches you find are in Heaven, not on Earth. Examples abound of Jesus telling the Pharisees that strict interpretation of God’s law just isn’t going to fly.

Legalistic interpretation of the law is just more materialism, only thinly cloaked. If God tells you that something is important, and tells you why, then when that why no longer remains relevant, then the thing he told you was important is no longer relevant. It’s impossible to make a workable religion any other way but one in which laws can reflect current times.

Jesus was just reminding the Jews of this inalienable fact. To say otherwise is to claim that the facts that were true when God made His pronouncement, the facts that were made true by the actual physical reality, are what’s important, not the actual essence of those rules, that which remains true even when the facts on the ground change.

So worry not about abundance. If God has blessed you with material abundance, consider carefully how you can use that abundance to improve your spiritual existence. Maybe donate your time and some of your money to charity. Maybe use them to derive greater truths and abundances as America’s businessmen do.

Abundance is not evil. But that won’t stop people who want your money from claiming it is. Giving away your abundance to the less deserving is acting against spiritual truth. It’s your beliefs making you less spiritual. And nobody got time for that.

Find goodness where you can, in the moments where your thinking and praying is truly useful. Not where charlatans claim you should.