material success vs spiritual growth

okay, we're going to get a little heavy here. obviously, this has been one of those 'questions of the ages' - pursuit of material success and desires of the flesh (although they could be separated under certain philosophic conditions) versus spiritual growth and attainment of nirvana. yes, yes, lofty questions for a stoned dude, but who else - outside of philosophers, theologians, and some lawyers given the right amount of monetary compensation - would put this effort into it?

first off, i'm going to establish as a premise that they're mutually exclusive. sure, i suppose there's some guy out there that's fully attained one and sees no further goal but pursuit of the other, or an individual with some congenital condition allowing them to hold two goal systems that our culture perceives and rewards in totally different ways within their cognitive framework at once. if so, these are the uber-rare exceptions. yes, my evidence is more anecdotal than empirical, but if you've heard of a study, send it my way...

so, yes, mutually exclusive. primarily because the pursuit of either to their pinnacle requires total dedication and commitment. since the reward systems are totally different, i.e., money and its concomitant acquisitions versus spiritual growth and its concomitant aversion to acquisitions, they can't be achieved simultaneously.

now the million dollar or free question, depends what reward system you're operating from - which is better? 'course now we have to define 'better.' because i want to finish this post before i re-toke, i'll just tell ya. which system/pursuit makes you happier?

we can get into that bullshit about defining 'happy' but that's just silly. we know billion-dollar homes/cars/jewelry don't make us happy. we know this because people that have owned billon-dollar homes/cars/jewelry have told us so, in movies, talk shows, books, in person. okay, so believing what others want you to believe just because is a little insulting. i agree. so think about those moments of true happiness you've experienced in your life. was it really when you bought that car? or that house? or necklace? whatever? was it a moment of acquisition or a moment of experience?

and isn't that was spiritual growth requires - commitment to the world of experience? to allow each moment to be perceived in its entirety? more than anything, our perception of life defines how we experience life. by altering perception - refusing to introject cultural and familial value systems - to maximize experience, we allow the beauty of each moment to be experienced without value judgments and other conditioned schemata .

i believe that's when we feel our happiest - when we feel part of something larger than ourselves. part of a shared moment.

that's it for today, folks.

time to re-toke...