Tranquil Spirit, Northwich, Cheshire, UK - Spirit Communications: Materialism

Spirit Communications through Trance Mediumship/Channeling:

Materialism

Q: How do you view man's infatuation with materialistic goods?

Hai: Ah well, you know, while we are in the earth body we have many needs, we have many needs. And to the extent that earthly goods, earthly manufacturings, help to ease our life in earth body, there is no harm in this. And indeed there may be much good in this. So there is no problem with this. But the problem is when people become too attached to the earthly imaginations, too attached to earthly things, too attached to material conditions and material artefacts. This can cause problems. People loose perspective, people loose balance. People then fail perhaps sometimes to develop the spiritual aspect of their life because their minds are focused on the material to the exclusion of the spiritual.

But I talk as if there is duality. There is no duality here fundamentally. But it is true that we may loose perspective on life. It is true rather that we may loose persective on life in a number of many different ways. It is not accurate to say that we should contrast the material with the spiritual. For the fundamental problem is that people loose balance, loose perspective in their life and they become obsessive about one aspect of their life, or about certain conditions in their life to the exclusion of all others. And no matter what manifestation of their attachment comes from this we find a situation where they lack balance, they lack perspective. They loose their focus on life. They loose their balance and therefore their life becomes a life of dis-ease, a life of lack of balance, a lack of the pivitol point of life. Therefore it is best to talk in this way: that we should foster the principle of non attachment. That we do not become over attached, excessively attached, preocupied with other things, regardless of what these other things may be. For people may become over attached to religion, may become over attached to spirituality. And we would therefore have the same problem with this. The same problem of lack of balance as we would have with preocupation with other things such as preocupation with television, watching hours and hours of television, without purpose. Therefore the fundamental problem is this lack of balance, this over attachment to certain things.

Q: Do you think this comes about through normal human reasoning or through poor education?

Hai: You may foster, you may create conditions in your society which present, which create these circumstances, these situations where people are more likely to become attached to things or less likely to become attached to things. Your society, your culture, brings about these problems sometimes. Therefore it is more than just the individual. The individual is one fish in the sea if you like, and if you find that the sea becomes contaminated then the fish, the poor little fish, will become contaminated. The sea is pure, the fish may be pure also. But it is not the whole story, because we have our free will also. Therefore it is both a matter for the individual, but also a matter for society, culture.

The person then related a story about someone whose expensive car had been vandalised. It had caused the owner a good deal of distress.

Hai: Well, you know, we become sometimes too attached to our possessions, too attached to our outer manifestations. For sometimes we see our possessions as an outer manifestation of our own inner selves and this is great error. We identify ourselves with our possessions sometimes and if this possession is attacked, is damaged, we feel it is an assault upon our own identity. But our own identity is inviolable. Our own identity is secure within, unless we allow it to be assailed from without. But if we associate it too closely with those things we possess then we make it vunerable, for we then put ourselves in a position where damage, where harm to the outer manifestation, the property, the thing, the material good, becomes a matter of great concern. For it has an immediate impact upon our own sense of security, our own sense of worth. Therefore, to associate ourselves with our possessions to any great extent is great error. For these things are transient. These things are passing, are changeable and there is no security in them. Therefore we should not put our trust in them. We should not place our identity with them. We should not place our future with them.