As someone with OCD it took me a while to come to the realization that it is the struggle itself that matters, this is how we grow closer to God, not the specific personal goals but the struggle to grow itself. Take for example your scenario about having to work for a boss and having that get in the way of feast days. Some people will have the opporunity to not have a boss and be able to attend any feast day. Some people, due to various circumstances will not be able to achieve such success and will have to go through greater pains to make feast days work. They may have to use up vacation days or risk their jobs to attend church. The former person is perhaps able to offer more physically, but the latter person had to actually made more sacrifices just to attend church. Would one situation be considered more blessed by God than the other? Think about the rich man who tithed versus the poor woman who gave the one penny she owned. The man gave out of his extra abundance whereas the woman gave all she had. Who's donation was bigger?

For sure and I get what you are saying, and agree with 90%. The question still remains, what is wrong with early retirement or setting as a goal, financial freedom? Joseph of Arimathea was wealthy. So was the good Samaritan. Jesus was the beneficiary of wealthy women. Abraham owned much cattle. I think we must divorce the concept of wealth from ethics. The two are not connected. Wealth just amplifies who you already are. I still think financial independence should be encouraged.

Again there's nothing necessarily wrong with being blessed financially. There's also nothing wrong with setting goals as long as they take into account God's will. It's not a difference between having goals or not having goals, its the difference between "This is the goal" vs "This is the goal, God willing" It's important to remember that scripture doesn't say money is the root of all evil but that LOVE of money is the root of all evil. What we are arguing for is not a demonization of money but a reminder to prioritize it correctly, and a simple reminder that it can easily lead us astray if we aren't careful. You mentioned divorcing wealth from ethics. We aren't saying that wealth negatively affects one's ethics in all cases, just that it easily can. So if you want to speak of it in those terms, we would say one should consider wealth's possible effect on one's ethics. That is to say, however much money someone has, it's their inner disposition towards it that makes the difference, and that inner disposition needs to put God's will above all. It could come to pass that I earn a lot more money and can help fund good things, it could also come to pass that I deal with an injury tomorrow that puts me out of work and on food stamps. Either way my main priority is growing closer to God. Lord knows I need that more than anything. Whatever number is in my bank account in the mean time is whatever God wills, I just pray I do the right thing with it. That's lightyears more important than what the number itself is. So again, it's not that plans and goals and money are bad, we just need to be open to what God wills for us. That will could involve more prosperity, or it could involve allowing some hardship to occur, be it with wealth or health etc, in order to test us and push us in our faith. Everyone has their own path. The only reason you see a lot of emphasis on the dangers of wealth is just because, again, it CAN be dangerous if we aren't vigilant. I'm sure I don't need to give any example of that because you see that everywhere nowadays lol. Anyway hopefully that made sense. God bless you

As an example, I am an engineer and would like to make more money. I would like to have my own business and be able to get my kids out of the corporate rat race. I have short term goals set for this year in order to grow towards that goal. Nothing wrong with that, but I just always have to put God's will above all so that I don't accidentally find myself planning for God or becoming distracted from my one main mission which is the salvation of my family. One of the ways in which I do that is by just focusing on the current goal. I lead the micro but God leads me on a macro level, if that makes sense

I ran out of space bro! Am posting the second part tonight. Sorry

Yes if people want to do it let's do it! I loved that vid you made that's why I posted it. I did some Wim Hof breathing then listened to it :D

He's not picking what is and isn't sin, he's simply stating that spiritual growth is internal and not tied to your bank account, and that money can very easily become a distraction or stumbling block. That isn't a demonization or villianization of money. I'm an Orthodox Christian and I make well over 6 figures. Fr Moses isnt demonizing people like me, he's reminding us that excess money can be dangerous if we don't handle it in a Godly way. I don't own any of my things. Theyre all God's. I am just a steward over them in this life.

Isn't it God's perspective though?

+ @15:15 does he, as priest no less, really fail to see that THAT statement applies to anything and everything, not only money? If a person becomes obsessed with anything, other areas of his/her life may "suffer".

I like that . Thank you

yes. and what is wrong with serving the self? Imagine if the objective was to serve others. Imagine if the goodness of life were a red ball. If no one was self serving, anyone who received the red ball would have to pass it to someone else. But that other person could not be self serving, so he would have to pass it to someone else. Heck yeah, I am self serving. Any spiritual practice which says we have to "dissolve the ego" is imbecilic, prima facie. For if I had no ego, why would I want to dissolve my ego? The only reason I would want to dissolve my ego is, because I believe that I (EGO) would be better off without an ego. Think about that for a second. That's totally dumb. I am in it for me. Now it just so happens that knowing that only I exist in reality, makes me feel pretty good.

@@TheRealJavierNovoa Sure sure. All I'm saying is that perhaps certain people are incarnated to live in a certain type of poverty because it's advantageous to their ultimate spiritual development. I don't think this is controversial. If having a boatload of cash is gonna re-enforce and amplify existing bad habits, perhaps it's better you don't have a boatload of cash until you deal with that shit.

@@KevinAndrewMan agreed. We are all right from a certain vantage point. I just choose to see it as having choice, in this moment.

@@KevinAndrewMan You have some insightful commentary but please remember this is all dependent on some pretty speculative metaphysics. No one really knows why we're here. Personally I think God doesn't even know. He just created reality as an experiment and ended up creating a number of realities which are probably hell-like and others which are paradisical. And we just happen to be born on planet #17342 which exists somewhere on the continuum. It doesn't matter what all the ascended masters or meditation gurus think. We need to wait until we're face to face with the God-entity and ask these questions directly, if such an entity even thinks to begin with. Like the problem with your perspective is simply that, while yes some people do learn "life lessons" this way, its also an incredibly brutal way to do it and so the plan makes no sense from this perspective either. Many people experience horrendous levels of suffering that leave them completely debilitated, physically and mentally. What exactly did they "learn"?. The torture of the medieval ages comes to mind. I won't even describe the horrific inventions from back then but if you're curious you can play Amnesia: The Dark Descent. My hands were shaking from fear so badly while playing that game that I couldn't press the buttons on my keyboard anymore lol

@@radscorpion8 I've played amnesia, it's a classic. The same company released a game called The Bunker, well worth playing. I get your point on gratuitous suffering, I'm not trying to justify pointless misery. Devices like "the pear" come to mind with medieval torture. Don't know how that would be positive in any dimensional effect. Although some of those in positions of power creating wars and human trafficking rings don't exactly illicit my sympathy to oppose that sort of torment upon them.

That's your assumption. So that is the game you are playing! If you enjoy that game, continue! We have a dog AND a cat, and they are beautifully behaved. That's my reality.

Certainly. I never say to "ignore reality around you". In fact, all of these modalities that we talk about are based upon empirical knowledge. In fact, my epistemology is radical empiricism. Now in this particular video, as a methodology, I recommend that we become completely present and go "within", in order to more effectively enjoy results. This is all based upon sound and valid science. It is also common sense. If you are tense, thinking that you have to do it all, and trying to bring about all results on your own, you are more likely than not to screw things up. You are more likely than not to have tunnel vision and not be able to see other options which are around you. Are you not familiar with the recticular activation system? There is always some thing to focus on. And, while I love Ayn Rand, her dictum that "existence exists" breeds ambiguity, as is pointed out by some philosophers. When she says existence, does she mean the contents of "existence", or the quality of existing? Again I love Ayn Rand, I love objectivism. I believe that her criticism of Kant is simplistic and foolhardy. And I think that there can be a perfect synthesis between her philosophy and imaginism with some tweaking of course. In fact I would love to do a show on this. Would you like to come on a podcast and discuss these issues, on where you think our philosophies differ and where I think we can reconcile seeming contradictions between what I am sayign and Ayn Rand's principles? I think it would be an interesting show!

@@TheRealJavierNovoa Thanks for the response, I don’t do stuff like that, but there are tons of objectivists online that would, like Yaron Brook. I’ve never had a problem understanding the concept of existence ever since I understood the law of identity, but I bet you could formulate your thoughts on it to someone who actually studies it.

Thanks so much!