March 17, 2026

Ambition, aspiration, incentive, initiative, etc., are all supposed to be what drives our ability to succeed in our careers, and if we aren’t trying to make it big in the world, what’s the point? The point is to be clear about success from a financial perception being different from success from a spiritual standpoint of knowing who we are and what we are about. This is underscored in two statements of Jesus about money: “The love of money is the root of all evil,” and “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle (A narrow passage way, like an alley in Jerusalem), than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Statements that the Prosperity Gospel conveniently sidsteps.

So how do we live in light of what matters most when money is the foundation of success in the modern world? The Buddha was a King who ran away from home to sit under the Bodhi Tree. Jesus was a carpenter who lived on help from his followers. How much money is enough is a question no one knows the answer to, but it is clear that wanting is a barrier to doing the right thing in the right way at the right time and in the right place because it tilts the scale toward money as the measure of what is right away from what is called for in each situation as it arises.

We have to limit wanting and its ability to steal the stage, which is personal and individual, and centers on our relationship with emptiness, stillness and silence, and awareness, awareness, awareness.