Materialism; by Adell Shay ( Archived) (2)

1. The theory that physical matter is the only reality and that everything, including thought, feeling, mind, and will, can be explained in terms of matter and physical phenomena.
2. The theory or attitude that physical well-being and worldly possessions constitute the greatest good and highest value in life.
3. A great or excessive regard for worldly concerns.
-- The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language Fourth Edition


THE FIRST IN A THREE-PART SERIES

Whenever I heard or thought of the term “materialism,” I confused it with consumption, or perhaps more accurately, rampant, self-centered consumption.

It’s a common misunderstanding reinforced by postures taken by individuals, companies, and interest groups about how continuing or increasing our consumption practically and, to a lesser extent, spiritually will effect us.

Corporations urge us to buy; collectives urge us to buy responsibly… and so on – each promises its stance will secure the greatest good.

But that is not what of materialism means.

Minimally, materialism means being anchored – having one’s center of stability and security, one’s core – in the material world as perceived by material senses. Maximally, it means acknowledging nothing but itself. Certainly, consumption is a part of that, but only a small part.

So, if the material world is one perceived by material senses, it must include:

What can be be physically seen:

Every single thing: the earth, sky, money and the things it buys, animals, concrete, plants, the written word (including this column), the human brain, scientific analysis, you, me, them.


What can be be physically heard:

Noise – honking cars; music, leaf blowers, the spoken word, including idle chatter, intimate conversations and the loud banter of our own thoughts.


What can be physically perceived by the body/felt:

A cut, a kiss, a slap, the wind, coursing blood, an earthquake, a beating drum, dying.


What can be smelled:

Simmering soup, toxic waste, freshly mowed grass, a loved one’s scent


What can be thought:

Words and mental pictures and the concepts to which they’re attached and the memory which provides us with looping storytelling.

Most importantly, from thought comes the personal sense of “I.” That personal sense “I,” which leads to the thought “I am separate from” which leads to the thought “I am incomplete which leads to a frantic search for inner fulfillment from an outer world.

From that fear-based search comes the concept of “us,” which is invariably (whether conscious or not) nothing other than juxtaposing unity for the purposes of joining forces against “them” to secure what’s missing.


I made a decision a long time ago to abandon as much of my dependence on the material world as I could for as much of spirit as I understood — only after realizing I felt utterly broken and had used up my lifetime allotment of glue.

I had never scrutinized my interpretation of what materialism meant, or I may have reconsidered. Nonetheless, a commitment made with my whole heart and soul deepened into knowing that nothing in the material world I was stepping away from pulled me more than the spiritual realm I had entered.

Given that realization combined with a new definition of materialism, I was overwhelmed and confused. Materialism included everything I considered real. How could I possibly stop relying on a world other than that confirmed using synthetic tools? How would I function, interact, work, live? It went against everything I had ever been taught and conditioned to believe.



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