Rarely are we so lucky as to have a philosophical exploration into the nature of money that offers insight into so much of the unseen plight of the modern person as we seek to find meaning as well as material wealth. Jacob Needleman weaves ancient tales into a modern inquiry into money as we experience it.
What is money and why does it make us so crazy? Needleman's concept, drawn from the study of history, is that man has always been considered to have two natures- a lower and a higher, and that while equal, the lower must be in service of the higher. Money, he suggests, was originally a technology developed to allow the exchange of material goods in a way that humans dependence on each other and the force of life (call it God if you wish) was acknowledged.
The great trouble, it was recognized, was the illusion that man could be completely independent. The ego then is the vanity that one can be completely self-sufficient, and "does not need to breathe the air of God." Money then is not evil in and of itself, but offers the ability to create a perception of reality that doesn't exist. He unpacks a rare story of King Solomon to illustrate the false I which suffers because the connection between the lower and higher natures, the paradoxical balance humans must strive for- became severed.
I really love Needlemans' work because he touches frequently on "spirit," without actually implying a Christian God or any sort of New-Agey energy manifestation. He approaches from a purely philosophical perspective that points to all of the great traditions and advanced societies of the past that had first made these distinctions as central to being human. The goal of life, then being how to live well in both worlds.
The problem, he says, is that these natures were split. In our religious history the higher and lower were separated, with all material things being seen as evil. In reaction perhaps, the modern world recognizes only the lower as real, which he describes as full of childish impulses of the body.
He also points out that many of our so-called material desires are manufactured for us, and do not stem from our actual, real desires for goods or services. "Perhaps we do not focus on things enough," he says. Suggesting that the we've lost our perception of what we actually want. "We live in an outer world that is masquerading as the inner world."
The thesis of the book is then that money itself is not evil, nor any of the things it buys, but the use of money without higher directing forces leads us to a loss of consciousness of our interior worlds. Older civilizations would put sacred symbols on one side of their coins, and a material one on the other to remind people of the sacred nature of transaction.
"At the core of all religious teachings, man is two-natured. Human life has meaning only insofar as we consciously and intentionally occupy two worlds at the same time. One force alone can never bring meaning into human life. Meaning appears only in the place between the worlds, in the relationship of two worlds, two levels, two fundamental qualities of power and energy.
Money is now, at this period of civilization, the chief representative of one of these fundamental worlds. That is its extraordinary, immense significance. We must understand it and respect it for that. THis "lower" world of money is not evil. for us, as beings build to live consciously in two worlds, real evil consists solely of those factors in ourselves that prevent conscious awareness of both the inner and the other world. It is not money itself which obstructs this awareness." -Jacob Needleman
For anyone with a philosophical streak, this book offers excellent insight into the deeper nature of what money is, and has historically represented. I found the concept quite healing. Having grown up inside a society where money is not questioned or examined I had long felt something was off about the way we talked about. This put money in perspective and restored the concept of balance between the inner and outer worlds, the higher and the lower.
Needleman also points out something else that had long been feeling off to me- historically, cultures organized their practices to promote a sense of serving or striving towards an inner ideal while living in the outer world, but no more. In our day this translates into businesses divorced from actually providing beneficial services to people, or separated from the relationship to the source of the goods. "Not needing to breathe God's air."
The illusion of separation and the lack of need to be of service allows the ego, the false sense of I that is completely self-sufficient, to be the dominating force of business and monetary transactions.
Restoring our sense of relationship, and the living experience of having a higher, inner nature to serve and become increasingly conscious of, it key to fixing the relationship we have with money.
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Top reviews from other countries
Marie P. Laywine
a new outlook on money
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 25, 2015