Comments on: Have Your Spirit Call My Spirit & We’ll Do Lunch

By: Connie Lewis

Connie Lewis — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:02:10 +0000

Thank you David, I agree. In the current paradigm we operate on a commercial basis. We need to support our teachers so that they may continue to share their messages. It can be as simple as an appreciation in words, a gift of time or even coin of the realm.
It’s clunky to say that we only value what we pay for.
Don’t you think the current concepts of money and time are ridiculous? They hold far too much power for constructs of the human mind.

By: David Burson

David Burson — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:25:31 +0000

If we don’t pay you how would you be able to sustain yourselves to help the rest of us? To me the real challenge would be that some can afford to pay for the help and some can not. Of course the poor are just as deserving, but it doesn’t mean they are more deserving than someone who can afford to pay for help. Exchange for services in the form of money is certainly justified, but it does make me wonder about those who don’t have the money in the first place.

By: Alexander McDonell

Alexander McDonell — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:47:24 +0000

I am also grappling with this issue. Currently this is where I am with it:
It is important for a spiritual workshop to have a spiritual way of dealing with cost. One simple way that is attractive to a lot of people is to not ask for money. Another way that the buddhists tend to do is to only accept donations. I believe that it is possible to find a spiritually deep way of working that is closer to the common way of running a business and therefore easier to operate in our society.
There is a sense of exchange that people have – when one person receives something they feel they want to give something in return – this operates well beyond formal commerce. It is the same if someone does the dishes too often then it feels unfair, but if they know that others are doing other work, then maybe they feel ok about it etc.
So if i apply this sense of exchange and fairness to money then there is an intuitive sense of what the right amount to charge for something is. If I ask exactly the right amount then everyone feels comfortable and love and harmony are possible.
The bit that gets me lost and confused is marketing myself. It seems that we are supposed to go out and blow our own trumpets, and there is something that feels really bad about that. One answer is to have someone else do it, or do it for someone else – one market, and the other provide the goods, but as i have failed to find a business manager, I am looking for a way of advertising that doesn’t feel like i am arrogantly claiming to be the greatest.
Alexander

By: Geoff Laughton

Geoff Laughton — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 06:12:27 +0000

Thanks for both reading and commenting Selene. I appreciate your perspective, and agree with it 100%.

By: Selene Vega

Selene Vega — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:25:24 +0000

Geoff, really appreciated this piece! This is a topic I’ve pondered over the years, and more pertinent to me than ever, as I move more towards coaching and counseling (and away from more clinical psychotherapy). My general tendency is to just want to give and connect without money coming into the equation at all – but that does not acknowledge the realities of the world we live in. One way to think about paying for spiritual teaching or coaching is that you are not paying for the spiritual teaching, you are paying for the teacher/coach’s time – time that they are spending with you (and preparing what they have to offer) rather than out at a job that would pay for their home and food and whatever else they need.