Does "manifestation" really work? Will you make more money or be more successful if you're more spiritual? Possibly! But there's more to it...

While it’s true that getting more in tune with your spiritual self may improve your life from an outward experience, the deeper purpose is to find fulfillment and joy in the present moment. The peace, joy, and happiness you think you’ll experience from making a certain amount of money or accomplishing a certain goal is actually possible without achieving those things! Here’s how…

Takeaways:

• Spirituality can potentially lead to financial improvement, but the deeper purpose is to find fulfillment and joy in the present moment.
• Shifting focus from external achievements to inner experiences can bring a sense of lightness and enjoyment in life.
• Money and external accomplishments may provide temporary satisfaction, but they do not lead to lasting fulfillment.
• By releasing past experiences and letting go of attachment to outcomes, one can experience more meaning and joy in each moment.
• The goal is to enjoy life and extract value from every experience, rather than constantly striving for external validation.

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Hey, everybody. So if you've been listening to the show for a while, then you understand that we've talked a lot about bears around here in their back. Of course, we're in spring, actually coming into summer now. And there is a big population of bears in Vermont that has increased dramatically over the last five years, particularly in Stowe, Vermont, where I live. The bears are becoming like pets. This right before I got on this to do this podcast, I was dealing with bear in my garage, which the garage door had been open for just a short period of time. And I let my dog out, which I have a German shepherd, and then it treed the bear.

to kind of keep them out of there. But the really interesting thing is we have two job sites going on right near here. Well, we have one of them and there's another job site going on by somebody else. And the bear, this same bear and one other different bear, they're all small. They're only like 120, 150 pounds for these black bears, which there are around here 350, 400 pound black bears. These are relatively small ones, have literally been getting into the workers pickup trucks and they've been walking up for lunch.

to find the bear sitting in their car or in their truck trying to get their food that's in their cooler for their lunch. And it's happened twice now. And then the bear just chooses to really not get out of the truck. One person shot around into the ground and barely even move. The other guy had to yell and kind of like move it out just to get outside it. And then it climbed on top of his truck like he didn't want to go anywhere. So if you're interested about what's happening with the bears, that is where we are. I got a question last week from a listener, and I think it's a common one that I know that my

My personal mind, I don't know if it struggles with this, but complains about it, asks about it a lot. I just, I sit here and witness it. But the question, which is if I go in this spiritual path, which is inward path, personal growth path, if I go down this path, will I attract more money to myself? I think what people are really asking is will I improve my life from an outward perspective if I do the inward work?

Will I start making more money? Will I get a better job? Will I find the certain partner that I'm looking for? Will my kids behave better? Right? All of these, these kind of basically does my life become easier and the things that I think is going to turn me on, right? Again, they're wonderful. You know, people should aim to improve their life. You can aim to improve your financial situation. All of those things, right? Those are all wonderful things you can do to play with specifically playing with life. The, the, the, how I always answer this and answer it in my own mind, by the way, because it's the higher self can talk to the lower self. And I think,

That's where if the personal mind is narrating a lot and you need to calm it down, that's where positive affirmation comes in, which is higher self, right? Directing the voice, right? To say something different. And the reason why we have positive affirmation is because it's negative. And if you haven't noticed, the majority of the time your personal mind is talking negative. It's not talking positive. I mean, I would say 95 % of the time it is talking about something, complaining about something.

wanting something to be different, wanting more of something, not wanting to get something that you love. It just makes things up and it just, you pay attention to it and that's what it does, 95 % of the time. Very few often is talking about the positive things. Anyways, so the question I always ask people which is, well, why do you want the money in the first place? Right, I understand there's a mechanical nature to life and I'm talking, anyone that's listening to this podcast isn't in the situation where they're necessarily in.

a third world country under tyranny, which are trying to figure out how to eat. I mean, that's a whole different conversation around money. So if you're listening to this, you're privileged in a way that you're probably not dealing with that level of mechanical nature around money. The question then becomes is like, I just want more money for things, right? Fine. Again, they're wonderful. It's not about renunciation. Spirituality is never about that. My mentor has taught me that many, many, many times. It's never about renunciation. It's not about that at all.

In fact, it's about enjoying those fruits that come up from all of this. The Bhagavad Gita goes in detail about this. So the way I really like to answer this question, right, will money, will being spiritual make, you know, more money come into me, which is, or more money come into your life. The question is, is what you really are thinking for is that money is going to turn you on. And really what's happened is over your past experiences, when you've gotten more money, you're able to get more things and it's made you feel better.

Right? So again, it's not wrong. Your past experiences have led you to this. So making more money or having money from your childhood, maybe your parents didn't have any. When we got some, you were able to go on vacation or maybe you've had these experiences where you've you've increased in your position and you've done well. And that additional money has allowed you to go on different experiences has turned you on. Right. They're wonderful things. Those are things. Remember, if you can point to the thing that's turning you on, it's never going to last. It's not that you don't allow it to turn you on. It doesn't mean that you don't enjoy the fact that it's turning you on.

But hopefully you all hear that, which is if you can point to something that is turning you on, you know what I'm saying there, like it makes you feel good. You feel better inside, you feel high inside, you feel lighter inside, you're just enjoying life. If you can point to the reason why you're turned on, again, it doesn't mean you don't allow it to, just know that it's going to pass. But it's the same thing on the other side, by the way, when if you can point to a reason why you're feeling down, angry, irritated, frustrated, or whatever it is, if you can point to that, it's also gonna pass. So just know that each one of those phases passes.

And that is the rhythmic nature of kind of feeling emotions. Where there's a deeper level of emotions, I always refer to it as your spiritual heart, right? Your spiritual heart is that peace that passes all understanding. It's why you feel good for not pointing to anything. In fact, there could be something challenging happening in your life and you feel this intense lightness and peace and joy that's there. It doesn't mean that you like the moment, but you're honoring the moment. So the question that when people say, well,

If I just work on my spirituality with the intention of improving my life from an actual situation. Again, I'm also saying this because I have this, the same question goes on in my head. Well, if I just do this, if I just can get a little bit more over here and you just, you see the personal mind trying to take you over for this case. And the answer is sure, it may get you more money, but it's not gonna get you what you're looking for. You know, manifestation works, right? It does. And it doesn't mean it's not, but just cause you get what you want.

doesn't mean it's gonna last forever. That's the difference. So sure, maybe it does increase your life. Maybe you go out there and you are able to get all the money that you're looking for. But have you ever gotten everything that you're looking for and then never wanted anything else in your life? And the answer is no. You already know this. Just go back and look at your own history. When you were 10 years old, you wanted, you know, a certain bike or mountain bike. Or then when you wanted to get your license, all you wanted to do is be able to drive. And then you just wanted to be able to graduate. And you wanted to play sports in college. You played sports in college. Then you wanted to get out and just...

get a great job and make your first X dollars. And you did that and then you wanted to get married and then you wanted to make sure you had this perfect house and you wanted to get that. You did all these things, but it's never, once you accomplish them, it's not like it was like the world stopped and the personal mind stopped and said, I'm good. You guys, we don't have to do this anymore. No, what happened is the minute you got it, it lasted, it made you feel good. And you've re kind of ingrained this cycle that when I go and get what I want from outside, I feel great. I feel great.

So now you're addicted to this process. Whereas if I can just direct my will and my energy towards something that I can get outside and when I grab it, I'm gonna feel good inside, then why wouldn't I do that process my entire life? And there's nothing wrong with the things you're doing. And if that's your path, then do it really well. Enjoy the process of doing it and do it really well. But if people ask you the deeper question, which is, you know,

What are you really looking for from the money or from the vacation, from the job, from the experience? What are you really looking for? Is you're looking for a feeling inside? Well, then can't you ask a different question, which is, well, why don't I feel that all the time? And the answer, the person of mine saying it's going to say, well, because you didn't go get anything, you didn't accomplish something. You need to be better at this. You need to go. That's where life is living on this. All this experience is about everyone teaches you that go out and get what you want. You know, I've defined.

this definition of success many times on podcasts, which is people say, go be successful in high school and college. You're getting out this as once you go out there and be successful. I want to go out and be successful. What does that mean? Right. What does successful mean? And sure, you could define it from a financial number or from financial freedom or from a certain things you have. But really what people are saying when they say go be successful, which is how do I go get enough money, power, fame, leverage, you know, initials next to my name?

Right? All of these things so that I can control the experiences that are happening around me to my best of my ability. A lot of energy goes into there so that the experience that I'm experiencing is the one that my ego or psyche is looking for. So therefore it feels good. And that's essentially what is happening. So as we look at this and as we kind of look at these questions, it's a different way of asking them, which is, OK, instead of.

Instead of asking, well, money turned me on, which is a different question. Why can't we ask the question, which is how do I go out there and feel this all the time? How do I get rid of these, what are called some scars, which is some scarred a whole podcast episode on them, but just real briefly, as I'm scary is some scar is an energy event that's happened that you did not let pass and therefore it's stored. And so when it's stored in it, the reason why you didn't let it pass through you.

because it felt very discomforting, right? For the most part. There is some positive ones, but very few are positive, most are negative. And it's something that's happened, an event that's occurred and it started to become really uncomfortable and you pushed it away. And so it's stored. That's why the circle is the most powerful form in the universe. It's where energy can stay still and keep moving. It just moves in a circle. So again, when life events happen, they stimulate your some scars. It's almost like somebody putting a spotlight on a big warehouse.

and they're hitting, they're shining the light on certain objects that are out there and they're illuminated. The same thing happens when life events happen. Somebody sends you an email, somebody cuts you off in traffic, you know, somebody gets your job that you wanted to, you feel this initial kind of discomfort that happens inside because all of your past experiences that didn't make it through you are now illuminated. And so when they're hit, now they're, you're feeling and you're feeling that experience. So then you go,

I didn't like the experience when it happened and I certainly don't like it happening again. So therefore that's when the personal mind and the emotions jump in and they go, I know what to do to fix this. You need to go work harder and you need to beat this person. You need to go tear this person down. You need to go run over here. You need to sell and move out of this state. I mean, again, it just, it says these most random things to try to make you feel better with dealing with that discomfort versus sitting there, which is what all spirituality talks about. Again, all of it is saying the same thing, which is,

can I sit here and handle the discomfort? Because if you can handle the discomfort, then those samskaras that are being illuminated are no longer there. And therefore, you don't need to point to anything to feel good. You just start to have more lightness in your life, more joy. And the more events that happen outside, the less they hit you inside because there's less of that to hit. So you see, if you start off with a million widgets that are essentially these samskaras, and every time you release one,

10 % of these widgets are just moving and moving outside there. There's less of that to erupt. You know, one of my original Transcendental Meditation teachers used to actually phrase it in a way where he would draw this on, which I was shocked that he actually explained it like this, which I thought was really cool. I'll never forget it. Which he basically said, think about a big football field when you start in one end zone and you want to get to the other end zone.

and you wake up and that's you're in one end zone and all of a sudden you look up and you're like, I'm going to make it to the other end zone. And there is a thousand elephants in between that hundred yards that's there. In the minute you step and hit one elephant, they all erupt. They all erupt. And that's essentially people's personal minds, stress relief, the emotions release. You go in there, maybe you're good for a second. And then all of a sudden something happens and then boom, all the elephants start to erupt. Well, as you start to release through meditation, through letting go, through relax and release,

through yoga, through journaling, all of these different ways to make these releases happen. There's so many different ways to do that. There's less elephants to get erupted. So then you can go a little bit deeper through the end zone, which is life's events that are happening every day that no longer are triggering you. They're not bothering you. Because remember, if they're not bothering you, then you don't get upset about it. There's a lot of things that are happening right now in Vermont that aren't probably bothering anybody that's listening to this right now. In fact,

I've been talking for 13 minutes. I mean, I don't know the actual number of people that have passed away worldwide, but I bet it's thousands of people or at least hundreds of people. And that didn't bother you, right? It didn't bother you because it didn't hit your stuff. Your patterns that are there were not illuminated. And so you just learn to go, OK, well, if I know that getting what I want makes me feel good momentarily, but nevertheless, is there a different way to approach this?

And so the same thing that I turn around when this listener asks this question, which is if I go deeper into spirituality, will allow more money to come in life. I go, well, the deeper the spirituality, the less money you need in your life. I don't mean need from a mechanical nature, less money you actually feel you need because you start to see life differently. And therefore you no longer feel the pressure to want to go out there and get to get more spirituality, to gain more money. Because what you'll find is the deeper you go in spirituality,

the less that noise that is making for you to go out and drive and do that. It doesn't mean you won't go make a billion dollars or a million dollars or a hundred thousand dollars or whatever your number is. It doesn't mean that at all. It just means that I'm no longer tied to it. I'm no longer going to feel okay only if I hit a certain income goal or a certain number. And this is why, I mean, I listen to a variety of different podcasts that are out there in the majority, especially in the, you know, in the spirituality, personal growth kind of reflection type genre.

And a lot of individuals, very successful ones, are all saying the same thing, right? They've been saying it for a while, which is, okay, I went out and got all of this. I accomplished all these things and I feel hollow still. I feel like I'm missing something. Well, of course you are because your entire life you've been aimed at getting things to turn you on, which is just a false sense. It's just, again, that's why this is don't build your home on sand, right? For thousands of years, people have been saying this. And all you did is build your house on sand. And so for a moment while you keep it all together, it feels good.

but the minute the wind blows and it starts to blow over, you're a wreck. And it's the same thing when you get a lot of money and that's been your thing, then it's like, well, somebody's taking it from me. Then I got to protect it. And what happens if I don't do this? And you just attach yourself to a dollar amount, which is what it is. Instead of just, again, there's a sign that sits next to my computer and it just says, need nothing and enjoy everything. And it's interesting, needing nothing is one of those words that used to trigger me a lot. Because when people...

in this world would say that they would say, we'll just need nothing. And I go, well, that's just not true. Sure. Okay. You need food. Let's just put that aside. Even then I would, my personal mind would jump in and go, how would you not need nothing? Right? Like I would rather have it be certain weather out there. Well, then you can have that too. Right. I just, I just started playing with it. I go, sure. You can have that. But what about if you just actually honored the moment? What if you disrespected the moment this morning? I was biking. I started at five 30 this morning and I did a pretty big long bike ride.

At the end of it, it started raining and I had some things planned for outside there started raining and I was like, I just started smiling and at first I could sense the mind going, man, it's raining and I go, no. And I just said, this feels so good. It's warm out, it's humid out. This rain feels great. And I said, in this moment, this is a wonderful thing. Instead of just allowing the person of mind being like, well, now you can't do this. Now this is going to cause this issue. You just experience the moment you're having. That's the difference is when you're no longer caught in the mind.

you actually start to experience the moment, which gives you much more meaning every single time. And that's the gift that you get. So it's sure, you may end up getting more. Remember, spirituality is never about changing what you're doing. It's about changing the part of you that's interacting with life, changing the part of you that's interacting with your goals. There's nothing wrong with goals. There's nothing wrong with holding businesses accountable or hiring people or firing people. That's not what it's about at all. It's actually truly about just extracting more value out of the moment that's in front of you.

And that's how you audit yourself, by the way. You audit yourself because you just get this wonderful sense of, am I extracting meaning from this moment? Am I extracting meaning from this moment? And majority of the time, if you're paying attention, what you're extracting is information from the personal mind, which again, is only giving you, it's only giving you advice based on the experiences that you've had. And then so people go, well, of course it's going to, that's the only experience I had. I go, there's nothing wrong with that. You've had the experience, you can have it.

But how many other experiences weren't you having? I mean, how many experiences are happening outside your world now? Billions, trillions, by the way, in the last 15 minutes, trillions of other experiences have happened. So if you'd had one slightly different experience, your mind would be saying something different. If you grew up where money was lauded and people were respected, and you may go after money. If you grew up where money was taboo and we never did it and the people who are rich were bad people, then you...

may never have money. And again, it's just like, it doesn't, you don't take away your past. It doesn't mean it takes away the ability to learn from your past or have these experiences because every experience makes you greater. You just, you just don't allow them to dictate the quality of your life. That's the difference. And most people are having these experiences or having the experiences because they're allowing them to dictate the quality of their life. And that's not, that's not the way you want to live.

At least for me, that's not the way I want to live is you don't allow that personal mind to narrate or to dictate how you're going to enjoy life. And so what you do is you come back to center and you say, okay, I can handle this. I can handle this. Sure. I have a goal for financial freedom. I have a goal for my family. I have a goal for my health. I have a goal for my spirituality practices. You have a goal for your business. You have a goal for your job. You have a goal for your elders. Have the goals. They're great.

Now you let go of the outcome of needing those things and you can work towards them. Then you actually enjoy it. You enjoy it because you just wake up and go, how often, how many more times am I going to play this game? What game? The game of going to get what I want just so I can then have to play the game again at a larger level. This is why it never ends. It's like, okay, I go make $50 ,000 then I need a hundred and then you make a hundred, then it's 200. And then, you know, you.

You have one kid, you need another one, then you need a dog and then you need a house and you don't have any more kids. But now when you go on vacation, then it can't just be one big kid. It just never ends. That's why they always talk about the ego as being the shapeshifter. It'll just shape itself in anything you want to be. It's like, you know what? I want to be in this direction, but now I want to be in a totally different direction. I'm feeling pulled over there. Now your personal mind is telling you to go over there and you're just paying attention to it based on an experience to try to get you to feel better. And there's nothing wrong there. Again.

You can enjoy these things. You can enjoy the building of anything that you're doing. But, and it doesn't mean you're perfect at this. You know, the human experience is imperfect. It's flawed, but that's not who you are. That's not who you are. You are the one who's experiencing, who's watching a human that is flawed, right? You are the one that is the experiencer of the events. You're experiencing the mind. You're experiencing emotions. They come and go.

every thought you've ever had is gone. It may come back, but it's gone for a moment. Every emotion you've ever had is gone. It may come back, but it's gone. And it comes back and they fluctuate, don't they? It's like in one moment where you get hit and it's such discomfort and you're going, man, how do I even just, a day later, an hour later, you get an additional email and your closing's back on and you go, man, I feel beautiful again. It's just, that's the drum beat of life, by the way. The heart, the personal heart fluctuates with the emotions that are happening.

The deeper level, which we don't talk about too much on this, that spiritual level, that spiritual heart is always filling you once you get past the dealing with the physical and kind of emotional heart, which is the, I always call it referred to as the personal heart. The personal heart flows and basically creates vibrations based on the events that are happening. So if somebody dies around you that you cared about, of course you're gonna feel a tremendous sense of loss. You're gonna feel your heart be low.

It's a drum beat that it can play. It's a vibration that is playing. And if you have somebody that's really close to you and they get married and they're in their great moment, and that's gonna raise your heart, whatever it is. I even see that right now with my kids playing sports. Every one of them are at a different level, but my heart gets filled when they go out there and they're just trying and they succeed and then they don't succeed and then they fail and they come back and they succeed again and your heart kind of fluctuates with all of that. I'm also very clear that...

Those are just things that I'm experiencing. But there's a deeper sense behind that where you can lie, where you can risk. That's what we refer to as witness consciousness. So I've taken us around, right, about this single question, which is, if I work on my spiritual life, will I gain more money? The short answer is it could. It could. It very well, it could improve you, but is that going to fulfill you? And if you just, even if you just ask that question for a second, the person will go, yeah, definitely will. Definitely will. Just watch it. It'll say that. Of course it will.

If I just have that absolutely at them, you know that it will. I can tell you, it doesn't, you just keep adding zeros and I promise you, it doesn't change. It doesn't change. Sure, it may relieve you. It may feel better in the moment, but it'll find something to be upset about. I promise you later on, it just won't go away. It just doesn't. And so this, the concept of the deeper question, which is, is how do I feel good, regardless of what's happening out there? Because it is the experience and you can't control life.

The amount that you can control is so meaningless of what's actually happening in there. It's not even worth talking about. But what you can control is how you feel in each moment, how you are experiencing each moment. So if you feel discomfort, you sit there, you relax, you release, you let it flow through. As it flows through, it releases. And so just like you look outside right now and you see a tree, the tree is not bothering you. You saw it. Boom, you go through. What if...

The best artist in the world got on and said, look, I just, you know, I know that you just looked out in that field and, I want you to tell me every single thing that you saw in that field, every grain, every piece of grass, every leaf and how it was shaped. I mean, how long would that phone call be days, weeks, but you just looked out and saw it all. You saw it all without the narration of it. You just saw it. That's how you see your inward life. You see the emotions. You see the, the personal mind.

narrating and trying to get you to pay attention to it. You see the personal heart floating back and forth based on emotions, but you're the experiencer of those things. How do you know your heart hurts or how do you know your heart is singing? How do you know you have thoughts? It's a simple thing. So when you when you sit here and we think about the question, which is what does spirituality really do? It creates more lightness in your life. It does. It may improve you. And by the way, if you have more lightness, you become better at everything you do. Everything.

and it may take you down that direction, may take you in a totally different direction. But in my experience, you actually just become better at the things that you're doing. You become better in business and that'll lead you to a certain level, right? There's no like defined plan that that's where you're going. But you become better in business, you become better as a parent, you become better as a friend, you care deeply more about things. It doesn't mean you go out there and give money away or do all these different things. You just enjoy it a little bit more. That's the key. You just enjoy your life. And to me,

When you're in your last moments and life is slipping away from you, wherever that is, and it goes by so fast, blink of an eye, you're gonna sit there and go, did I enjoy my life? Not that I get everything that I wanted, because I don't think just many people that have sat there on their deathbed and been like, I'm so happy that I got everything I wanted. No, one of my good friends, their mom just passed away and they actually, three years ago they had given her, they've given her,

days to live and she made it three years and one of the things that I asked him, I said, well, what is the gift that she gave to you? And he's like, you know how fast life goes by and just to really enjoy life. And what they're really saying is just, it doesn't mean about getting what you want or having everything that you want to have. Those are wonderful things. Enjoy those too, but also enjoy the other aspects of it, the challenges of life, the pushing through the phases and stages, all of those things are always part of your experience here.

Because at the end of the day, again, it is going to literally be a, did I enjoy my life? Did I enjoy the experience of my life? Did I have fun here? Did I have fun? Boy, it was a ride. There's a lot of really challenging times, a lot of really things that were going, a lot of success and a lot of failure and a lot of all everything. I enjoy my life. That's the question we want to answer. So what's your story going to be? Right. And how do we ask different questions, which is, you know,

Not about, will spirituality make me richer? But will spirituality give me what I think being rich will give me, which is a better inward feeling. And the answer is yes. Because you start removing the things that are there so you feel better, so that you feel lighter. And that becomes a process that keeps building on itself. It's because you enjoy it so much. So enjoy this gift. Think about these questions in our lives and have fun. Just have fun with the experience of your life.