Harmonic Wealth

As we all appear to obsessing about money in the current economic climate, we might as well take a look at wealth from a wider perspective. One of the contributors to The Secret, James Arthur Ray, has written a book called Harmonic Wealth, where he urges readers to look at their concept of abundance in what he calls the five main pillars of wealth – financial, relational, mental, physical and spiritual.

According to Ray, “Creating harmonic wealth brings an overall sense of well-being, fulfilment, even unity. Understand that your pillars are interdependent: when you attend to each of them, all increase in strength. When you take care of your health by working out regularly and eating well, you create multiple benefits. Sexual relationships become enhanced by your greater confidence and stamina. Business booms from your increased energy. You’re more alert and receptive in spiritual pursuits. You’re more alive. Similarly, spiritual growth translates to deepening intimacy in friendships and romantic relationships, fuelling your desire to keep up with your physical exercise.”

For those among us who have difficulty equating wealth with spirituality, Ray harks back to his earliest convictions, saying “Ever since I was a kid I questioned – everything. Deep down inside I just knew that you could advance spiritually without giving up the joys of the earth. I looked around and saw that the people who were saying you couldn’t be wildly successful and highly spiritual at the same time didn’t appear to have authentic results in either area.”

Looking at this issue within our current cultural context, Ray notes “This is a new millennium and it’s time to redefine what it means to be wealthy and spiritual. I believe, for example, that it’s every bit as spiritual for Ronaldo to score a hat-trick as it is for me to sit in my living room meditating. Bill Gates has touched as many, if not more, lives with his inspirational vision as any modern-day teacher. Each person contributes and gives to the world from their own unique calling and gifts. Quantum physics and spiritual traditions tell us that all things come from the same source … For the first time in recorded history, we now have a marriage between science and spirituality. We need to drop these artificial distinctions between the spiritual and the material. It’s up to us to see how these truths apply to our everyday lives and how we can integrate them for harmonic wealth in all areas.”

Ray is one of a number of voices in the spiritual field calling for a more integrated spirituality, where it forms part of everyday life and is not considered a separate pursuit to the demands of daily living. Caroline Myss often talks about this time in history as being one where many are called to be ‘mystics without monasteries’, needing to honour their own inner spiritual callings while living ordinary, not cloistered, lives. Ray defines the same issue, saying “But you and I aren’t going to live in mystical abstractions. We’ve got real work to do. Spiritual mastery in today’s world is about integration. It’s about being able to have a great body and run a business, as well as meditate, give back and everything in between. My goal has always been to soar into the realms of the mystic, while keeping my feet in the sand.”

So if we are to meld the spiritual and the material, where do we begin? With an enquiry into our personal vision in each of Ray’s five pillars, apparently. The first step in the harmonic wealth approach is to create a compelling personal vision for each of those areas. For financial wealth, ask yourself what’s your ideal income and what would be your ideal way of making it? For relational wealth, look into how much quality time you spend with yourself; whether you treat yourself the way you want other people to treat you; what kinds of things do you do that make you feel fulfilled and what quality of personal relationships you have. To assess your mental wealth, take an honest inventory of how many books you read or seminars you’d like to take, as well as asking yourself if you’re the master of your emotions or if they master you. For physical wealth, look at your health, physical flexibility, your possessions and where you’d want to travel. Finally for spiritual wealth, review what inspires you and makes you feel connected, as well as defining what is your own personal truth about your relationship to your creative source.

In making this kind of self-assessment and creating a personal vision, Ray notes that it can only be effective when it’s personally meaningful and comes alive in your imagination. He stresses “I promise, when your vision on the inside becomes more compelling and powerful than what you observe on the outside, the universe is at your command. So, be specific, make it real, and fill in your vision with as many sensory details as possible. If you had it, what would it feel like, smell like, sound like, look like, taste like? You want to be able to recognise your intention when you create it at last. Think big – really, really big. Don’t censor yourself. I’ve shared this powerful strategy with thousands of people on all levels of the happiness scale and the results are often extraordinary and life-changing when people truly let go of what they think is possible and write down their soul’s desires.”

This week, take that one pure, solid gold piece of advice and create a vision for yourself of your soul’s desire. Not what you think you can have, not what you think is possible right now, but exactly the dream that’s lying dormant in your heart – the one you’ve always thought might not be possible. Let that cat out of the bag and see what fabulous things just might happen next …

To download or listen online to James Arthur Ray talking to investment advisor Jim Hansberger about the current state of the global economy, go to http://blog.jamesray.com/ and click into Thrive In The Face Of Economic Challenges – The Recording.

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