Soul Wealth · Spiritual Wealth · Material Wealth (Internal Reference)¶
In life, one should pursue three forms of wealth: soul wealth, spiritual wealth, and material wealth — in that order. All three are indispensable; lacking any one of them makes a perfect life impossible.
— 800 New Era Concepts for Humanity (4th ed.) · Concept 27
I. Definitions and Core Nature¶
1.1 The Three Forms Defined¶
Material wealth is the tangible matter the physical body relies on to survive — represented by money, including currency, gold and silver, jewels, property, vehicles, land, food, household implements, clothing, industries, and so on.
Spiritual wealth encompasses all factors that make consciousness, thinking, thought, and psychology active, healthy, free, joyful, at ease, and happy — such as knowledge (books), skills, experience, family bonds…
Soul wealth is the intangible energy and information that elevates the quality of LIFE and causes LIFE's nonmaterial structure to evolve toward a perfect system — such as the spirit of the Greatest Creator, the operating program of the Tao, divine revelation, the teachings of Buddha, the cultivation of celestial beings, inspiration, and spiritual perception.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Wisdom · The Three Great Fortunes of Life)
1.2 The Core Substance of Each Wealth¶
The substance of spiritual wealth: To have affection and love for people and all things — this is called having spiritual wealth. The broader one's affection, the deeper one's love, the greater one's spiritual wealth.
The substance of soul wealth: Purity of nature (xing) — the capacity to bring hope, joy, happiness, freedom, and bliss to those around you and to the world — this proves abundant soul wealth.
(Tour Guide's Other Articles · 2022 · The Thousand-Year World Bank of Spiritual and Soul Wealth Has Opened)
1.3 The Extended Meaning of Material Wealth¶
A happy life must have soul wealth, spiritual wealth, and material wealth. Soul wealth comes first, spiritual wealth second, and material wealth third.
The old conventional view holds that material wealth means money, houses, vehicles, and property — but this is only a limited part. A greater wealth is the large and small environment in which one lives … Blue skies and white clouds, green mountains and clear waters — no matter how many people share them, so long as I can enjoy them, they are my material wealth.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Heart-Mind · What Counts as Material Wealth)
II. The Fundamental Distinction Between Soul and Spirit¶
2.1 Soul as Consciousness; Spirit as Energy¶
The spirit reflects LIFE's energy characteristics; the soul reflects LIFE's structural characteristics.
The spirit is like a plant's stems, branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit. The soul is like the plant's roots.
When LIFE's spiritual energy is abundant, the plant is lush and full of vitality. When LIFE's soul energy is abundant, the root system is developed and the life force tenacious.
For a person, spiritual wealth primarily refers to affection and love — affection encompasses family love, friendship, romantic love, passionate love, and bonds with all nature. Love encompasses love for the Greatest Creator, for heaven and earth and all nature, for society, for others, for all LIFE, and for truth, goodness, and beauty. Soul wealth primarily refers to xing (nature/essence) — nature is Buddha, nature is angels and bodhisattvas, nature is celestial beings, nature is the Tathāgata. When a person's innate Tathāgata nature can be fully expressed and radiated, it marks that person as possessing abundant soul wealth; when one's innate nature is restrained and unable to fully radiate, it signifies a lack of soul wealth.
Spiritual wealth and soul wealth complement each other, but they are not the same thing. For those who cultivate themselves aspiring to become celestial beings, one must first pursue soul wealth, then spiritual wealth, and finally material wealth.
Solely pursuing soul wealth while neglecting spiritual wealth and material wealth is wrong. Equally, ignoring soul wealth and material wealth while solely pursuing spiritual wealth is wrong. And to ignore soul wealth and spiritual wealth in pursuit of material wealth alone is to compound error upon error.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Questions and Answers · The Distinction Between Spiritual Wealth and Soul Wealth)
2.2 The Consciousness/Energy Distinction Further Elaborated¶
Spirit and soul are two distinct concepts. Their common ground is that both belong to the nonmaterial world and both have nonmaterial attributes. Their difference is that spirit belongs to the realm of energy, while soul belongs to the realm of consciousness.
The spiritual world is an energy world; the soul world is a consciousness world.
Things such as family and friends, love and friendship, knowledge and wisdom, gods and buddhas and sages, heaven and hell, ghosts and spirits — these belong to the spiritual world.
Things such as the Greatest Creator, the Tao, virtue, faith, conviction, thinking, and consciousness — these belong to the soul world.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Essays · The Spiritual World and the Soul World)
Soul belongs to the realm of consciousness; spirit belongs to the realm of energy.
Soul factors: the Greatest Creator, morality, faith, goodness, benevolence-righteousness-propriety-wisdom-fidelity, and so on.
Spiritual factors: love, affection (family love, romantic love, friendship), teachers, knowledge, wisdom, ability, and so on.
A rich soul is like lighting a divine lantern in the heart: the mind becomes clear, one lives with understanding, one can discern what is primary and secondary, urgent and gradual — no longer lost, never in despair.
A rich spirit is like obtaining sufficient energy: full of vigor, high-spirited, energetic, radiant — no longer listless, no longer idle.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Questions and Answers · An Exchange with Dr. Chen Fu on Soul and Spirit)
III. The Mutual Relations of the Three Forms of Wealth¶
3.1 Three Pillars, Three Wholes — Only Then Is Life Complete¶
When a person possesses abundant material wealth, spiritual wealth, and soul wealth, they move through life at ease — at ease in motion and stillness, in holding and releasing, in advancing and retreating — and can fully experience the beauty of life.
A person with abundant material wealth but poor spiritual and soul wealth is like a walking corpse.
A person with abundant spiritual wealth but poor material and soul wealth is like a ghostly apparition.
A person with abundant soul wealth but poor material and spiritual wealth is like a demonic aberration.
Only when material wealth, spiritual wealth, and soul wealth are all three present and complete is life truly perfect.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Essays · The Spiritual World and the Soul World)
3.2 The Supporting and Generative Relationship¶
A LIFE rich in soul wealth will certainly also be rich in spiritual wealth and material wealth. A LIFE rich in spiritual wealth will certainly also be rich in material wealth. Material wealth supports spiritual wealth; spiritual wealth supports soul wealth. Soul wealth will bring spiritual wealth; spiritual wealth will bring material wealth.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Heart-Mind · Let Us Live in the Spiritual and Soul World)
3.3 The Dangers of Neglecting Any One Wealth¶
The three great fortunes are mutually sustaining and indispensable … People who have only material wealth but are poor in spiritual and soul wealth are ill — prone to crime, suicide, and cruelty toward LIFE and nature. People who have only spiritual wealth but are poor in material and soul wealth are ill — prone to becoming deceivers, idlers, petty thieves, parasites who love only eating, drinking, playing and pleasure, or who become ambitious schemers. People who have only soul wealth but are poor in material and spiritual wealth are also ill — such people are prone to entering a demonic state, becoming otherworldly and bizarre, manipulating concepts, neither fully human nor ghostly, full of dark energy, fanatical, and likely to cause havoc in the name of the Greatest Creator or gods and buddhas.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Wisdom · The Three Great Fortunes of Life)
IV. Cultivation: Acquiring the Three Forms of Wealth¶
4.1 The Path to Spiritual and Soul Wealth¶
To obtain abundant spiritual wealth — affection and love — one must first cultivate excellent qualities and develop rich inner substance; otherwise it is difficult to obtain abundant affection and love.
To obtain abundant soul wealth — to fully express one's innate nature — one must have correct faith and firm conviction; must have a deep understanding of life, LIFE, and time-space; must establish correct outlooks on life, value, existence, and the world; otherwise it is difficult to obtain abundant soul wealth.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Questions and Answers · The Distinction Between Spiritual Wealth and Soul Wealth)
4.2 Material Wealth Cannot Save the Soul¶
The conclusion is: material wealth makes a base soul more base, and makes a noble soul more noble — but material wealth itself cannot save a person's soul. What saves a person's soul is soul wealth and spiritual wealth.
Therefore, a person should place the focus of their entire life on the pursuit of soul wealth and spiritual wealth. A slender white swan is still incomparably more graceful and noble than a fat black crow; a fat rooster cannot match even a slender white swan in elegance and nobility.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Heart-Mind · Material Wealth Cannot Save the Soul)
4.3 Soul Wealth and Happiness¶
Happiness has little to do with material wealth; it has somewhat more to do with spiritual wealth — but it has everything to do with soul wealth.
We thus arrive at a conclusion: a happy life belongs only to those whose soul wealth is abundant. People who are poor in soul wealth will never live a happy life; throughout their lives they will struggle and sink in a boundless ocean of sorrow.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Heart-Mind · The Code of Happiness)
V. The Three Forms of Wealth and the Three Worlds¶
5.1 Correspondence Between Wealth and World¶
LIFE has three worlds: the material world, the spiritual world, and the soul world.
The world in which one is busy with food, clothing, shelter, transportation, birth, aging, sickness, death, fame, wealth, and status — that is the material world.
The world in which one diligently works for joy, happiness, freedom, and bliss — that is the spiritual world.
The world in which one selflessly and joyously gives and contributes for delight, supreme bliss, radiance, and auspiciousness — that is the soul world.
The material world is heavy; the spiritual world is light; the soul world is ethereal.
Animals live in the material world; humans live in the spiritual world; celestial beings, buddhas, and angels live in the soul world.
(Xuefeng Corpus · Heart-Mind · Let Us Live in the Spiritual and Soul World)
5.2 The Three Worlds and the Hierarchy of LIFE¶
Broadly speaking: those who live in the material world are people (close to the animal world); those who live in the spiritual world are truly human — genuine people who understand the principles of life — or earthly celestials; those who live in the soul world are celestial immortals, heavenly celestials, and buddhas. The chaotic primordial world beyond that is beyond human reach — it is the domain of gods and the Greatest Creator.
If a person can break free from the material world and live in the spiritual world, that is already a remarkable achievement — one can go to one's grave with a smile. If one can further break free from the spiritual world and live in the soul world, that is the hard-won fruit of centuries of cultivation — not one in a hundred, but one in ten thousand.
(Chanyuan Corpus · Cultivation · Those Who Live in the Spiritual World Show These Outer Signs)
VI. Ultimate Destination: Spiritual and Soul Wealth as Kingdom of Heaven Treasures¶
Spiritual wealth and soul wealth are the treasures of the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who possess the treasures of the Kingdom of Heaven are worthy of enjoying a beautiful life; only those who have stored enough treasures in the Kingdom of Heaven have the qualification to extend their LIFE from the human world into the Kingdom of Heaven.
The upside-down world needs to be turned right-side up again. The curtain on the pursuit of material wealth will slowly fall. Lifechanyuan will guide humanity into the world of spirit and soul, to enjoy the poetic and picturesque beautiful life of the Thousand-Year World in the Kingdom of Heaven.
All who yearn for a beautiful life: follow Lifechanyuan's Guide on the journey, and begin storing your wealth in the Thousand-Year World's Bank of Spiritual and Soul Wealth. There is no better path than this.
(Tour Guide's Other Articles · 2022 · The Thousand-Year World Bank of Spiritual and Soul Wealth Has Opened)