The Spirituality of Money: Contemplation, Consciousness, and Sacred Exchange
Meditation for Money and Trust
We hold money in our pockets,
and sometimes it seems to have a hold on us.
We confess the fear it stirs,
the insecurity it awakens,
the illusions it creates.
Remind us, again, that money does not define us.
Remind us, again, that love is enough.
Why Money Holds So Much Power
I've been thinking about money differently lately. Not the practical stuff—budgets and savings and all that—but what money actually is. How it wormed its way so deep into our sense of self that checking a bank balance can feel like checking our worth as human beings.
Money is unlike any other invention we've created. Fire gave us warmth, language gave us connection. But money? Money gave us a way to turn everything—our time, our creativity, our basic needs—into something that could be measured, compared, traded away.
Here's what gets me: we've somehow agreed that these numbers, these pieces of paper, these digital blips determine whether we deserve shelter, food, healthcare. The paper itself has no power. The digits in an account aren't grain or gold. But we've collectively decided to organize entire societies around the fiction that some people deserve abundance while others do not.
We project onto money our deepest fears—those stories of not enough, never enough that feel so real they live in our bodies. We also project our greatest longings for safety, dignity, the simple right to belong without constantly proving our worth.
This scarcity isn't natural. It's manufactured, programmed, kept in place by systems that profit from our fear, our competition, our endless comparison. Money has become a modern myth, and the meaning we've assigned to it has been weaponized to structure not just economies, but our very sense of what it means to be human.
Eckhart Tolle’s comment during a talk is one of the inspirations for the work of Saintwell; he once said, “money is place where most of us go unconscious”. Pointing toward presence and an invitation to remember what's actually true.
Liberation begins with remembering: scarcity is the lie we've been sold. Enoughness is our birthright. Abundance is already here.
Place a hand on your chest.
Breathe in: There is enough.
Breathe out: I am enough.
Awareness of Money
Notice what happens in your body right now as you think about money.
I've started paying attention to this. There was a time when opening a bill statement would send my shoulders straight toward my ears. Or days when speaking to a friend about salary would cause a tightening in my chest.
Does your breath shorten? Do you feel ease or anxiety? Does tension rise in your chest or jaw? Do you begin calculating, comparing, defending some story about yourself?
There's something about money that bypasses our rational minds and goes straight to the nervous system. This awareness—this noticing without judgment—can become a teacher.
Money and the Unconscious
“Money is where most of us go unconscious”. We default to our programming, our inherited fears, the cultural messages we absorbed before we could even read.
Early imprints run deep. Neuroscientists tell us that our financial behaviors are largely formed by age seven—before we understand economics, we've already absorbed whether money feels safe or scary, whether having it makes you good or wanting it makes you selfish.
Money activates the ego's ancient survival story: If I don't have enough, I won't survive. If I have more, I am more valuable.
This unconscious cycle creates:
Scarcity programming – "There is never enough."
Comparison – "They have more, therefore they are more valuable."
Attachment – "If I lose this, I lose my worth."
But what if we could stay aware and present around money?
Meditation for Money and Trust
Inhale: There is enough.
Exhale: I am enough.
With each breath, money shifts from a source of weight to witness, reminding us of sufficiency and trust.
I've been practicing this during everyday money moments—before making purchases, while paying bills, when uncertainty about the future creeps in. It's simple, but it interrupts the unconscious patterns. It brings me back to what's actually true.
Ancient Wisdom: What the Bible Teaches About Money
The world's wisdom traditions have been wrestling with money for millennia. The Bible mentions money more than almost any other practical topic—not because money is evil, but because it reveals so much about the human heart.
"The love of money is the root of all of evil." (1 Timothy 6:10)
"You cannot serve both God and money." (Matthew 6:24)
"Give us this day our daily bread." (Matthew 6:11)
"Give me neither poverty nor riches." (Proverbs 30:8–9)
"They held all things in common." (Acts 2:44–45)
There's something radical in that Lord's Prayer line: "Give us this day our daily bread." Not monthly bread, not yearly bread—daily. It's an invitation to trust in enough for today, to not anxiously stockpile for tomorrow. The ancient Israelites learned this with manna in the desert—they couldn't hoard it, because what they needed would be provided fresh each day.
Liturgical Echo: Not in gold, not in grain, not in digits on a screen—our worth rests in the Divine within us and around us.
Money as Flow
I've started thinking of money as energy. It wants to move, to circulate, to nourish life where it goes.
When we cling too tightly, flow stops—and stagnant energy eventually becomes a source of dis-ease.
When we spend without presence, we drain ourselves and others, missing the opportunity for our resources to nurture what truly matters.
When we give and receive with awareness, money becomes a prayer, a sacred exchange that honors both our needs and our connections to others.
Sacred Practices for Everyday Exchange
Here are some contemplative practices I've been experimenting with:
Stillness before spending. Ask: Am I acting from fear or from love? From scarcity or abundance? Does this purchase align with who I want to be?
Turn bills into gratitude. While paying the electric bill, whisper thanks for light. While paying rent, acknowledge the gift of shelter. It transforms obligation into recognition.
Reflect on your money story. What's your first memory of money? How did your family talk about it? What inherited patterns are you ready to question or release?
Redefine wealth. Write down what makes you feel truly abundant—friendship, beauty, health, time in nature, meaningful work. Notice how much of real wealth can't be bought.
Create space by giving. Give something away regularly—not from guilt or obligation, but from abundance. Even when your bank account feels small, giving reminds you there's always enough to share. Notice the lightness it brings.
The Collective Dimension of Money Consciousness
Our relationship with money is never just personal. Each choice, each transaction sends ripples into the wider world.
Unconscious money binds us to systems of harm—companies that exploit workers, industries that damage the earth, practices that widen the wealth gap. It numbs our compassion and normalizes what diminishes life.
But conscious money can become a liberating prayer for justice. We can choose what heals over what harms, align our spending with our values, remember those the dominant culture forgets—the underserved, the marginalized, the earth itself.
I've been asking myself: Where does my money flow? Does it nourish? Does it bind or bless? The answers aren't always comfortable, but they're always instructive.
The prophets remind us still: wealth was never meant to be purely personal. It belongs to the whole, woven into the fabric of collective well-being. When some have too much while others have too little, the entire community suffers.
Money as Teacher
Ultimately, money is one of our most persistent spiritual teachers.
It shows us where fear still lives in our bodies. It reveals where trust is trying to be born. It invites us to awaken to abundance as presence, not just as numbers in an account.
What has money been teaching you lately? Where is it revealing attachment that's ready to be loosened? Where is it inviting you to trust something larger than your own ability to accumulate and control?
When I remember to see it this way, money becomes lighter—like breath, like love in motion. Still practical, still important, but no longer the weight that determines our worth.
Closing Meditation for Money and Abundance
May your money be a mirror—not of fear, but of trust.
May each payment become a prayer, each gift a blessing, each exchange a thread of love woven into the fabric of the world.
And may you know, deep within: there is enough. You are enough.