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Katinka Hesselink blogs about life, meditation, ethics, social justice, religion, personal growth and more…

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Money

Money is a controversial topic in spiritual circles. On the one hand we all need to pay our rent or mortgage, need food on the table and an internet connection. On the other, when money becomes the main motivation to do something, it can hardly be called spiritual anymore. I guess the main issue is commercial intent…

Add the ideal of poverty to the mix, and things become really complicated.

Personally I feel people make too much of this. We don’t expect a school teacher to work for nothing. We expect her to love her work, love the kids and pay the rent from her salary. The same goes for therapists, doctors and any other service work.

So why is spirituality different?

If a spiritual teacher becomes rich off his work, he should come under special scrutiny about how he is spending that money. Other than that – let’s not expect people to live on air… And let’s recognize that if we want spiritual teachers and meditation trainers to be good at what they do, they need to be able to devote themselves full time to that profession. Which, in the real world, requires money.

In the East, if a person goes into the woods to live off nothing, people will flock with donations. In the West, we let him starve. Think of that before judging how people make ends meet.

Tithing – the other side of the spectrum

Money is a necessity of our lives – individual and collective. Therefore it makes sense to contribute financially to institutions and organisations you sympathize with or make use of.

However, the question is: should that be a mandatory percentage of a person’s income? This is where the tithing debate comes in. It is the norm in Freemasonry as well as some Christian groups. In such cases social pressure can become quite fierce.

Money and dealing with spirituality – part X

February 18th, 2013

Is the world objectively neutral?

June 3rd, 2011

There is no danger that dauntless courage cannot conquer

July 22nd, 2009

Black magic versus white magic – it’s all about motive…

June 8th, 2009

Will, diet, renunciation and religion

May 27th, 2009

Moral lessons from the economic crisis & some political critique

May 4th, 2009

About being observant of life… poverty and riches

April 15th, 2009

The difference between spiritual growth and personal development?

March 18th, 2009

What Our Economic Woes Can Teach Us

January 28th, 2009

Online marketing and the ego

January 19th, 2009

Wu Wei and poverty? or more about greed

January 2nd, 2009

Wu Wei – aka cleaning out the attic

December 29th, 2008

Good karma and money

November 24th, 2008

Reiki and healing without money as a motive?

November 4th, 2008

On being authentic – spiritual fiction?

October 13th, 2008

About spiritual donations and making a living

October 8th, 2008

Money and spirituality – let's be responsible about it

October 7th, 2008
Katinka Hesselink
Katinka Hesselink

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Topics I blog about

  • Books (4)
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    • Tibetan Buddhism (18)
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  • Hinduism, Yoga and India (24)
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  • Karma and Reincarnation (23)
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    • Food (9)
    • Money (17)
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  • Miscellaneous blogposts (83)
  • Question & Answer (13)
  • Spiritual growth and personal development (98)
  • Spiritual Teachers (32)
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©2008-2018 Katinka Hesselink