Spiritual Businesses: Are they just an Ego Game?

We are a desire-driven society. 

Desire has slipped from the secular circles of society and into the spiritual rings. 

In some ways the mingling of spirit, flesh, needs, desires, and creativity is as natural as breathing. As I have written before: Eros is at the heart of a well-lived life. However, there is also a certain distortion that can creep into this realm and it bears talking about. That is the monetization of our spirituality. 

There are countless programs that tout the esoteric components of manifestation and rituals to draw on the powers of the universe to get what we want. 

People invest billions of dollars in spiritual products and services from psychic readings to scented candles. And anyone can do it. There is no certification process for becoming a spiritual guide, healer, coach, Tarot reader, or candle maker. 

We want to be discerning and learn to make distinctions in regards to supporting any business, but specifically spiritual ones. We need to be asking, do they have the skills to uphold and structure for what they are (allegedly) vibrationally offering? 

Vibes and skills ain’t the same!

A person can have a great vibe—a fantastic website, photos of themselves in all the right locations—and still have no fucking clue what they are doing.

More and more, having a successful business of any kind (including a spiritual one), is all about branding and branding is about looking good, not necessarily doing good. Anyone can hang a sign on their door or host an online space offering any service from a full moon gathering, to “Six-weeks to a more wealthy you!” type program.

Whereas these programs are typically offered by (what I believe to mostly be) well-meaning people, they are, nonetheless, driven by desire for more and are promoted as such. How to have more, be more, acquire more, make more. More love, more money, aka abundance (because we need to spiritualize our resources so as not to sully ourselves). 

There is nothing sanitized about the way that nature meets the needs of her creations.

Nature is abundant because she produces in harmony with the needs of the ecosystem. The way that balance is maintained is not always what humans would consider altruistic. Animals may have spontaneous abortions. Predators may go on killing sprees to thin out an overly prolific herd of herbivores. What tends to happen is that the behaviors of the creatures within the system shift to be in balance with nature’s capacities.

So what we see is that abundance (in nature) isn’t about having a surplus of crystals, fancy cars, big houses, glamorous vacations, or the perfect portfolio. Abundance (in nature) is simply having enough. Having enough (in nature) has no bearing on not being enough as creatures and creepy crawlies never actually question their worth or have existential or midlife crises. They just exist. 

Curiously, it is often people who have issues around self-worth who seem to have the most difficulty in developing balanced relationships with health, wealth, and other humans. 

It’s almost like some sort of mind parasite slips into our psyche at a key phase of development and instead of going forth experiencing ourselves as an intimate, intricate part of creation, we, instead, experience ourselves as having to strive for acceptance. 

We could blame our parents for this misconception of our place in the universe. We could also take this confusion about innate self-worth to the Abrahamic creation story as the source of distortion. For those who believe in original sin are forever striving to win the love and acceptance of their spiritual father. 

Within a flawed origin paradigm, everything that we do becomes a form of spiritual materialism as all actions and prayers are geared not at appreciating and contributing to an innate state of harmony—but at vying for a favorable position in the eyes of the lord, our families, and society at large. Though this seems to be a secularly acceptable way of functioning (it’s not, actually), there is no denying that proving and striving has also seeped into our spiritual practices.

The leveraging of spirituality to control physical reality is called spiritual materialism.

Spiritual materialism, a phrase coined by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, involves the use of spirituality to gratify the desires of the ego.

Though I do not consider myself to have any religious affiliation (and I frankly find it harder and harder to even identify as spiritual), there are some concepts that I find useful to consider. One of those is the Buddhist concept of basic goodness. 

In Buddhism there is no original sin, therefore our fundamental state is not one of being flawed and in need of redemption, but one of wholeness and innate goodness at all levels: physically, mentally and emotionally. The point of spiritual practice is not to add or remove anything to our being, but simply to be at ease in our relationship with existence. 

Buddha Dharma (as a practice) is as much, if not more, psychological in its nature as it is spiritual in that it encourages self-examination, curiosity, and witnessing of our own thoughts and behaviors. Its goal (if it were to have one) would be in disarming of the ego to allow more of life’s goodness to flow into and from us. 

We are warned in Buddhism and in many other New Age religions adaptations not to give into the yearnings of the ego.

And what does the ego desire? Typically, more. 

The ego craves more comfort, more possessions, more money, more sex, a better body, a better spouse—a better existence. 

Desire and wanting is not a problem nor should it ever be used as a source of shame. Humans have needs—physical, emotional, and spiritual. Separating those needs out into different categories can become compartmentalization and even further separate mind, heart, and body. That can lead to more issues and even neuroses. 

The ego yearns to be right and to win.

So there is a certain perceived rightness that is attached to any methodology in regards to how our goals and needs are achieved. If that process is then spiritualized we have the definition of spiritual materialism. 

Practices that promote spiritual progress and spiritual purity become particularly nasty distortions because it does not, in fact, make us better people to wear all white, be vegan, be positive all the time, or to constantly meditate. Neither does it make us better people to make sure everyone knows we are doing these things. That’s called virtue-signaling. We all know it when we see it, and it’s gross.

Sure meditation, a healthy diet, caring for our bodies, caring for the planet and each other absofuckinglutely improves the quality of our life when practiced in balance, but they sure as shit have nothing to do with ascending (if that is even a thing) It’s not.

Grace, humor and buttload of accountability is our best fucking bet for becoming decent humans.

So how do we honor the needs of a human being who is, incidentally, also a spiritual being, without turning our search for health, wealth, and fulfilling life into a mimicry of spiritual practice?

We need to actually accept our ego. 

This is a funny thing because the ego is not actually a thing. We can’t touch it, taste it, hold it, or hack it up. But we can still manage to grow it or shrink it in proportion to how we tend, feed, or ignore it.

We can also look for signs that the ego is active. 

Defensiveness and self-righteousness are strong egoic markers. When we find ourselves slipping into either of those states—see them in another, or recognize them, systemically—then we can bring awareness to the fact that we are in the presence of an ego infested individual or system. 

How can we begin to recognize an egoic takeover? 

Take a breath. 

Pause. 

Feel into our own body for indications that we, ourselves, may be in an egoic grip. Physical tension and defensive posturing, puffing ourselves up to overpower or intimidate, as well as shrinking ourselves to make others more comfortable, are all indicators that we are in the grips of ego. 

We also need to understand that frequently the things that we do, spiritually, to disarm or dismantle the ego actually feed it. Any ideology or practice that we attach a spiritual progress bar to has—in the act of that attachment—becomes spiritually materialist. 

In no way do I want to decry all spiritual business, specifically my own! However, we want to build awareness and perhaps more accurately, immunity, around this infection that keeps us seeking for our worth and the subsequent evidence of it.

So…

Pause. 

Take a breath. 

Feel the beat of your heart, the thrum, pulse, and bump of life moving through you even as you ride life’s bumps!

You are here—at this moment. You exist. 

You are worthy of simply being and can attain the skills you need to exist in comfort and style. Is that a little egoic? Maybe. But it’s okay to have preferences, and it’s not a sin to want a pleasurable life any more than it is a sign of your spiritual prowess if you have attained one. Just don’t confuse the two and everything will be fine. 

Now go get a beer, a piece of chocolate, or a burger. Float the river, whatever floats your boat. Don’t forget to smile, appreciate, and to pay the people who support you, enchant you, and make your life a little brighter or wiser.

And while you’re at it, invest in something (or someone) that increases your own skills or grounded awareness of your own value.

Whether spiritual or not we all got bills and they gotta be paid. 

~Justice Bartlett

Image: Marcos Paulo Prado

For more information about Justice Bartlett’s work visit www.bedheadmystic.com