What Is Material vs. Spiritual Ambition?

In the previous post, we learned how to figure out our life’s work and soul purpose in this lifetime. Paramahansa Yogananda’s life’s work was the I Ching Gate 54, which is about transforming the shadow states of greed and ambition to release the higher frequency gift of aspiration and siddhi of ascension. What is material vs. spiritual ambition?

What is greed?

Jose Stevens, PhD said that greed is the primary obstacle in 15% of the human population. Greed is a type of poverty consciousness, that arises from the fear of not having enough (e.g. money, power, food, drink, sex, drugs, attention, etc.) to go around. He explained:

Younger souls want more fame, fortune and power. Mature souls tend to crave more love, affection and relationships. Older souls want more spiritual knowledge and experience.
The person may express ambition and drive, a huge appetite for life, allowing and highly appreciating all the experiences that the physical plane has to offer (e.g. Richard Branson).
They can also be selfish, miserly, hoarding, money-hungry, feeling entitled, but afraid to lose what they have. They become wealthy but eternally dissatisfied (e.g. Howard Hughes).

Richard Rudd said the shadow frequencies are not really negative. They’re an aspect of human nature with an evolutionary purpose. Greed pressures individuals, tribes and races to survive.

Is greed good?

Gate 54 is about being driven. The I Ching description is “The Marrying Maiden,” which refers to the concubine who moves up the ladder to become the empress one day. In our time, one of the poster boys for greed was a character in the film, Wall Street (1987) – IMDb, who said:

“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all its forms, greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind…” – Gordon Gekko (a fictional character played by Michael Douglas)

Greed became the credo of banksters, traders and investors alike. That led to several market bubbles that burst culminating in a global financial crisis in 2008. What was learned from it?

Not much, based on today’s headlines (Big Banks Plead Guilty To Market Manipulation, Will Pay $5.8 Billion). We’re still dealing with runaway greed in some sectors and individuals.
It’s true that building a civilization requires drive and ambition to move spirit (ideas, concepts) into form (manifestation) on the material plane. But banksters playing casino with other people’s pension funds doesn’t really cut it. Why would we co-create it then?

Maybe it’s to learn about contrasts, what works and what doesn’t? Maybe it’s about detach-ment from money and material things? Or about self-empowerment, sharing and supporting each other, redefining what we want out of life, what an ideal community would look like?

How do we move from greed to aspiration?

Rudd said that at some point, greed or material accumulation becomes self-destructive and needs to be transcended before too much damage to the planet or its people. He observed:

There is a fine line between greed and aspiration. Greed is really aspiration without trust.
It is an energy field of desperation that attracts similar lower frequencies into a setting, where allies can’t be trusted. They’re all equally self-serving, and that is their downfall.

According to Rudd, greed must mature enough to become ambition, which may also be self-serving, but it’s evolved enough to realize the problems with greed based on fear. He noted:

At the shadow level of greed, any accumulated energies go back to accumulate more and more material wealth with no higher purpose. How much is enough?
With evolution, greed is dissolved by the urge to find more meaning and purpose in life.

At the higher frequency of aspiration, energy gets recycled and is used to support people lower down in the hierarchy, because we’re all interconnected and interdependent. This is a higher vision of prosperity, in which personal ambition is tied to higher service to the whole.

“Wherever energy or money is kept in a liquid state and allowed to flow between people and organisations, prosperity is engendered. When it is frozen or amassed for too long, it prevents further expansion.” – Richard Rudd

Final Thoughts

Our perspective must change from self-serving to community-serving, which is a new paradigm for most of humanity. But it’s the core philosophy of Ubuntu (pronounced as /ʊˈbuːntʊ / uu-boon-tuu):

“I am what I am because of who we all are.”

Desmond Tutu said: “One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole, and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.

Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity.

We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.”