It is frequently observed that people who excel in business affairs become fixated on that success and on their creations. After the first million dollars is earned, then what – what comes next?
It may be difficult to resist the adulation of people, congratulations and awards from governments, and the fawning admiration of those who desire wealth for its own sake. Such success can foretell a spiritual slip, and a person is vulnerable no matter how far they have travelled.
“What else is left of a greedy man than a handful of ashes? But he who looks upon the world as no more than a blade of grass never comes to grief.”
Yoga Vasiṣṭha IV.32
Grasping and hoarding is antithetical to the nondual state. Their presence draws your attention and signals that work is needed to find the intermediate place.
Use this life as sincerely as you can and waste no energy. Remember everything that will exist does exist. The perception of linear time and ownership of stuff is māyā. To claw at something or fear its loss demonstrates that duality has become dominant.
“If an illusory object vanishes, what is lost, why would one grieve? Nothing can be destroyed. In fact, it is better to feel unhappy at prosperity, for such prosperity may intensify one’s ignorance.”
Yoga Vasiṣṭha IV.45
Remember it was your choice to be here. You have the power to be born. Your views are variable, your mood, beliefs, imagination is adjustable. Māyā is your power, if you can remember that she is. All phenomena lay within you.
Since all your actions occur to yourself and within yourself, we must all behave well. Behave in a manner that creates, empowers, and integrates. By practicing yoga in this way, we can proceed fruitfully in business, the arts, and the evolution of civilisation.
Interact with the pieces that appear in consciousness with an intention of joy and growth. Work with the illusions of time and space, knowing that you may wilfully steer things far more than Western science understands.
Be so bold as to enhance the lives of others through actions in consciousness. The siddhis are real and accessible right now. We are all using them all the time. The power of suggestion and concentration. The power of the word, spoken or otherwise.
When you, as the physical person, send a positive thought suggestion to another it is received as a gift of an idea that the other physical person can do with as they please. They may ignore it or twist and change it to suit their preferences, the thing that always remains is the intrinsic sentiment.
This is an interesting practice in itself – send a suggestion knowing that you will never be known as the source, and that the suggestion is only as valuable as it is positive.
Just as a guru knows when and how to apply pressure or patience to a śiṣya, so too can we interact with our stakeholders. When we apply the metaphysics of mutual benefit, rather than living transactionally, the siddhis can flourish.