I have often wondered how I was going to make a living in this crazy mixed up world. It can seem sometimes as if money is the "root of all evil", as so many of the worlds problems are in part due to the idolization of money and material wealth. As a backpacking, rock climbing, yogi it can be tempting to just go live in an ashram or become a climbing bum: avoid the whole economic game and live simply. And in fact, I want to do those things some day, but I want it to be by choice. This is what I have been realizing lately: money is just energy like everything else. This means one shouldn't resist it nor become attached to it. If we are using the energy(or the money) that flows in and out of our experience for the benefit of all and the awakening of everyone involved in conducting business, then we should be honored to have been in service and present to the Sacred, Divine, Most High in every interaction/transaction. Thus the foundation for spiritual business, holy business, sacred commerce and financial alchemy is simply that the dominate direction and intention of your establishment is to manifest, maintain, and share the awareness of Oneness through service that affirms the Spiritual on every level.
" When we use the word "spiritual" in this context, we're not advocating the adoption of a new belief system, only an authentic willingness to look deeply into our lives and see where we are worshiping something other then the fundamental reality of Oneness." - Matthew and Terces Engelheart, "Sacred Commerce: Business as a Path to Awakening"
On a practical level this means providing the highest quality service through the most sustainable means. It means providing the space for the personal evolution of everyone involved in the business on a daily basis. Cafe Gratitude spends about $230,000 per year "Clearing" everyone last one of their employees 360 days of the year. Clearing is a process conducted by employees with one another in which they are given the opportunity to speak honestly about whatever they might be carrying into that moment while being truly heard. It is a practice of two people intentionally getting themselves into the present moment and recognizing the divine in each other so that they may then bring this presence into their work, and to ever interaction they have. Imagine if your employer spent 1/3 of it's annual profit on sitting you down to be heard and reminded of your divine nature before every shift!
It is important to point out that this concept of "sacred commerce", or "spiritual business" does not imply that you are selling spirituality nor promoting any particular religion. Rather it is creating a business that, on every level, honors and acknowledges and promotes the awareness of the Divine Oneness of all things while providing service. This means "leaning into the discomfort, asking hard questions," and being open, honest, and willing to change always. It means serving the One before yourself. "What master are we serving?" Cafe Gratitude uses four questions that help direct all decisions that are made:
P - Are we PROFITABLE? Does it serve the company as an entity?
A - Are we AWAKENING? Does this support transformation and growth?
S - Are we SUSTAINABLE? Are we in harmony with the Earth?
S - Are we SERVING? Are we creating a just community/society?
To do this legitimately with ones self is a true spiritual practice, let alone a large staff. It requires that one is unattached to the delusion of anything being "right" or "wrong". It requires the awareness and ability to be flexible, fluid, and change as the business (and life) evolves.
I am writing about all this because I am beginning to let go of the idea that spirit and business cannot align. In fact I am now seeing that by authentically bringing them together we could completely change the paradigm of greed-ego-separation based economies to abundance-service-oneness based. All we need is some really amazing marketing and we'll have the whole planet eating vegan and repeating affirmations. Ha! But seriously, we can begin to love money! Love money as "an expression of the divine presence of abundance that is everywhere, always. Money represents the inner quality of abundance, the knowingness of always being provided for. In the same way, a photograph of your children (loved ones) represents the inner quality of love."
I am excited for this life and the mass awakening the we are part of. It's time to think big. It's time go completely all out and over the top with this life. We want the energies of peace and love to prevail on this planet and we must begin with ourselves. What do we put in our bodies? How do we spend our time and money? Are we being the change we wish to see in the world? Einstein said something to the effect of " the problems of today will not be solved be the same thinking that created them." We are ready to completely change from economics of death and separation to those of life and oneness.
If you are skeptical of all of this hippy-dippy new-age economics base on love nonsense; here's a statement I would invite you to ponder:
"There is power and freedom in being the fool. When we declare something completely outrageous, we are no longer dominated by the looming shadow of failure and the fear of mockery."
"We are liberated by our audacity."
Superhuman and nutritional expert David Wolfe has started a website called "The Best Day Ever", and he lives that way all the time. It's always the best day ever! The business that I am starting is called "The Highest High", and I am going to make it my business to keep myself and everyone I come into contact with "high on life". The point I'm trying to make is that if we don't live big . . . we're living small.
When "we begin to understand that one's consciousness is the source of experience; we can craft our lives in any way we choose." Create Peace, Love, and Oneness. . . and so it is!
Peace-Love-Bliss
Baba
While I can admire a good business, one that is sustainable, and whole heartedly trying to create change in the world (and market), at the end of the day it's still a business. I haven't met David Wolfe, but my rawist friends follow him religiously. I have seen his website and it came across to me as completely phony and a complete marketing genius. If you want to create REAL change then you need to make things like raw foods accessible to ALL people of socioeconomic status, nut just the elite that have the privilege to afford a vita-mix and dine at all the pricey raw restaurants and buy exotic superfoods, many of which are far from locally grown! I hear you on wanting to make a profitable business, and support it 100%. I think there should be more that follow those steps you laid out, but if we want people to start eating more organic fruits and veggies, we need to develop more programs like a farm to school program for inner city urban youth. We need restaurants like Chez Panisse in Berkeley to partner up with schools and systematically change the way nutrition is viewed in schools. This is where people should be spending more energy and I personally find much more spiritual on several levels. I hope this doesn't offend you, just trying to be honest.
ReplyDeleteYou are totally right. There is so much amazing work to be done, and especially within education. And both David Wolfe and Cafe Gratitude are well marketed businesses that can come off as completely phony; charging top dollar for things like gratitude, well-being, "The Best Day Ever", or new age spirituality. I felt exactly the same way for a long time. Especially about the non-local issue of much of raw food.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have recently come to realize is that getting people away from meat and dairy is more important than being local. This is a sustainability judgement call that I have made based on the fact that methane (from farmed animals) is the real cause of our planets excellerated warming. I feel that the superfood specifically can help people make the jump to a vegan lifestyle most effectively. Much of it can be produced locally (even though it currently is not) as well. I have 6 goji berry plants that I just started in my backyard; you can grow spirulina in a tank in you back yard; you can grow cacao in your house; you can have your own bee hives, or eat local bee products.
Cafe Gratitude, while pricey, they will serve you some food if you show up with $2 bucks. There is a dish (that is not on the menu) called the "I am broke", or "I am without", or something along those lines. They'll serve you some food for almost no money though! They treat they emplyees extremely well from what I have read and seen, and these benefits are part of why the food costs more there.
David Wolfe, whom I have now met personally, is legit. A good portion of what his companies make goes to his fruit tree foundation which has planted literally millions of trees around the world (often times in poor communties) since being founded. He walks around barefoot, and seemed to be on the go and harder working than almost any one I've ever met.
Thank you for your honesty. You are asking the difficult questions; which don't have definitive answers. Remember: nothing is "right" or "wrong". We create our realities.
I am going to manifest the abundance required to fund a spirulina growing program in an inner city high school; it can be added to their biology classes and contribute to their cafeteria. The money needs to come from somewhere (don't ask the goverment) and why not from foods that save lives and the planet at the same time? You in?
Keep the hard questions coming.
Oh. Be careful declaring anything to be more spiritual than anything else.
love
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ReplyDeletehear you completely and meant no disrespect with the "more spiritual" bit. I am writing my thesis on the need of more farm-to-school programs and partnerships with local organizations in school, so perhaps I got a little overly passionate ;-)
ReplyDeleteI believe that great businesses exist, and the reality is that we live in a consumer driven society where people are going to consume no matter what, so why not have more business like Cafe Gratitude, or the Highest High! ha!
On that note also believe in the importance of questioning the world around you and reaching a point of acceptance on your own terms. It sound like to me you have reached a point of acceptance by seeing the good in the business around you, more power to you!
Keep on with the great things... and i'll keep the hard questions coming your way!