A few days ago I stumbled upon this Facebook post by my always thought-provoking friend Elina. Following and contemplating over her line of thoughts tweets I couldn’t help but find myself both sympathizing and resonating with her distress concerning the reign of materiality, for it had once been in my little bag of life’s big questions that I had to deal with in my spiritual path. One of the most popular teachings my parents, teachers and other adults in my life strove to edify me with while growing up, and a teaching that I believe most of you will reverberate with is that, “money doesn’t buy happiness.” Yet there was an apparent rift between their words and actions, for it was obvious to me that the world I was growing up in held money in high regard.  As a result, I grew up having a very distorted and paradoxical opinion about money and materiality in general.

Contemplating on the matter during the course of my spiritual path I came to the liberating realization that materiality and spirituality are in fact, two different perspectives of a single concept. We are spiritual beings expressing ourselves in a physical body. We came into this physical time/space reality with the aim that, through our sifting and sorting in the buffet of life we would create new and improved versions of our reality, therefore expanding consciousness and taking thought to a place it has never been before. In this respect, materiality is the physical extension of spirituality, just like we are a physical extension of Source, Spirit or that which is God.

However, our parents and teachers’ concerns about the nature of materiality were not untargeted, for they were drawing, and still do, from a myriad of examples of what most people are currently experiencing. Although we come forth in this world with an unfathomable clarity and knowledge of our true nature as extensions of God, there comes a point when we stray away from our truth and dissipate from our Godliness. Disaccorded from the unconditional love, happiness and freedom we once knew we were we try to find it outside of ourselves in material objects and possessions which only provide external aid to an inner wound.

When there finally comes a time when we unintentionally stumble upon a random Facebook post, tweet or blog post and we make the unconceivable act of challenging our inner establishment, then it suddenly becomes possible for us to start untangling the illusions of reality which are wrapped tightly around our hearts and expose ourselves to our authentic self. From that place of pure-positive, all-loving fulfillment the masks we’ve been perfecting for years fall into the shadows and we begin to enjoy materiality in the way we always intended to. As we awaken to our unconditional worthiness and being-ness of love we no longer need materiality to find wholeness but we express our wholeness through materiality.

It makes me happy,
that a child’s day,
was made a best day of his life,
when a stranger gave him nothing more than,
balloons,
and happiness.

Elina Smyrniou

Elina is an inquisitive and thought-provoking friend with an insanely unique sense of creativity. Her enthusiasm and passion for life have always inspired me to keep pushing the envelope of consciousness and taking thought beyond what has been before. You can read more from her on her blog Mona(χική) Lisa.