A short Arete +1 micro-chapter by Brian Johnson (Dec 30, 2023) summarizing key lessons from Eric Butterworth’s book Spiritual Economics. Johnson reframes wealth as a state of consciousness rather than accumulation, defining prosperity ("to go forward with hope"), affluence ("an abundant flow"), and security (from Latin meaning "without care") and links these to antifragile confidence, mastery, and practical self-mastery.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Arete plus 1 degree micro chapter from Arete. Activate your heroic potential. 451 ideas like this organized around the seven objectives that form the basis of our coach program, basic training, everything we do. Here it is Spiritual Economics your new wealth vocabulary. Eric Butterworth was a Unity minister in New York City. He wrote a great book called Spiritual Economics that helped me integrate my spiritual and material ambitions. I highly recommend it. Check out the notes linked in this +1 as we discuss in Abundance 101. Check out that link as well. The primary theme of his book is the fact that our primary economic goal should not be to try to make a ton of money per se. As Butterworth so beautifully says, the goal should not be to make money or acquire things, but to achieve the consciousness through which the substance will flow forth when and as you need it. How do we do that? Well, we know the ultimate game and how to play it well. We forge antifragile confidence. We optimize our energy, our work and our love. We make today a masterpiece. We master ourselves. We dominate our fundamentals and we activate our superpower. The byproduct of that the consciousness through which this substance will flow forth when and as you need it. Now, Butterworth also helps us redefine a few words in our abundance vocabulary. Let's take a quick look at the true meaning of the words prosperity, affluence and security as we create a new wealth vocabulary. We'll start with the word prosperity. Did you know the word literally means to go forward with hope? Yep. Therefore, prosperity is, and I quote again, not so much a condition in life as it is an attitude toward life. Of course, the good news is that as we go forward, hopefully with a prosperous attitude in all things, we are more likely to be rewarded with all the external and internal fruits of true prosperity. Now, when we think of the word affluence, we tend to think of cars and houses and baubles of all kinds. Butterworth tells us. But he says, know this, its literal meaning is an abundant flow and not things at all. When we are consciously centered in the universal flow, we experience inner direction and the unfoldment of creative activity. Things come too. But prosperity is not just having things. It is the consciousness that attracts things. Then we have the word security. Have you ever caught yourself saying that you'll feel secure when you have X dollars in the bank or have achieved whatever other milest such that you can finally relax and feel okay again? Butterworth encourages us to look at the ancient literal meaning of the word. He tells us the word secure comes from two small Latin words. Suh, meaning without, and cure, meaning care. Being without care, freedom from anxiety. That sounds a lot like true antifragile confidence. You want to feel secure? Do the hard work to create an intense trust in your ability to handle whatever life throws at you. Boom. No need to wait. You're now secure. Prosperity, affluence, security. Let's add those words and their true meanings to your heroic dictionary.
