Brian Johnson is the co-Founder and Philosopher/CEO of social networking phenomenon Zaadz.com, a website which is one of Integral Institute’s esteemed "Integral Friends." A 32-year-old font of idealism-in-action, Brian is a rather extraordinary example of the passion, creativity, and drive of an emerging wave of integrally-oriented twenty- and thirty-somethings worldwide.
Brian beings the conversation by mentioning his passion for "conscious capitalism," and how the Zaadz "plan" as described on the site actually leads with capitalism, and then mentions the spiritual emphasis. He comments, "I deliberately do that… I’m trying to create a compelling ‘yes-and’ story here." In other words, he’s trying to take a more integral perspective and show how capitalism and spirituality can not only coexist, but actually support each other. However, he continues, not everyone is so excited to see these two things come together, and certain camps have been particularly vocal in denouncing his entire approach, following a general "capitalist pig" theme.
As Ken comments, there are several different things going on here. To begin, even more fundamental than how one might feel about capitalism—or any of the economic systems available—is how one feels about money in general. Generally speaking, a strong negative view of money can be attributed to either 1. exclusively ascending types of spirituality or 2. the green altitude of development (types and altitude/levels being two of the five elements in the AQAL Approach, the others being quadrants, lines, and states).
Starting around the 6th century B.C., Ken explains, and emerging from merely this-worldly forms of spirituality (shamanism, paganism, etc), the transcendental or ascending current of the Axial period saw spirit, nirvana, or heaven as entirely divorced from the realm of manifestation. For both Jesus of Nazareth and Gautama Buddha, their "kingdom was not of this world." Therefore, anything to do with sex, power, money—or any of the aspects of human life that could be abused—was inherently sinful, fallen, evil (and it still is for practitioners of ascending spirituality today). The problem here isn’t even the misuse of money; it’s its mere existence.
Then, starting around the 2nd century A.D., with mystics such as Nagarjuna and Shankara, nirvana and samsara, heaven and earth, were realized to be not-two, or nondual. With nondual realization, sex, power, money, etc. are no longer inherently evil (though abuse is always possible); rather, they are, or can be, expressions of enlightened awareness. Similar to the Buddhist concept of "right speech" (or enlightened speech), there is also "right sex," "right power," and "right money"—or, as Ken cleverly puts it, "right bucks." Speech can be a vehicle of ignorance, selfishness, and hatred, but it can also be a vehicle of compassion, wisdom, and liberation. The same principle applies to sex, power, money, and so on. Whether one expands to include these dimensions of one’s own being-in-the-world as part of one’s expression of enlightened awareness is a personal choice, but in terms of up-to-date spiritual doctrine—or what could be called "right view"—it’s clear that the most comprehensive and complete understanding of nondual awareness is intrinsically integral.
The concept of altitude is also useful in understanding extreme discomfort with money. Altitude is a revolutionary new way to understand and measure the developmental growth and complexity of human consciousness, ranging from archaic (infrared) to tribal (magenta/red) to traditional (amber) to modern (orange) to postmodern (green) to integral (turquoise), and beyond. The green altitude is home to postmodernism, pluralism, and extreme egalitarianism, and is extraordinarily sensitive to perceived injustice and marginalization. Since economic inequalities are often the easiest to spot, green often sees money as "the root of all evil," and more-or-less demonizes the entire modern-rational (orange) business world. Brian and Ken go onto discuss how the altitude that created modern business—orange—would never engage in all the unethical practices that give "big business" a bad name. The problem occurs when people at a lower altitude, such as red (tribal/egocentric), gain control of orange business structures, and then act out their preconventional impulses.
In the same way that there is "right bucks," there’s also "right business," and just as business can be inhabited by lower levels of consciousness, it can also support and promote higher levels of consciousness. For a real-time exploration of how right bucks and right business can change how we live and work, you could hardly find better guides than these two pioneers, and we invite you to join in….
(The term "Right Bucks" comes from an essay of the same name that Ken wrote two decades ago, but is still as relevant as ever. Check it out here. To learn more about an Integral Approach to spirituality, see "What is Integral Spirituality?")
