What is Spiritual Intelligence and How Does it Affect Our Wealth Creation Ability?
What is spiritual intelligence? It is essential to understand that we do not live only on one plane of existence. Firstly, there is the material world which we can see, feel and understand. This is the gross or outer cover of life. We aspire for material success and possessions in this world.
Then there is the mind which has two parts: the conscious and the subconscious part. We can’t see it, but we know it is there because we can think and dream. The reality of this mind can be entirely different from the real world because it can imagine, dream and be creative.
Finer still is our spirit. Science can’t prove it, but we know it is there. It is the unifying force of the universe. It is the underlying principle of life and existence. It unites and not divides. It connects everything in this universe.
At the level of the spirit, we are all one without any differentiation. It is an all-knowledgeable force that permeates into every living or non-living thing. It is also the source of all joy and bliss in this universe. You may call it soul, God or by any other name. It is a reality we cannot deny because at some level we can sense it.
Human spirit is the creative life force of this universe. Most people do not realize that whatever happens in the material world is the printout of the happenings in our spiritual and mental world. Creative people understand this fact and they dip their minds into the cosmos’ intelligence to solve their problems and get new ideas.
What is Spiritual Intelligence?
The best definition of spiritual intelligence that I have found is by Frances Vaughan, who states:
“Spiritual intelligence is concerned with the inner life of mind and spirit and its relationship to being in the world. It emerges as consciousness evolves into an ever-deepening awareness of matter, life, body, mind, soul, and spirit. Spiritual intelligence, then, is more than individual mental ability. It appears to connect the personal to the transpersonal and the self to spirit. Spiritual intelligence goes beyond conventional psychological development. In addition to self-awareness, it implies awareness of our relationship to the transcendent, to each other, to the earth and all beings. Spiritual intelligence opens the heart, illuminates the mind, and inspires the soul, connecting the individual human psyche to the underlying ground of being. Spiritual intelligence can be developed with practice and can help a person distinguish reality from illusion. It may be expressed as love, wisdom, and service.”
There are two important things to understand: even the subtlest of movement in the spiritual mind can change things dramatically for the better in the subconscious and the conscious mind, with a resulting effect in the material world.
A thought impulse originating from the spirit can change our whole life. We only have to learn how to trigger that impulse. Secondly, as we gain spiritual intelligence, it harmonizes us with the rest of nature because it a unifying force. This is very important to us in the material world.
It is our sense of conflict in the material world that saps our energy. If we are in harmony then a powerful energy source explodes within us. This has as huge impact on our success in the material world, which is why developing spiritual intelligence is so important to our success.
Abundance of the Universe
Most people feel that to become rich you have to compete for the limited resources that are available in the material world. The act to acquire something in the material world means that you are denying something to the weaker. They abhor the idea that the rich exploit the helpless poor to build their financial empire, which creates a feeling of guilt that holds us back from becoming rich.
Many politicians have won elections exploiting this feeling of guilt and using the theory of social injustice. There is nothing further from the truth because the universe is not limited but abundant. There is no shortage. It is limited only by our restrictive minds.
Our universe is fundamentally abundant. It holds not millions, but billions of undiscovered thoughts, ideas and resources. Each thought, each idea can find resources that are worth billions of dollars.
Just look at the past: there was no television, radio or telecommunications industry before radio waves were discovered. Today, these are huge industries churning out billions of dollars and providing millions of jobs. The person who discovered this one idea – uncovered one secret of the universe – made millions of people wealthy. He did not take anything from the poor but elevated many from the poverty trap.
The same is true of nuclear energy, internet and thousands of new technologies and millions of ideas that are yet to be discovered. Even a very small idea can generate millions for us. We have to open our minds to understand the abundance of the universe.
“Out of abundance he took abundance and still abundance remained.”
– Upanishads
The only truth about the universe: it is abundant!
If we embrace such an attitude, blessings and opportunities will follow. It is only limited minds that think that we compete for resources. It is the crab mentality that insinuates pulling others down to succeed.
In fact, truth is just the opposite. We succeed when we help others to succeed. There is abundance in this universe.
Darwin’s theory of ‘Survival of the fittest’ only applies to the animal world. We humans have risen from rest of the animals because of our ability to co-operate and form societies for greater good. It is only fools who think that we are fighting for limited resources in order to survive.
Understanding abundance grows our financial, emotional and spiritual intelligence.
Honesty Integrity and Wealth
It is impossible to create long term wealth through dishonest means. The moment you become dishonest you fall out of sync with humanity and the rule of law. You will waste your creative energy fighting with your business partners, competitors, taxmen, customers and employees. Lies breed more lies. Truth and law will eventually catch up with you.
By being honest and leading a life of integrity, you will not only avoid any potential conflicts but generate goodwill that will have a multiplier effect in your wealth creation process. It is difficult to understand why people cheat at times and get violent and get in trouble with the law. In the process, they get entangled in fights, time consuming and expensive law suits, when it takes only minuscule effort to be honest and develop a financial intelligence to create wealth.