Money & Marijuana: An Introduction to Green Chi

By Emile “Hong” Westergaard & “DX 21” Dasun

Whether green leaf or green backs / it’s green chi for Green Chi apps / Marijuana Anonymous / never fond of us / because we always relapse / Smoke like smokestacks and make stacks / sure as we’re plundered and the government is funded by tax / Taking stock of stocks / we plot / puffing on pot / strong to the finish / like Popeye / ‘cause we always smoke our spinach / apt with the Green Chi app / our fortunes rise and don’t diminish / So high without a limit / Green chi is energy you smoke or trade and even spend it…

What exactly is “green chi?” Well, chi, which literally means “breath, air or gas,” is the traditional Chinese cultural concept of life force and energy flow, similar to prana in the ancient Indian Hindu philosophy. Green Chi is term coined by 34th generation Shaolin monk Sifu Shi Yan Ming to apply this concept to commerce and the current of currency. According to Sifu, green chi is money as energy.

Green chi is neither good nor bad in itself. But it is powerful and can be means to either good or bad ends. How you get it and what you do with it defines its energy. If you sacrifice your soul in order to get money, then it is hard to see how you will be able to do much good with it. We sacrifice our souls when we spend the vast majority of our lives being at someone else’s beck and call in order to make money. We are sacred beings with a manifest destiny we are meant to find and complete. The moment we answer to someone else we are not pursuing our manifest destiny.

That doesn’t mean we don’t work at all. We can hold regular jobs and generate “good” green chi. We can work for someone else or for a team. If you love your work and who you work for and are treated honorably and respectfully and are appropriately compensated for your work, then you are in a job that would appear to be fulfilling and full of good green chi.

Now, once you have earned some green chi what you do with it is very important. We should consider how we spend it and where. How much do we know about the companies and people to whom we hand over our money?  Do we care about what they do with the money we give them? Do they use it to support causes you disagree with? If you know that will you still buy their products or services? Do you still want to hand your green chi over to them?

On the other hand, maybe you like the product AND the company. You like how they do business, how they treat their employees, how they interact with their communities. In that case maybe you not only want to buy their products but you want to become a part owner. If it is a publicly traded company you can do exactly that by purchasing stock in the company and owning a share of that company. Now you are truly letting your green chi work for you and also representing your values in the world because you have tied your energy, your green chi, with theirs.

Maybe you have all of the green chi you need and you want to give back. How do you decide who gets your green chi? How do you choose a charity? Do you give a lot to one cause or a little bit to many? You are more likely to be powerful with giving if you focus your giving and become an expert in the area you have chosen. That will lead to more good green chi.

If you decide you want to create your own company and invest in yourself, think about your passions. What do you have to bring to the world that you believe the world will want? How do you go about creating that? How do you envision yourself as an entrepreneur? (And by the way we include all artists in all media as entrepreneurs.) How do you run your company? How do you treat your employees? How do you treat the planet? How do you treat your communities? How do you make a profit? These are all questions we must consider if we are seeking to create good green chi. 

Your company can only sustain itself by generating excess green chi; that is what any sustainable business does in the end. But HOW they do that is key, as is what they do or you do with the profits. Do you underpay people or do you inspire them to be effective? Are they transparent with their employees and customers about the business runs? 

While pondering all of the above, the other green chi may come into play as an enabler for good meditation. Sifu Shi Yan Ming did not intend green chi to be a double entendre, but in an age of growing acceptance and use of marijuana medically and recreationally, we cannot ignore the obvious association. Marijuana can be another form of green chi; the plant clearly has energy that impacts the world. Whether it is good or bad, as is the case with money as green chi, similarly we would argue that it depends on how it is being used – to run away from the world or to deepen engagement. 

We are not going to debate whether sitting around and getting stoned is good or bad. But on the other hand, medical marijuana as a non-addictive alternative to opiates to treat pain would appear to be good green chi. Marijuana in general to treat stress and anxiety is natural, safe and often more effective without the devastating side effects of many neurological medications.

The medical uses of marijuana will be gotten into elsewhere, but the data showing broad and powerful benefits of its use continues to hold up, and appears to support use of the whole plant in many cases as opposed to derivatives.

Finally, the question is how do we connect the two green chis? Legalization of marijuana should bring transparency to a huge black market. When we shell out green chi to buy green chi we will know what we are buying and who we are buying from. We like transparency. It is honest and empowers us all to take responsibility for our green chi and REPRESENT! 

Amituofo!

Emile “Hong” Westergaard is a former hedge-fund investor with over 20-years of Wall Street experience, a 35th generation Shaolin Monk, musician and cannabis connoisseur. He has parlayed his experience and spiritual philosophy into an investment literacy tool and platform known as the “Green Chi App” (www.greenchiapp.com).

“DX 21” Dasun is a writer, poet, editor and speaker of the cobo bobo misfit mystic.TWITTER/ IG: @dx21dasun (www.dx21presents.com)