I might be wishing you a happy new year on a number of days in the year: There is the winter solstice, after which the hours of daylight increase in the northern hemisphere; The Gregorian Calendar seems to have become a de facto standard with a new year starting on the 1st of January; Rosh Hashanah, sometime in September, is the Jewish new year, if I’ve understood correctly; The Chinese have a new year of their own and doubtlessly there are many others.
In the UK, a new financial year starts on the 5th of April, so Happy New Financial Year!
Most of us are totally obsessed with money, so let’s celebrate this occasion! We should have fireworks and dancing and wild parties running through the night.
Of course we don’t celebrate. And the reason is that we are rather ashamed of our obsession with money. It seems so superficial. It is so superficial. But if we are obsessed with it, if we are living superficially, we should admit it and make the most of it. In this respect, the financiers in the City of London are more honest than most of us.
Amongst spiritual seekers, money is something of a dirty word. When we break free of the obsession with money, we invariably swing to the opposite extreme. Anything to do with money is seen as evil, loathsome.
Ironically, though, this aversion to all things financial is just as much of an obsession as that of people who are yet greedy for money. We are still obsessed with money but now in a negative way, with the energy of repulsion rather than attraction. We are still living under the spell of money.
To really break free of this emotional entanglement with money, it needs to lose its significance altogether. Then we can relax about it. Money can be felt neutrally, as a useful de facto standard helping social exchange of energy, just as a de facto standard calendar helps us arrange social meetings.
Until we reach such a relaxed attitude to money, though, let’s celebrate: Happy New Financial Year!
