Overcoming the Bias of Materialism In Our Viewpoint About Living a Meaningful and Happy Life

Western civilisation has a distinct bias in favor of what we may call a materialistic viewpoint. Money, possessions, status and power based on monetary power, a drive to own ever newer possessions, and the need to try to increase our enjoyment and satisfaction of life through these factors leads those born into Western civilisation to consider that having a good job, amassing wealth and buying things constitutes the basis of enjoyment.

This viewpoint has infiltrated most of the world by now, so that the predominance of the materialist outlook on life is almost (but not quite) universal. To be sure, to live in the modern world, a certain amount of conce
for material well-being is important. The question that arises, however, is whether this conce
should be all-consuming or whether it needs to be balanced with other viewpoints and other value sets in the way we go about making life choices and allocating our time and attention, and determining what our actual goals can and should be. Should we allow the materialistic viewpoint, for instance, to represent the central purpose of our lives, or is there perhaps another significance for which material stability is helpful, but which nevertheless needs to take a more central role in our life goals, objectives and satisfaction?

Our very way of judging the value of everything is tainted by a reference to its monetary value, rather than being viewed on a scale that is not based in material valuation conce
s. In a world that is quickly experiencing what is known as the 6th planetary die-off, in large part caused by our valuing material wealth above having a clean and healthy environment, and forcing everyone to focus on accumulating and enjoying wealth rather than living a more balanced life in harmony with the rest of the people and other beings on the planet, and keeping the needs of the environment itself in mind, we seem to be creating consequences that are playing out in terms of imbalance in resource access and allocation, the consequent breaking out of wars and mass migrations, deterioration of our natural environment, and increasing impacts of both climate change and pollution on our very health and well-being, our genetic integrity, and the spread of ever more virulent disease vectors. If we destroy the land, the air, the water, and the ability of people to live harmoniously together, are we really better off? That is unfortunately what our current fixation on material wealth is forcing us to grapple with.

If we look to other civlisations of the past, and from other parts of the world, different values have come to the fore that dealt with creating a community of caring and mutually supportive people in some cases, or focused on spiritual growth and development in other cases. Some cultures supported expression of our deepest feelings and sentiments through art or music. Some developed deep philosophical or religious reflections that motivated large numbers of people to focus their lives on issues other than pure material satisfaction.

The question is not an “either/or” decision, but more of a balancing of our need for material stability and well-being with an appreciation of and development of values that go beyond the physical and vital needs and desires to address the higher and larger capabilities that humanity has within its nature and its future development.

The Mother writes: “Throughout this teaching [of the Dhammapada] there is one thing to be noticed; it is this: you are never told that to live well, to think well, is the result of a struggle or of a sacrifice; on the contrary it is a delightful state which cures all suffering. At that time, the time of the Buddha, to live a spiritual life was a joy, a beatitude, the happiest state, which freed you from all the troubles of the world, all the sufferings, all the cares, making you happy, satisfied, contented.”

“It is the materialism of modern times that has turned spiritual effort into a hard struggle and a sacrifice, a painful renunciation of all the so-called joys of life.”

“This insistence on the exclusive reality of the physical world, of physical pleasures, physical joys, physical possessions, is the result of the whole materialistic tendency of human civilisation. It was unthinkable in ancient times. On the contrary, withdrawal, concentration, liberation from all material cares, consecration to the spiritual joy, that was happiness indeed.”

“From this point of view it is quite evident that humanity is far from having progressed; and those who were born into the world in the centres of materialistic civilisation have in their subconscient this horrible notion that only material realities are real and that to be conce
ed with things that are not material represents a wonderful spirit of sacrifice, an almost sublime effort. Not to be preoccupied from dawn to dusk and from dusk to dawn with all the little physical satisfactions, is to bear evidence of a remarkable spirit. One is not aware of it, but the whole of modern civilisation is built on this conception: ‘Ah, what you can touch, you are sure that is true; what you can see, you are sure that is true; what you have eaten, you are sure you have eaten it; but all the rest — pooh! We are not sure whether they are not vain dreams and whether we are not giving up the real for the unreal, the substance for the shadow. After all, what are you going to gain? A few dreams! But when you have some coins in your pocket, you are sure that they are there!’ “

“And that is everywhere, unde
eath everything. Scratch the appearances just a little, it is there, within your consciousness; and from time to time you hear this thing whispering within you, ‘Take care, don’t be taken in.’ Indeed, it is lamentable.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 1, Looking at Life and Circumstances, pp. 14-15