The balance between the spiritual and material

"Man shall not live by bread alone," words ascribed to Jesus (Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4) quoting Deuteronomy 8:3. Let's update this - "human beings cannot live on materialism alone"; we have spiritual needs too. Needs too often overlooked in our headlong rush to acquire more possessions. The extremes can be seen; at one end of the spectrum, multi-billionaires spending money to acquire more power than can be converted into more wealth. On the other hand, the ascetic mendicant Sadhus of Hinduism, who have renounced all worldly goods.

Human beings both.

The need to engage with the spiritual differs greatly from person to person. I have asked the question "how much spirituality do we need"; the stock answer from many observant believers is "once a week is enough", but then even this answer varies greatly from ultra orthodox Jews who won't switch on a lightbulb on Shabbos to Catholics who pop into church for a 45-minute long Sunday mass - and they're done for the week.

The full Matthew 4:4/Luke 4:4/Deuteronomy 8:3 quote is as follows: "Man shall not live by bread alone/but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God". Now, I reject the notion of an anthropomorphic divinity with an oral cavity containing a larynx. Instead, I interpret this Biblical injunction to mean - Listen.

Listen to that inner voice, that comes in periods of meditative calmness, and offers a more universal view of matters. Listen to the inner voice that suggests, guides, consoles. Listen and observe the big picture; that momentary consciousness of the seven thousand trillion trillion atoms that have come together to form you, living on a planet orbiting a star that's one of hundreds of billions in our galaxy, the Milky Way, that in turn is one of a trillion galaxies in the observable universe.

Yet if you were to spend your life obsessively thinking of yourself in terms of your near insignificance in universal terms, you'd never get anything done other than maybe keep body and soul together, the Sadhu's minimum. But forget what you are in a cosmic context, you lose your humility and humanity. Getting this balance right is essential to spiritual well-being; material comfort - lack of money worries - is an important part of piece of mind.

But I am puzzled - and indeed troubled - by the presence among us of the hyper-rich. If you have tens of millions of dollars in assets - why strive to make yet more millions? The news that Trump's education secretary had one of her family's ten yachts set free from its moorings gave me cause for reflection; if you have a $40 million yacht - why do you need another nine? These people seem entirely detached from the spiritual world; zombies almost; living organisms conspiring to secure more wealth - and to what end?

There has to be a moment - a cut-off point - at which a rich person says enough is enough, retreats to a monastery, yeshiva or ashram to meditate on God, consciousness, the unfolding universe and the purpose of human life. I fear however, looking at such people, that maybe there is no spiritual awareness behind those eyes. Their greed distorts our society and holds us back from moving forward along the eternally long road from Zero to One, from barbarism to civilisation, from the bestial to the angelic.

Striking the balance is essential to achieving and maintaining inner peace.

This time last year:
End of August, end of summer?

This time two years ago:
Pavement for Karczunkowska... a bit at least

This time three years ago:
Gold Train update (the hope! the expectations!)

This time four years ago:
Changes to Poland's road traffic laws

This time five years ago:
Poland post the Rubbish Revolution

This time six years ago:
Poland's most beautiful street

This time seven years ago:
Getting to grips with phrasal verbs

This time nine years ago:
What Putin wrote about Molotov-Ribbentrop

This time ten years ago:
Summer Sunday in the city

This time 11 years ago:
Last bike-ride to work of the summer