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Overcoming the Bias of Materialism in Our Viewpoint About Living a Meaningful and Happy Life · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Western civilization has a distinct bias in favour of what
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  we may call a materialistic viewpoint.
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  Money, possessions, status and power based on monetary power, a
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  drive to own ever newer possessions, and the need to try
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  to increase our enjoyment and satisfaction of life through
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  these factors leads those born into Western civilization to
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  consider that having a good job, amassing wealth and buying
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  things constitutes the basis of enjoyment.
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  This viewpoint has infiltrated most of the world by now, so
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  that the predominance of the materialist outlook on life is
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  almost, but not quite universal. To be sure, to live in the
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  modern world, a certain amount of concern for material
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  well-being is important. The question that arises,
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  however, is whether this concern should be all consuming or
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  whether it needs to be balanced with other viewpoints and other
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  value sets in the way we go about making life choices and
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  allocating our time and attention and determining what
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  our actual goals can and should be.
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  Should we allow the materialistic viewpoint, for
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  instance, to represent the central purpose of our lives?
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  Or is there perhaps another significance for which material
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  stability is helpful, but which nevertheless needs to take a
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  more central role in our life goals, objectives, and
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  satisfaction? Our very way of judging the
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  value of everything is tainted by a reference to its monetary
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  value rather than being viewed on a scale that is not based in
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  material valuation. Concerns in a world that is
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  quickly experiencing what is known as the 6th planetary die
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  off in large part caused by our valuing material wealth above
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  having a clean and healthy environment and forcing everyone
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  to focus on accumulating and enjoying wealth rather than
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  living a more balanced life in harmony with the rest of the
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  people and other beings on the planet and keeping the needs of
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  the environment itself in mind. We seem to be creating
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  consequences that are playing out in terms of imbalance in
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  resource access and allocation, the consequent breaking out of
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  wars and mass migrations, deterioration of our natural
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  environment, and increasing impacts of both climate change
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  and pollution on our very health and well-being, our genetic
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  integrity, and the spread of ever more virulent disease
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  vectors. If we destroy the land, the air,
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  the water, and the ability of people to live harmoniously
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  together, are we really better off?
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  That is, unfortunately, what our current fixation on material
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  wealth is forcing us to grapple with.
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  If we look to other civilizations of the past and
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  from other parts of the world, different values have come to
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  the fore that dealt with creating a community of caring
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  and mutually supportive people in some cases, or focused on
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  spiritual growth and development in other cases.
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  Some cultures supported expression of our deepest
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  feelings and sentiments through art or music.
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  Some developed deep philosophical or religious
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  reflections that motivated large numbers of people to focus their
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  lives on issues other than pure material satisfaction.
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  The question is not an either or decision, but more of a
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  balancing of our need for material stability and
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  well-being with an appreciation of and development of values
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  that go beyond the physical and vital needs and desires to
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  address the higher and larger capabilities that humanity has
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  within its nature and its future development.
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  The Mother writes. Quote Throughout this teaching
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  of the Dhammapada, there is one thing to be noticed.
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  It is this. You are never told that to live
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  well, to think well is the result of a struggle or of a
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  sacrifice. On the contrary, it is a
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  delightful state which cures all suffering.
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  At that time, the time of the Buddha, to live a spiritual life
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  was a joy, a beatitude, the happiest state which freed you
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  from all the troubles of the world, all the sufferings, all
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  the cares, making you happy, satisfied, contented.
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  It is the materialism of modern times that has turned spiritual
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  effort into a hard struggle and a sacrifice, a painful
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  renunciation of all the so-called joys of life.
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  This insistence on the exclusive reality of the physical world,
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  of physical pleasures, physical joys, physical possessions, is
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  the result of the whole materialistic tendency of human
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  civilization. It was unthinkable in ancient
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  times. On the contrary, withdrawal,
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  concentration, liberation from all material cares, consecration
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  to the spiritual joy that was happiness.
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  Indeed, from this point of view it is quite evident that
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  humanity is far from having progressed, and those who were
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  born into the world in the centers of materialistic
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  civilization have in their subconscient this horrible
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  notion that only material realities are real, and that to
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  be concerned with things that are not material represents a
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  wonderful spirit of sacrifice and almost sublime effort.
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  Not to be preoccupied from dawn to dusk and from dusk to dawn,
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  with all the little physical satisfactions, is to bear
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  evidence of a remarkable spirit. One is not aware of it, but the
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  whole of modern civilization is built on this conception.
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  Ah, what you can touch, you are sure that is true.
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  What you can see, you are sure that is true.
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  What you have eaten, you are sure you have eaten it.
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  But all the rest, Pooh, we are not sure whether they are not
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  vain dreams, and we are whether we are not giving up the real
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  for the unreal, the substance for the shadow.
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  After all, what are you going to gain?
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  A few dreams? But when you have some coins in
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  your pocket, you are sure that they are there, and that is
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  everywhere, underneath everything.
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  Scratch the appearance is just a little.
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  It is there within your consciousness and from time to
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  time you hear this thing whispering within you.
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  Take care, don't be taken in. Indeed it is lamentable.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Ro Bindu and the
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  Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 1, Looking at Life and
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  Circumstances, pages 14 to 15.