”Money is a quantifiable analog of our life force - the aggregate of our time, skills, experience, persistence, and relationships.” -Rabbi Daniel Lapin
What is money? Ask 100 people and you are bound to receive a variety of answers. Coins in our pocket. A few plastic cards that we swipe at the store. Perhaps it is those pieces of paper we use to purchase 4 green houses or a red hotel for Boardwalk. In the west, our understanding of money is largely based on the terms medium of exchange, currency, or store of value. These are all well and good and generally accepted within economic circles. However, it is a second or third layer understanding of money.
At its most basic level, money is our economic energy, it is you, it is me. It is the potential each one of us has within us to help another human being better their life. Based on how well we serve that human being, there is a direct correlation to the reward we receive. Money is much more akin to farming than merely a means of transacting. Why? Because the money we create is based on production, not hours we trade for dollar bills.
This is a foreign concept to many people because 90-95% of the population works as an employee or is self-employed.
The best explanation I have found to date that defines the different thought processes of an employee, the self-employed, a business owner, or an investor, is the cash flow quadrant.
The idea of the cashflow quadrant, which Robert Kiyosaki gives us, is the paradigm required to understand why money is spiritual.
As an employee or self-employed individual, we trade our hours for dollars (yuan, pound, or whichever fiat currency your particular country uses). Since there are only 24 hours in a day, the dollars we receive for our product or service will always have a ceiling. Even if one works on salary or as a doctor, our income is limited by the time we can be present at that job. There are only so many hours in a given day in which we can produce money.
Someone who earns their income as a business owner or an investor looks at money a little differently. We do not trade hours for dollars. Generally, those of us who earn income from these two quadrants understand the concepts of seed time, growing time, and harvest time. There is a direct correlation from what we plant to what we receive. However, we know that the time from planting to harvest is not within one week, two weeks, or even a yearly pay window. Sometimes, the seeds we plant in a business are not available for us to withdraw into our life for 5 years. In fact, most wise millionaires or billionaires will tell you not to expect a receivable profit from your business for 2-5 years.
But wait, why does this make money spiritual? Because based on how well people like you and trust you, they will exchange with you. What do we use to exchange our economic energy? In the United States, it is a dollar. In China, it is a yuan. In either circumstance, we as individual human beings are exchanging what we trust and call money for goods and services. It is a mutually beneficial, honest, and rewarding exchange of our time, life skills, and energy.
The only other option for this transaction to take place is for someone to steal a good or service from us. Rather, by quantifying our economic energy in a form that we both agree to, we are able to trade what we have for something we want. This is done without coercion, and of our own volition.
You may still be wondering, ”yes, but how can money be spiritual if I see money represented in a physical form?” Good question. What do you do with ”money” on your credit card? Why are some folks calling Bitcoin, something which is only digital, a form of money? Why do we direct deposit our checks to our bank, send currency on Venmo or through PayPal, and still call it money?
Money is spiritual for the same reasons we, as human beings, are spiritual. We are souls with a body, not the other way around. Why would we not use something, like money, to quantify our efforts of time and energy in order to trade with each other?
In an age where more and more of our daily lives are online rather than offline, the boundaries are blurring between what we thought to be state lines, cultural differences, or a third world issue. We are truly living in a time where we can communicate and thus transact 24/7 if we so choose. Rather than use money that is physical and dependent on banking days, why not go digital and seize the opportunity of the global market? Why not see money for what it is, a spiritual thing, and live your life at the level at which you serve your neighbor.
Image source:1 2 [3] (https://www.instagram.com/p/B_h-SaPHl_O/?igshid=28utmotkjm3b)
A very thought-provoking post, lydon - the one thing that struck me is that the business owner or investor has to get started early because time is a factor here too - there are always limits in the physical which is why Mohammed once said a man's true wealth is the good he does in this world :)
Thank you, John. I have appreciated and treasured your wisdom and guidance ever since we started conversing on this platform. I see writing as truly a gift I have received now. I no longer see myself as having to change the world so much as being able to commune with my Heavenly Father while here in the body. He can mold me, and that therein may change the world. Even if it doesn’t, I have Him, and that is enough. For the time that I am here, I’ll work to glorify Him. Thank you, brother.
Qualis est vir qui mundum non meliorat. Or, as Kingdom of Heaven the movie translates, what man is a man who does not make the world better.
Love that quote in English or Latin - love the sentiment - You are wise beyond your years, my friend - I. Ephesians 1:17-19
Thank you, John. I love you, brother.
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If money represents our spiritual life-force, it should be clear that the state is bleeding, and in many cases, literally killing us.
😄😇😉
Amen. Our person is tied to a social security number. The matrix is more real than we realize.