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General Buddhism => General Buddhism => Topic started by: sonamdhargey on December 23, 2012, 10:51:44 AM
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Recently i've encountered some people that are all about money money money. All they want is money and will go through anything to obtain it. The purpose of them obtaining money is obviously for aquisition. material gain. They live in constant fear and always alert and being suspicious that other will cheat them or conned them all their money. They always go get a goof job high paying job and don't waste time volunteering and working for the dharma. They said we should use our precious time to obtain money. It is the only way to happiness. Ironically the root cause of happiness is their garsping for material, greed and desire. No matter how much i try to explain to them that they are suffering from very much, yet they still want to go on and on about it. The more they obtain the more they need to guard it, maintain it and so no and so forth.
Any of you guys encounter these type of situation? Is money evil or the demons is within us? What would you do to help these type of situation?
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To me money is a tool. We can us it for good use or we can use it for bad use. Money can be obtained for personal reasons or can to be obtained to benefit many people. Just like Buddhist centres requires a lot of money to build and maintain and the money use is to retain the dharma and spread the dharma. Some philanthropist use the money for good use like Bill Gates and many others.
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As we know in samsara generally people are in the suffering cause by the 3 poisons. Everything that causes us dissatisfaction, pain or outright suffering stems from one of these three elements’. The three poisons are Greed, Hatred and Delusion.
The money itself is not evil and not the cause for any of our problem. It’s us when one of the poison "greed" triggered our motivation. If we are greedy to have it for more samsaric reasoning we will just continue in the trap and never get out because we set our objective of life is to have more and more money. Ended up we slave our whole life for chasing money and in order to have more we could even engage ourselves in more bad action. The money will never ask us to have them more is our greed gave us a fake promises of happiness.
The antidote of this is to develop generosity and equanimity. Be content with what you have, not yearning after what you don’t have. That is not to say that you become indolent or lazy with no will to progress. Every Buddhists wants to move forward, to grow and gain insight but it is important not to mortgage your present happiness and contentment in the hope that you will achieve better things at some future time. Learn to think more about the needs of others rather than yourself.
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money itself is not evil, but what people do to get it and what people use it for makes it evil. In some societies where money becomes more important than human life, that is where things go very wrong. Money by itself is just another tool for humans to survive and to exchange goods and to get things going, so there is nothing wrong with that. It is the people behind the money that makes it good or evil.
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My ex-boss told me that he does not love money but the power that comes with money. But he used his money in a negative way, forcing suppliers to go against policies and procedures by withholding payments, not keeping to his side of the deal.
Well, karma worked its way and suppliers ended up not wanting his business deals and one creditor took him to court for non-payment.
Money in itself is not evil ... it is the ways how we use it that creates the evil that it is associated with.
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Money is in itself not evil but the obsession with material things can lead to a lot of personal problem,there's no doubt about that.Money makes life easier,but after we die,it doesn't do us much good.It pays the bills,and impresses the greedy,but,it can't buy true happiness.
The Buddha said, "Monks,if you want to be free from suffering,you should contemplate knowing how much is enough.By knowing it,you are in the place of enjoyment and peacefulness.If you know how much is enough,you are contented even when you sleep on the ground.If you don't know it,you are discontented even when you are in heaven.You can feel poor even if you have much wealth. You will be constantly be pulled by the five sense desires and pitied by those who know how much is enough.This is those who know how much is enough.This is called "to know how much is enough".
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To me money is a tool. We can us it for good use or we can use it for bad use. Money can be obtained for personal reasons or can to be obtained to benefit many people. Just like Buddhist centres requires a lot of money to build and maintain and the money use is to retain the dharma and spread the dharma. Some philanthropist use the money for good use like Bill Gates and many others.
Exactly, money is just a tool for us to do good or bad...
Money itself has no evil energy. It is us, the human, with our wrong view and attachment, that use it for "evil" things... so how can we blame 'money', a thing without any fixed and permanent value?
As a matter of fact, with lots of money we can a lots of good things like charity works and spreading dharma to help other sentient beings.
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Money money money....
Money can fullfill a person's need and desire to own something. Money can help someone to own branded items and got the chance to show off in public. However, money also do change someone personalities such as become more greedy, increase inner and outer ego, and etc. it can change a person to a stage "No money no talk". The person may even think money can buy own happiness. That is selfish happiness.
However, There is something that cannot use money to buy is our health and true happiness. Nowadays people work hard to earn more money without taking care of own health. Some people even thought that they find true happiness when they are having money to buy or own something.
But what it's so important for having a healthy life and true happiness. When we are healthy, we can live longer. With this healthy life, we can help others to pass through their difficulties as long as we still alive in his world.. When others' difficulty is resolved and the person being helped feel happy, you will find yourselves are happier compared to last time.
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To me money is a tool. We can us it for good use or we can use it for bad use. Money can be obtained for personal reasons or can to be obtained to benefit many people. Just like Buddhist centres requires a lot of money to build and maintain and the money use is to retain the dharma and spread the dharma. Some philanthropist use the money for good use like Bill Gates and many others.
Exactly, money is just a tool for us to do good or bad...
Money itself has no evil energy. It is us, the human, with our wrong view and attachment, that use it for "evil" things... so how can we blame 'money', a thing without any fixed and permanent value?
As a matter of fact, with lots of money we can a lots of good things like charity works and spreading dharma to help other sentient beings.
Money money money....
Money can fullfill a person's need and desire to own something. Money can help someone to own branded items and got the chance to show off in public. However, money also do change someone personalities such as become more greedy, increase inner and outer ego, and etc. it can change a person to a stage "No money no talk". The person may even think money can buy own happiness. That is selfish happiness.
However, There is something that cannot use money to buy is our health and true happiness. Nowadays people work hard to earn more money without taking care of own health. Some people even thought that they find true happiness when they are having money to buy or own something.
But what it's so important for having a healthy life and true happiness. When we are healthy, we can live longer. With this healthy life, we can help others to pass through their difficulties as long as we still alive in his world.. When others' difficulty is resolved and the person being helped feel happy, you will find yourselves are happier compared to last time.
People like to blame things, putting the responsibilities to others. Money is a non-living thing, people also blame it on their own greediness. If we are greedy and desire to begin with it can be money or non-monetary stuff we grab it all. It happens that money is the common denominator for exchange of goods and luxury goods and you whatever material comforts money can buy, a buyer and a willing seller. Everywhere you can see advertisement encouraging you to buy, it is legal some more.
If money can change someone personalities it is the personality of the person and not the money. Using the money as a tool to exert control on others, it is a power issue. Instead of using weapons or guns, which are illegal in many parts of the world, money is used to control others. By hoarding the money thru whatever means and using the large amount of money to exert control on others.
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Money is not evil. Having more money is also not evil! What is the motivation of us having money and more money? If the motivation is to benefit others, then it is alright to have more money.
Many worldly people do not realize the true meaning of happiness. Instead of developing their inner wealth, they focus solely on developing outer wealth. Furthermore, due to their ignorance, attachment and aversion, they have created a lot of negative karma in relation to money!
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Many people think that they can solve all their problems just by having money. I used to think like that too. But they do not realise that money cannot solve all problems. This is because they do not contemplate and think things through properly. All their lives they chase after money. They think that the objects of their desire can be obtained through money - houses, cars, yachts, airplanes, even islands. When one chase ends, the excitement disappears and new desires arise. Getting the object appears not quite satisfying.
Money is not something for us to accumulate out of desire. It is intended for our welfare, as well as the welfare of others. We must use our wealth wisely to make this world a better place, for example, to reduce the suffering of the poor, the sick and the aged. Fulfill our duties to our community, our country and our religion. When the time comes for us to leave the world, we will have immense peace when we recall the selfless deeds that we have done. We cannot take our property with us when we die. Our friends and relatives cannot follow us. Only our good and bad actions (karma) will follow us beyond the grave.
Thus, for our happiness, we should acquire wealth righteously and use it well. The Buddha said, " Blessed are they who earn their living without harming others." With an abundance of ill-used wealth, it becomes impossible to obtain simple things in life like friendship, trust and confidence. Thus if we want happiness, we must practice the paramita of generosity.
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Well here' an interesting article.......... what do you think???
Money: A Buddhist Perspective
Published on Sunday, 12 September 2010 15:03 | Written by Edward | |
Money. A popular subject. And more so now than ever, when so much of it seems to have mysteriously disappeared. Eddy Canfor-Dumas investigates from a Buddhist angle
In 2008 the world experienced the greatest financial crisis since the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and in this country we’re currently inching out of the worst recession for more than sixty years. We have a record public debt and no one quite knows how paying it off is going to affect their taxes, their jobs or the services on which they might rely, now or in the future. A lot of people are worried. Some are scared. Nearly everyone is concerned, even if the effects haven’t yet reached them.
Most people think about money in a pretty straightforward way: How can I get some? How can I keep it? How should I spend it? And how can I get some more? But I'd like to encourage you to delve deeper. Because I think Buddhism has some very interesting things to say about money, and which touch directly on the current state of the world’s finances.
I’ll start with some comments on the recent crash by Daisaku Ikeda, the president of Soka Gakkai International (SGI), the international Buddhist lay organisation to which I and others involved with This Way Up belong. The comments come from his 2009 Peace Proposal – he publishes one each year on 26 January, and this year was his twenty-eighth. He says:
When looking at the present financial crisis, we have to ask if we as a society have not … fallen prey to the Medusa-like spell of the abstract and anonymous world of currency, losing our essential human capacity to see through to the underlying fact that – however necessary it may be to the functioning of human society – currency is nothing other than an agreement, a kind of virtual reality.
If, for example, a company loses sight of its public aspect of contributing to the larger society, and serves only the private interests of its stockholders – their insistence on short-term profit – it will relegate to secondary or even tertiary importance its concrete connections with the real world of real people, whether these be management, employees, customers or consumers.
…The time has now come for a new way of thinking, for a paradigm shift that will reach to the very foundation of human civilization.
So I hope this article will offer a new way of thinking, based on Buddhist teachings, that could help us make the paradigm shift that Daisaku Ikeda urges in the passage above.
In doing this I’m aware, of course, that religion and money have never made comfortable bedfellows. In fact most people think of them as being diametrically opposed. ‘The love of money is the root of all evil,’ warns Timothy in the Bible, with Matthew adding that, ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God’. The painting on the left of Christ driving the money-lenders from the temple, attributed to the 17th century French painter Le Valentin, is typical of the traditional Christian attitude. ([url]http://www.thiswayupezine.com/images/driving.jpg[/url])
The tension between the spiritual and the material side of life can be seen in Buddhist teachings, too. Shakyamuni, the historical founder of Buddhism, felt he had to renounce his life of luxury as a crown prince if he was to find the answer to what he saw as the four inescapable sufferings of human life: birth (into this world of anguish), ageing, sickness and death. And in many parts of the world, notably the countries of Southeast Asia, his example is still followed today by Buddhist monks. They, too, have largely renounced the material world – by tradition they are allowed to own just three robes, a girdle, an alms-bowl, a razor, a needle and a water strainer; and they live by begging food each day from lay believers.
One reason why people tend to think of religion and money as incompatible is that when they mix the result is so often flagrant corruption. And it seems that the basic pattern is the same for all ages and all religions. From the sale of indulgences by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages to some modern day American TV evangelists, the unscrupulous religious practitioner convinces a gullible congregation that they can gain spiritual or material benefit, in this world or the next, through financial donation. And then he or she uses the money to fund a lavish lifestyle.
Buddhism has not been immune to this corruption. So wealthy did some monasteries grow in Japan between the 10th and 16th centuries, for example, that they formed private militias of armed Buddhist monks – the sohei – to defend their property, attack rival sects and even threaten the government.
In fact, Shakyamuni taught that spiritual decline is inevitable in any successful religion, including Buddhism.
Initially, a religion’s growth is fuelled by the purity of its pioneers, men and women who clearly recognise its benefits and share it enthusiastically with their friends and families. But as the religion gradually becomes established in society, as the congregation grows and the money pours in and magnificent buildings are erected, little by little it loses its original purity of purpose. A priestly class grows up that increasingly becomes more intent on protecting the material wealth it has accumulated than the spiritual well-being of its followers; and so inevitably a divide grows and widens between clergy and laity. Eventually, says Shakyamuni, the religion falls into conflict with itself – ‘reformists’ clash with ‘conservatives’; ‘fundamentalists’ with ‘progressives’; ‘idealists’ with ‘realists’. And the conflict is as much about material style as spiritual doctrine.
I’m sure, as I describe this, some of you will be thinking of the history of the Christian Church; for example, of how the excesses of the Medici pope Leo X helped trigger the Reformation. But an equally decisive split occurred in Buddhism in the centuries that followed Shakyamuni’s death.
Broadly speaking, this split also centred on the relationship of the material to the spiritual. But while the Reformation arose as a reaction to the material corruption of the Catholic Church, the Buddhist Mahayana movement grew from the opposite pole – as a reaction to the extreme spiritual conservatism of monastic Buddhism.
Mahayana Buddhists objected to the view that one could become enlightened only by renouncing ordinary daily life, entering a monastery and devoting oneself entirely to spiritual practice. This was not what the Buddha had intended, they argued – he had preached a path to enlightenment for all, not merely an elite few. And besides, these monks were only able to devote themselves to their spiritual path thanks to the material support of the lay community, who could benefit only indirectly.
Mahayana means ‘Greater Vehicle’ and indicates the desire of this movement to promote a teaching that could carry all people to enlightenment; monastic Buddhism they labelled Hinayana, the ‘Lesser Vehicle’, that could carry only a few to the same goal (though this negative term is now generally avoided, Theravada – ‘school of the elders’ – being preferred).
Not surprisingly, Mahayana Buddhism attempts to reconcile the material and spiritual aspects of life. For example, the Vimalakirti Sutra relates how Shakyamuni hears that one of his lay followers, the wealthy citizen Vimalakirti, has fallen ill, and how he asks ten of his major disciples to visit and encourage him. But each disciple in turn declines, explaining that Vimalakirti has at one time or another bested him in understanding the Buddha’s doctrines. Eventually, one disciple visits the sick man and asks what is wrong with him. ‘Because the beings are ill, the bodhisattva is ill,’ Vimalakirti replies, adding, ‘The sickness of the bodhisattva arises from his great compassion.’ He is demonstrating that the ideal Mahayana bodhisattva makes no distinction between himself and others, and takes on their suffering so that both he and they will be able to attain enlightenment together.
But significantly, Vimalakirti is not only wise and compassionate – he is also filthy, stinking rich! (Interesting how these adjectives have become attached to the word ‘rich’ – evidence of the view, perhaps, that too much wealth is inevitably corrupting.)
Moreover, Vimalakirti is also a lay believer. In other words, Mahayana Buddhism sees no fundamental contradiction between spiritual and material wealth, and a rich man may be equally – even more – enlightened than the Buddha’s closest priest-disciples. No camels and eyes of needles here.
In fact, recent scholarship by the American academic Gregory Schopen entirely debunks the image of the Buddha as a world-renouncing sage. He argues that, as the leader of a community of followers, he was more likely to have been a combination of astute businessman, economist and lawyer – in other words, acutely aware of the ways of the world, but spiritually disciplined enough not to be corrupted by them.
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http://www.thiswayupezine.com/index.php/buddhist/938-editors-picks/926-money-a-buddhist-perspective (http://www.thiswayupezine.com/index.php/buddhist/938-editors-picks/926-money-a-buddhist-perspective)
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If money is evil, why is there Dzambala as a yidam and why is there an emanation of Tara called Norgyurma that bestows wealth and why does Dorje Shugden have an increase emanation of Dorje Shugden as well. Well, wealth is really empty of inherent existence. It is through our habituation and motivation that defines what it is to us.
It could a means to destroy ourselves or it could a means to bring tremendous benefit towards others. A person could be greedy and its all for him/herself or one could be greedy and benefit others by working very hard to develop a spiritual or charitable organisation. So, we can see with both scenarios, its all about money but the end-result is very different.
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Money is a medium of exchange. Without money, many things becomes impossible. Then there will be no production, services and new researches. Yes it is a tool, but it is also an important tool and a very significant discovery by the human kind to live together harmoniously by "exchanging / trading" with money. Money itself is not evil. But the illusion of happiness equals to having lots of money is what makes many do unscrupulous, selfish and many other bad things and wrong decisions which will eventually lead to much suffering.
If one only thinks about making and chasing after money because it allows one to satisfy his/her personal wants, craving and desire, then it will only continue to make one more and more unhappy, because it is going to be a never ending pursuit. This is due to he/she is actually feeding the mind with illusions, always thinking about what is the next thing to get with the money he/she has made or gotten to make him/herself happy. Not realizing that the happiness is very short lived, that once the goal is achieved, then the feeling of happiness will slowly die off and then in order to be "happy" again, one will have to make or find more money to get the next thing that one "think" will make him/herself happy. Constantly feeding the illusion and without knowing becomes a slave for money.
I think, it is by differentiating our needs and wants that makes a difference. Using the money wisely for our needs and to help us go through our everyday life is different than splurging money to satisfy our wants. If we use money for what is needed then the money is a tool put into good use and it won't corrupt our mind and make us focus all of our energy just to find more money and forget to live the moment. One must feel fortunate and contented and not always try to compete with others and buy everything that the advertisements tells us to buy. Instead, when one have extra or make more money, one should think about the less fortunate or how to help those that are really in need. Money put into good use will make one feel at peace and genuinely happy. When we die, we may have a hell lot of money, but how will it help us then? Might as well use it now for some good while we still can.
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The way money works is like a drug. When you get money, you will crave more. Your desire will continually rise and one day, you will snap. Like a twig. From desire, you get jealousy and from jealousy comes hatred. All this comes from ignorance of this happening. So, in reality, money IS the 3 poisons.
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The way money works is like a drug. When you get money, you will crave more. Your desire will continually rise and one day, you will snap. Like a twig. From desire, you get jealousy and from jealousy comes hatred. All this comes from ignorance of this happening. So, in reality, money IS the 3 poisons.
This is from the premise that you have desire, uncontrolled desire. If you don't have that you won't crave money. And if you don't know money can buy material goods and "happiness", you won't crave money. The money is not the cause, it is a condition.
What do you mean by money is the 3 poisons?
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Money is not evil. Having more money is also not evil! What is the motivation of us having money and more money? If the motivation is to benefit others, then it is alright to have more money.
Many worldly people do not realize the true meaning of happiness. Instead of developing their inner wealth, they focus solely on developing outer wealth. Furthermore, due to their ignorance, attachment and aversion, they have created a lot of negative karma in relation to money!
The motivation and reason of acquiring the money is more important. Just collecting money, hoarding it doesn't serve any purposes. It actually create more fear because of losing money you spend so much effort in collecting. Effort is energy spent. Therefore if we spend our energy (effort) on something beginning with good motivation we wouldn't have fear of losing it. If we still have fear then we need to rethink how we are spending our money wisely. It is good sign because we want to maximize what the money can do. Buying things doesn't maximize it. It just increases our enjoyment of our life which has a threshold. When the threshold is reached we won't find much enjoyment even if we increase the money spent. Instead money spend not acquiring things but giving a life to others is more well spend. Giving a life, reducing suffering, bring happiness to others are talking about the same thing -- generosity.
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What if we spent as much of our wealth and energy on living beings as we do on guarding and revering gold bars at Fort Knox, gold bars which do nothing, gold bars which don't hear, don't see, don't smell, don't taste and don't speak, and which provide neither food nor clothing nor shelter nor warmth to a single living being! What if we spent as much of our wealth and energy on living beings and as we do on guarding and revering pieces of paper and coins, as well as numbers in data-bases, which do absolutely nothing, which don't hear, don't see, don't smell, don't taste and don't speak, and which provide neither food nor clothing nor shelter nor warmth to a single living being!
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Money it seems is, as they say, the root of all evil! There are many ways to look at this. Here are some arguments for and against this phrase Money is the root of all evil:
FOR
The greed caused by pursuit of money is damaging.
Yes, because at its most corrupt, the greed for money does motivate an increasing number of human citizen's to stealing, violence and murder. It can make people embezzle, swindle, go to war and even colonise other countries to control their resources. The need to have the most money and so think the most power is a dark force. Money and wealth have been the most explosive divide in history. Revolutions have generally involved the poor fighting for their rights and a share of the money from the minority rich.
The burning desire from corporations and banking institutions to make more money for themselves and shareholders recently brought the world close to the brink of financial collapse.
There is a point where money changes from being a social value that everyone can have and trade to both self and social interests to an obsession, an obsession that many feel they have to go so far as to even take a human life. Not the big bankers, they do it subtly and when confronted will for the most part admit to their doing's. But to the people down the street, to those many people still clinging to a false mentality that without this "money" They lack the power needed to get what is necessary(Food, water, shelter, ect) But some believe they will not eat, they won't know where they will sleep are how they will feed their family's without this same thing. These are not just problems of the "Super Nations", but a global pandemic that is costing the lives of countless people daily. There are alternatives to money, which need to be at least explored and tried. Trillions are spent for purposes of protecting us from ourself's, how much would it cost to get protection from the protector's?
AGAINST
This is a very sad image that has been painted of the human race. Not all people are money grabbing bankers. in fact the majority of people are good-hearted, who are prepared to give away increasingly small small amounts of spare cash to help charities. They are willing to help.
You can't blame corporations and bankers for doing what they are supposed to - and that is make money and turn a profit. In all exchanges someone is selling a service and someone is buying a service. There is no rule that says you cannot make money from the transaction. What we can do though is to change the environment in which banks operate. For example laws stipulating how much profit can be made, how much of profit needs to go back to society. We can take responibility for our own destinies instead of money leading us by the nose.
As we develop technologically, research and development which leads to breakthroughs in all spheres of society cost money. The companies spending that money should surely be entitled to a return on their investment.
Without an incentive, there may be fall off in development.
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Money it seems is, as they say, the root of all evil! There are many ways to look at this. Here are some arguments for and against this phrase Money is the root of all evil:
FOR
The greed caused by pursuit of money is damaging.
Yes, because at its most corrupt, the greed for money does motivate an increasing number of human citizen's to stealing, violence and murder. It can make people embezzle, swindle, go to war and even colonise other countries to control their resources. The need to have the most money and so think the most power is a dark force. Money and wealth have been the most explosive divide in history. Revolutions have generally involved the poor fighting for their rights and a share of the money from the minority rich.
The burning desire from corporations and banking institutions to make more money for themselves and shareholders recently brought the world close to the brink of financial collapse.
There is a point where money changes from being a social value that everyone can have and trade to both self and social interests to an obsession, an obsession that many feel they have to go so far as to even take a human life. Not the big bankers, they do it subtly and when confronted will for the most part admit to their doing's. But to the people down the street, to those many people still clinging to a false mentality that without this "money" They lack the power needed to get what is necessary(Food, water, shelter, ect) But some believe they will not eat, they won't know where they will sleep are how they will feed their family's without this same thing. These are not just problems of the "Super Nations", but a global pandemic that is costing the lives of countless people daily. There are alternatives to money, which need to be at least explored and tried. Trillions are spent for purposes of protecting us from ourself's, how much would it cost to get protection from the protector's?
AGAINST
This is a very sad image that has been painted of the human race. Not all people are money grabbing bankers. in fact the majority of people are good-hearted, who are prepared to give away increasingly small small amounts of spare cash to help charities. They are willing to help.
You can't blame corporations and bankers for doing what they are supposed to - and that is make money and turn a profit. In all exchanges someone is selling a service and someone is buying a service. There is no rule that says you cannot make money from the transaction. What we can do though is to change the environment in which banks operate. For example laws stipulating how much profit can be made, how much of profit needs to go back to society. We can take responibility for our own destinies instead of money leading us by the nose.
As we develop technologically, research and development which leads to breakthroughs in all spheres of society cost money. The companies spending that money should surely be entitled to a return on their investment.
Without an incentive, there may be fall off in development.
I follow that the financial meltdown is caused by offering subprime mortgage. A house loan is easily offered and approved to those high risk group, those with poor credit rating, who doesn't have a house and they can never get a mortgage because the banks would have rejected their housing application. And this subprime mortgage the loan money came not from bank own cash but a pool funded by investment broker packaging as a sound 'investment' product to public and investment house. Due to complicated nature of the 'investment' it didn't breach any law. The bank themselves also became investor as well. Massive amount of borrower defaulted because they cannot pay their loans and it became a meltdown. Who or what is the cause? Perhaps the investor? Who offer this investment product and application approval are easily given. The borrower? Who borrow more than can chew. And the law? It was not written to cater to this scenario.
On money is evil you have good points. Imagine there is no money. There are goods, and resources. People used barter trade to acquire goods. Would people become less obsessed with collecting goods or hoarding resources? If there are strong desires people would continue collecting and hoarding material stuff. It would be in another form or forms instead of money. Desire and greed is the culprit. People have the wrong idea that more is better, more equates happiness, thinking on the line that more of acquisition instead of more of giving and letting go.
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Money isn't evil at all, money has no mind. It is our mind that can be evil. If an evil mind got hold of money, then the money will be used for evil actions such as assassination or human trade. if the mind is of a virtue one, then the money that this good person possess will be used on good virtue actions such as donation to the temples or to the poor. So it is very similar to the case of drug, if it is being misused, money can be deemed as a 'harm' to others but if we analyse closely, it is the mind of the owner of the money that is causing the harm not the money. money is just a tool.
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In my opinion, money is not evil. It is what one does with money that makes it evil. In these days and times, it is very obvious we need money for the most basic of things. Money only becomes evil when it is used for the wrong reasons. Just as Brian mentioned, it is all in the mind of the person spending the money, whether the intention is a good or an evil one. In the case of the person having a lot of money already and still craving for more, their state of mind is no different from someone who has no money.
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The way money works is like a drug. When you get money, you will crave more. Your desire will continually rise and one day, you will snap. Like a twig. From desire, you get jealousy and from jealousy comes hatred. All this comes from ignorance of this happening. So, in reality, money IS the 3 poisons.
If this is the case, then temples and ordained people shouldn't be receiving any money. It's hard to avoid doing any without money involved. To build a temple, to get food, supplies etc for the sangha all requires money. Therefore money is not the problem but rather the reason to get the money makes the world of difference.
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The way money works is like a drug. When you get money, you will crave more. Your desire will continually rise and one day, you will snap. Like a twig. From desire, you get jealousy and from jealousy comes hatred. All this comes from ignorance of this happening. So, in reality, money IS the 3 poisons.
If you consider money as one of the 3 poisons, then I suppose it's considered evil? What if money is capable of making us do good?
Money is an object. The object itself cannot do harm or good. What the object represents which can drive someone to do evil is what makes it evil. Almost any object is capable of making us do evil or good. From a kitchen knife to a computer or even a pillow to suffocate someone. Even drugs were developed and used as medication to help relieve pain and cure sicknesses but misused by people. Money is just an object which are able to give us more reasons to do evil.
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Money pays for education
Money can buy food
Money pays for a roof over our heads
Money pays for medical treatments
Money pays for warm clothing so I can go through winter
Money pays for my travel to see my parents
Money pays for my phone bill so I can comfort my friends
Money pays for roads, public garbage collection, lights in the streets, administration, public transport, police, justice court, etc...
Is there any evil in that?
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In this day and age, money is necessary . We no longer have barter trade and money (in whatever currency ) is necessary to live on and to survive. It provides the food on the table, roof over our heads, education , medical and the list goes on and on....
However, when money is obtained through greed, through harming others, through illegal means, when money is used for self indulgence, for control of other people, for purchasing branded luxury goods , for status, even hoarding , then it becomes a situation that money is the master and the person is the slave to it!
The money becomes the all consuming factor and there are many many people who cannot place a definite amount when they have enough money. I feel these people live in constant fear of loosing their money.
On the hand , there are also many many people , including some very wealthy ones, who happily give, donate, contribute and sponsor towards charitable organisations , be it religious or community services.
These funds benefit millions of people, and a lot of the people (those who had benefitted from these kind contributions ) have on their own, helped other less fortunate people.
It depends on a person's perspective and motivation on how to utilize the money. When we die, we cannot bring a single cent with us BUT we take with us every bit of karma with us - every singular action, speech and thought that we had in our lifetime.
Money is evil if we allow ourselves to be enslaved by it. Giving happily and unconditionally makes one the wealthiest man on earth - the joy that we receive from giving is priceless !!!
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My ex-boss told me that he does not love money but the power that comes with money. But he used his money in a negative way, forcing suppliers to go against policies and procedures by withholding payments, not keeping to his side of the deal.
Well, karma worked its way and suppliers ended up not wanting his business deals and one creditor took him to court for non-payment.
Money in itself is not evil ... it is the ways how we use it that creates the evil that it is associated with.
The wisdom of this comment is profound. Money can be liked for many reasons but for the purposes of bullying, cheating and robbing and many more nasty actions, then the wish to have it is evil.
However to wish to have money and go all out to earn it and with it to do good like contributing to improvement of society then the wish for money is not bad.
Well there is always a thin line between all desires may the motivation be good or bad it will lead to attachments and that in all Dharma texts will say it is not a good thing to habituate.
Life is a paradox.
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For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, in their eagerness to get rich, have wandered away from the faith and caused themselves a lot of pain.
I believe in the process of getting money which involve bad motivation, greediness and attachment; and places money above all - relationship, love and kindness that he/she causes pain to oneself and others. Money is merely money, is by the way how a person getting money and using the money that make money looks "evil", money is "innocent". :'(
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Money is not evil. Something that has no life and no mind cannot be evil. We the human is the one evil. Our motivation and our action will be the determining factor whether we are evil or not.
If we set a good motivation to gain more money to benefit others, then this is something good and not evil. We should not have a lot of attachment towards this worldly assets, we can never bring to the next life and it will not stay with us.
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The way money works is like a drug. When you get money, you will crave more. Your desire will continually rise and one day, you will snap. Like a twig. From desire, you get jealousy and from jealousy comes hatred. All this comes from ignorance of this happening. So, in reality, money IS the 3 poisons.
Is it true? So all people who work and earn salaries are addicted?
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It is kinda sad that they really think that having a big amount of money is true happiness and worse of all, they think doing Dharma is not worth it. Of course it is very important to have a good job in life so that you will be able to support your family and be financially free. But no matter what, doing Dharma work is still more important because our good and bad karma follows us like our shadow and it will never leave us until we gain enlightenment but money/wealth will. All the money we make in this lifetime can only be use during this lifetime, which means we won't be able to bring money to our next lives. They do not understand or don't really care what you say is not because they want to but it is mainly because of their Karma which is preventing them from practicing Dharma. Money is definitely not evil, money is just an object. But it is affecting most people's lives is because of their obsession, greed and attachment. So it is the human nature that is bad, not the money.
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Money in itself is not evil. But our attitude towards money is important. One must not be attached to money. Then it becomes "tanha" which can lead to evil actions. Wealth must be gained through right livelihood, and without deceit. The five harmful livelihoods are: dealing with firearms, living beings, flesh, intoxicants and poison. The Buddha had laid down rules for the lay practitioner regarding the use of his earnings which should be divided into four parts:
"One portion let him spend and taste the fruits,
His business to conduct let him take two.
And portion four let him reserve and hoard.
So there'll be wherewithal in time of need".
The good householder, therefore devotes one quarter of his earnings to meet his personal needs, two quarters for the conduct of his trade, the fourth quarter he reserves to meet emergencies in time of need. He would guard himself from unwholesome activities which may tend to dissipate his hard-earned wealth. In this connection, the Buddha advised the householder to abstain from activities that drains one's wealth. These are: addicting one-self to liquor, frequenting the streets at unseemly hours, haunting fairs, becoming addicted to gambling, associating with evil companions and having the habit of idleness.
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Money is definitely not evil as in any object in the world. It is always the mind and the motivation that is evil, neutral or spiritual. Like a knife for example, money can be used to benefit or to do harm or to just sustain oneself.
Further one should not be attached to money for the sake of what it can bring; and with this kind of thinking it is usually negative things that generate negative karma. Money can be use to benefit the Dharma and practitioners. It is the highest way that money can be use.
I just like to quote the following:
"We can own money, as much as we money as we can, but never let the money own you".
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Money, in principle, is just and asset such as gold or silver, or its paper representation, which is convenient for practical reasons. As such, money is not in itself good or evil, as gold and silver are not good or evil in themselves.
However, most people are not aware that the greatest part (90% or more) of what we call “money” in the West is not the representation of any asset, but rather just fictive numbers created and sold by bankers on the basis of deposits left under the bankers' care by their customers.
In other words, Western private bankers create an illusory, fictive wealth, which they call “money”, on the basis of an actual wealth which does not belong to them (at an approximate rate of 10 units of fictive wealth per unit of actual wealth), and sell to the public such fictive wealth, charging high interests for it.
Besides, countries such as the US enforce the use of the dollar by weaker countries in their international transactions, which allows the US to issue as many trillions of fake dollars, mere pieces of printed paper, as they want, without suffering the effects of inflation themselves, and actually exporting such inflation to their vassal-victim countries. Uncomplying countries are immediately subject to US-led sanctions, containments, reprisals, wars, invasions, terrorist attacks, and so forth. Examples are Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria, Nasser's Egypt, Saddam's Iraq, Allende's Chile, and so forth and so forth.
Through this trick, such Western bankers drain the wealth of the people, and control whole countries such as the US, let alone their vassal countries, through the enforced use dollar, forced loans, volatile interests, and debt. Other names for this is mass deception, lying, and stealing. This also explains why banker-related lobbies such as the AIPAC are the most powerful institutions in US, deciding who is going or not going to be the next president, and what he is allowed or not to do.
The banker Mayer Amschel Rotshild famously said: “Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws!” What most people also ignore is the the US Federal Reserve, which issues and control the money in US, is not a public, federal institution, as its deceptive name suggests, but rather a private institution, run by a small pool of private bankers, often referred to a “banksters”.
Thus understood, what Westerners know as “money” is definitely an evil in itself, because it is the unique tool of a great deception against countless people, and at the very root of wars, individual and mass poverty, terrorism, dictatorships, and almost every single evil of modern society.
Interestingly enough, old Tibet, the feudal theocracy, led by the likes of the evil dalie, was also run by moneylenders, landlords and monasteries, which kept about 95% of the population enslaved by debts. No wonder that such cruel moneylenders, once having been kicked away by Tibetans with the brotherly help of the Chinese, found refuge with Western financiers such as George Soros and the Rockefellers, the respective sponsors of the evil dalie and of the Sakya “royal” family -- both the latter by the way obsessive anti-Shugdenpa witch-hunters.
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Is money EVIL? Not at all. It is what arises in our mind that leads to a virtuous or non-virtuous action. I don’t think evil is a word commonly used in Buddhism as the teaching basically taught that the root to all sufferings are the three poisons : Ignorance, Attachment and Aversion. These unwholesome roots lead us to act in a way that draws us further into suffering. For example, because of having money we experience comfort. With comfort we get attached to the material things that provide us the comfort. Once we are attached to them we wish to have more, to the extent that we grasp on them. That’s when fear arises. At this point, the thought of losing the comfort we see as happiness would scare the shit out of us that we would do anything to sustain the level of comfort experienced if not more. The fear of losing it all and the greed of wanting more are what cause us to be evil. Not the money at all.
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As we know in samsara generally people are in the suffering cause by the 3 poisons. Everything that causes us dissatisfaction, pain or outright suffering stems from one of these three elements’. The three poisons are Greed, Hatred and Delusion.
The money itself is not evil and not the cause for any of our problem. It’s us when one of the poison "greed" triggered our motivation. If we are greedy to have it for more samsaric reasoning we will just continue in the trap and never get out because we set our objective of life is to have more and more money. Ended up we slave our whole life for chasing money and in order to have more we could even engage ourselves in more bad action. The money will never ask us to have them more is our greed gave us a fake promises of happiness.
The antidote of this is to develop generosity and equanimity. Be content with what you have, not yearning after what you don’t have. That is not to say that you become indolent or lazy with no will to progress. Every Buddhists wants to move forward, to grow and gain insight but it is important not to mortgage your present happiness and contentment in the hope that you will achieve better things at some future time. Learn to think more about the needs of others rather than yourself.
I agree with you to a certain extent. Wanting to earn more money depends on the motivation of wanting more money. If it is predominantly for selfish reasons, then it will create more unhappiness for the person. If it is for altruistic reasons, then it will not degenerate the person but enable the person to do more for others with the extra resources.
Money enables us to buy convenience and comfort. What's important is our motivation for pursuing more money and we need to be clear and honest with this question.
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Money is not evil but how we perceive money that make it evil.
Money is a transaction medium for almost everything now in the world. So by right we are the one control the money but unfortunately as our greed getting more and we believe that by having more money is the true happiness of life and end up we are being control by money and become their slave.
The focus on just getting more money has covered the real meaning of life.
If we read up on those successful people how wealthy they are and at the end of their journey actually they regret for just spending their life chasing for money. Look at Bill Gates, Steve Jobs….. read up about them as they give you a very good example how much they spend their liver to be where they are now but they regret and what material wealth they have now is nothing important for them because they realize that when they leave this world nothing that they can bring along.
What important is to realize that what ever material wealth we gain now we can bring it after we die and if we believe in reincarnation then we need to learn what make one take rebirth and how it works and what needed for one to come back as a human.
For us to understand reincarnation we shall believe in karma and be at the good side of the karma is to develop compassion with wisdom through the right conduct. Buddhist teaching is a guide to lead us to the right conduct and true and eternal happiness.
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Money is evil or no evil depends on perception. If money is used for a good cause to benefit, then money becomes a useful tool to have. If money is out to use in order to harm others or make use of others or use it to threaten others, then money becomes evil. It finally depends on the motivation of what "money" is used for.
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There are guidelines for the Buddhist layman on how to earn and use his wealth. The Buddha recognized the fact that the success of a layman depends greatly upon his wealth and finances. He pointed out that it is essential for the householder to increase his wealth and to use his wealth for the welfare of his wife and children, servants, workers and beasts of burden. The Buddha had also stressed that it is the duty of the lay follower to support the sangha and help them meet their temporal needs. In return, they receive spiritual guidance from the sangha. The Buddhist layman must acquire his wealth by right means and for this he follows a righteous form of livelihood, avoiding deceit, treachery, soothsaying, trickery, usury and the five harmful trades such as dealing in arms, living beings, flesh, intoxicants and poison. Whatever trade is pursued by him, is conducted so that it does not harm anyone.
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Money is a piece of printed paper and these days it's just a number on the computer screen. How evil can that be? What harm can a piece a printed paper do to you? What is evil and what destroys us is the perception and the illusion we gave that piece of printed paper. It's our mind, what we create in our mind, the false values we put into material objects that make them evil. Money is not evil, we are, our mind is.
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In my opinion, "Money" isn't evil, it's the particular person and his/her intention on how he/her would intend to use the money for that defines if money is evil or good.
Some people have a lot of money but they choose to spend it on materialistic goods for themselves, on the other end of the scale there are rich people like Bill gates, Mark Zuckerburg and a few others who choose to channel their wealth to those who are poor and in need.
So if we compare these two scenarios, Money can be described as something evil or a tool.
This is why I don't see money as evil because ultimately it is up to oneself to choose how they would spend the money on, whether to spend it on themselves or to help those in need.
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In my opinion, money by itself is not evil. It has no consciousness to plot evil. By itself, it cannot do anything. it is humans who with their expectations and wants put a motive behind it. It is this wanting and grasping that makes pursuit of money so insidious and all encompassing. It is this grasping that makes the need for money evil, so to speak.
Money can be good or bad depending on what and how you use it. So, it is the intention or motive of the wielder that creates the good or evil, not the money per se.
For example, a car is a car and by itself cannot kill. It is the driver whose lack of skill and love of speed that creates the situation where the car can kill.
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I do not believe anything that is without a mind or consciousness has the capacity to be evil. The evil or holiness stems from the relationship a mind has with these objects and matters. This is because, in itself, all these phenomena does not have true meaning. For example, money has changed from from salt to gold to notes and coins. Is salt good or bad? Is gold good or bad? Is notes and coins good or bad? The answer is actually they are neither good nor bad. They are just...that. However, the attachment users of money has towards money is what causes destruction, suffering and the vicious cycle of existence in samsara.
Similarly, relationship, power and beauty are not bad. What is bad is our attachment towards them and out fear of losing them that is detrimental to the peace of our mind. It is this relationship we have with them the prevents our mind from progressing and reaching higher potentials.
This is why dharma focus on the mind and how it views the world. If we can change this view, we are able to change to world.
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I do not believe anything that is without a mind or consciousness has the capacity to be evil.
The mara, or evil, of death is without a mind or consciousness, but is still an evil. Samsara is an evil, but it lacks a mind or consciousness. Ignorance is itself the very lack of consciousness, and is the very root of evil. Therefore, your newly invented argument lacks any Buddhist lineage.
Money, as mere tool of liquidity, is arguably neutral. However, money as it is known in US and its vassal countries, a worthless piece of paper issued by private moneylenders, as of late necessarily Jews such as Greenspan, Bernanke, or Yellen, in order to deceive, exploit, subjugate, and destroy peoples, families, cultures, and countries, is definitely an evil, and arguably the root economic and social evil afflicting our world.
Just like chemical weapons, or atomic bombs, or racist supremacist ideologies such as Judaism, such money lacks mind, but is definitely an evil.
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Money is not evil. It is actually nothing if not for the value that man imputed into it. Money has changed form over the course of time from salt to gold to tin to the current notes and coins. Are any of these forms of money bad? Not really, what makes money evil is our attachment to it. Money can change people to become greedy, violent, unethical etc. because people cannot live without it. People develop this perception because of social conditioning...and again, the source of this is people. Hence, money is not evil. Our relationship with it is what makes it dangerously harmful. Similarly, relationships, beauty, power are all not evil, it is our non-virtouos reaction to it that is bad.
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Money is not evil. It is actually nothing if not for the value that man imputed into it.
Just like any other evil, good, or neutral thing. Which means, your idle argument proves nothing.
Money has changed form over the course of time from salt to gold to tin to the current notes and coins.
But since the current notes and coins, as opposed to salt and gold, neither are nor represent any actual resource, being rather just a perverse tool whose only function is to enslave peoples and countries through unpayable debt, it follows that not only the form of money has changed, but also its function, which is what you miserably fail to understand.
Are any of these forms of money bad?
While resources like salt and gold, or even paper notes and coins based on them, are probably neutral, if not good, insofar as they fulfill human needs, what we call “money” nowadays is a completely different beast, since it just represents a perversely unpayable debt issued by private bankers, notably Jews (under the cover of privately-owned central banks, such as the Fed and the European Central Bank), through which they control, enslave, impoverish, and destroy countries and peoples, thus being the actual force behind tyrannies, wars, invasions, genocides, poverty, famines, and so forth.
The rest of your post is useless, because you fail to distinguish between resources in general (including paper money, coins, or any titles based on them), and debt money, which is what we call “money” nowadays.
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At my point of views ( MONEY ),
Money, knife, water pipe and wooden stick. If we fully use of it in positive ways, that's benefit peoples.
Positive example : Money - if we use it to benefit the poor, if we use to help an animals, if we use just for our living life, if we use the money to help Dharma centers to grow. That's positive.
Positive example : knife - If we use the knife for cutting vegetables. That's positive.
Positive example : water pipe - If we use it for home or to connected it to our house garden, it's benefit humans and plants.
Positive example : wooded sticks - If we use it for furniture's, that's benefit.
Negative example : Money, knife, water pipes and wooden sticks - All of the " stuffs " can harm humans, animals and even natures.
That's my simple thought.
Thank You.
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I do have friends who are like that. They live their whole live looking for more ways to earn more money but sadly when they fail, they feel unhappy and keep on looking for other ways to do it all over again. In the course of doing so, they forsake their family and the meaning of love. All they ever love and care for is just themselves and their so called happiness - money. But they don't realise that money is not everything. Cant blame them entirely as their past imprints and habituations just keep them going deeper into samsara. Not forgetting their karma as well.
I tried ways to give hints and also talk to these friends but they can't seem to grasp the meaning of it as they are too ignorant of other things especially good advise.
Another way is that we 'help' them. We can try introducing Dorje Shugden's practice and tell them that He will help them earn 'more' money. Which at the same time help them to collect merits and also change their thinking - wisdom wise.
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Money $$$
In my opinion, money is just a trading unit. In the past, people used barter system to trade what they wants, for instance, individual would uses 15 units of chickens exchange for 1 units of cow.
Things keep changing when human evolve, we want things to be convenient, simple and fair. Hence, money has replaced the old trading system.
Every object has two sides, positive and negative. It's all depends on our motivations, we can use money to control people and create wars because of greediness. Conversely, we can use money to build and create peace to benefit people with advanced technology.
It's important for us to discover and understand what we want in lives and what is really bringing really happiness.
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Nice to see new people here vajra-NMD and Vajra10. I like the floating "Money $$$" ;D
Yes, I agree that depending on our motivations, things can be used for positive or negative purposes. When it comes to motivation, whether one has money or not is besides the point. If we have bad motivation, for example, to harm, exploit, cheat, control, etc. other sentient beings, then if we have money, it is easier to perform evil actions with the wealth we have. However, if we have good motivation to benefit others, then we can use our wealth in that way, for example, donating to charity and giving back to society.
When does money go from being a positive, to a negative force in our lives? When it becomes an obsession, and if it’s one of the last things we think about before going to sleep and when we wake up, then it is time to stop it from going further. If we become more concerned with money than we are with our relationships, our family, and our health, it is also a matter of concern.
Just like the Christians say “The love of money is the root of all evils”, so money itself is not the problem, it is our love/ obsession or attachment with money that is the problem. The root of evil is human desire, not the instrument (money and others) through which the desires are fulfilled.
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Money can be evil, can be magic, can be romantic, can be holy , can be spiritual and can be dangerous as a killing tool too. Money itself like everything in the universe, it is empty, it has no purpose on it until you put a name and value on it. The value really depends of how our mind work and wanted it to be. For today world, money can make life easier if you are not greedy on money. But who's not greedy? Money to many people is the root of happiness but we all know it's not. That's because our greedy mind will attach to it and believing that money will bring us happiness. Hence one of the vows for sangha is do not deal with money. Hence Buddha wanted his students and monks to beg for food for everything they need in their lives. Many mind training courses in Buddhist centres keep you away from money so that your mind can be more peaceful. If u live a simple life, money is just some basic things u need in your daily life. Money is a deep topic. You will understand more when you take your time to experience your life with mother nature and simplicity. When you know how little money you need actually. Keep an open mind. You will find the true value of money of your own.
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In my opinion, money is just a trading unit.
The point you and others on this thread miss, however, is that that which is most often called “money” is just debt money, or the fake representation of a wealth which does not exist issued by private moneylenders against interest, and serves only and strictly to deceive, disempower, impoverish, and enslave the people in general, while ensuring those clever private moneylenders almost infinite wealth, and power over the rest of humanity.
There is one specific people which prides itself of its adeptness in such enslaving moneylending practices. Their so-called religious scriptures forbid moneylending with interest among themselves, but encourages moneylending with interest to other peoples. They control most countries' central banks and financial system. They believe that all other peoples should accept their “god” and “prophets” and prescribe, and enact, mass death punishment against those uncomplying.
In the Kalachakra Tantra our teacher the Buddha inequivocally included them among the “mlecchas”, or barbarians, hell bent on destroying Buddhism and enslaving humanity.
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*unequivocally
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Money itself is not evil. It is something we use to exchange for the things that we want with another person. Whether it is evil or not, it depends on the person who uses the money.
If the person uses the money to do non-virtuous acts such as drugs, the money becomes evil. If the money is used to help others, bring positive impacts to others, the money becomes a very good tool. Money as an object is actually quite neutral.
Therefore, it is actually ok to love money if we are going to use the money to help other people. It will help us collect merits and eventually become enlightened. However, if the money makes us more indulged in samsara, we will eventually end up in a bad place.
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I don't think money is evil. There is nothing in this world that is inherently evil. Money can become evil when we do not have self-control and attached to it or we use it with a bad motivation. That is when it becomes evil. Everyone needs money in this world to get basic necessities that we need to survive such as shelter, clothing, and food unless you live in a cave, use leaves as clothing and gather fruits for food.
If someone is not attached to money, and he lives a happy life being carefree and not constantly worrying about not enough money, I think in this case the money is not evil because it does not control his life. However, if one is very attached to his money and constantly worries about not getting enough money or losing his money, then the money is evil in his case. Don't forget that there are many people that create alot of negative karma in the process of seeking more money or preserving the money that they own.
Hence, we can see that money itself is not evil. It depends on the motivation and how much the person is attached to money which made it good or evil for that particular person. If we examine closer, anything that we are attached to, whether it is money, car, house, fame, and ego can become bad for us. That is why the real evil here is our attachment.
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Personally, I think money is not evil. Money is just an object, but it is neutral in nature, it is the motivation of the person who wants it and uses it that makes it good or evil. Money is important as our world is operated by money.
We will not be able to do a lot of things without money. We need money to pay for our bills, nothing comes free. Just being alive, we will need money. We need money for food, shelter and all the basic necessity.
Money does not tempt us into committing crimes, it is our greed for money that drives us to do that. Sometimes we use the money to do bad things that harm people. Therefore, money itself is not evil, it is our motivation and how we get and use the money that makes the money evil.
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Personally, I think money is not evil. Money is just an object, but it is neutral in nature,
You confound money with wealth.
Wealth is not evil; if anything it is good, and money may be good as long as it does represent wealth.
However, what we call “money” nowadays is neither wealth nor a representation thereof.
Rather, what we nowadays call “money” is merely a representation of usurary debt. Such “money” is created by bankers (not by countries) out of nothing (and therefore is called “fiat money”) against a *debt* taken by the borrower, be it a private person, a company, or a country.
Notes and coins are just a representation of such fake money. Whole countries and their populations are thus enslaved and impoverished through this inflationary debt-money, created out of thin air by usurers. There is nothing “neutral” in this tool of enslavement and robbery.
Besides, such infinite indebtedness leaves whole countries at the mercy of interest rates dictated by central banks, themselves controlled by international, private usurers, as it happens with the US Federal Reserve (which is a privately-owned organization).
Indeed, artificially manipulated low and high interest rates cause artificial boom and bust cycles, and together with them environmental destruction, general impoverishment, social inequalities, violence, wars, and, of course, the accumulation of the countries' wealth and resources in the hands of the international moneylenders, the famous 1%.
When interest rates are low, inflation and debt increase, devaluating people's savings and ensnaring them and their countries in a debt-trap; when interest rates are high, economy shrinks, and borrowers go bankrupt and are forced to deliver their assets and resources into the hands of the moneylenders. In any case, moneylenders, which are the 1%, always win, and ordinary people, the 99%, invariably lose.
These are the seven years of fat cows followed by the seven years of meagre cows as “prophesised” by Joseph, the Hebrew finance minister of the Pharaoh according to the the Bible. In only fourteen years Egyptians were fully dispossessed of their whole wealth in their own country by the Jewish banker forerunner. This story illustrates the malignity of debt-money as a tool of collective impoverishment and disgrace.
Besides, such fake, evil money is at the root of every single war in our times. Britain, France, the US, and first and foremost the World Jewish Congress, waged war against Germany immediately after and because it nationalized the then private, Jewish-owned Deutsche Bank in 1933. Otherwise such countries would be quite happy with Hitler, as they are nowadays with Neonazi Ukrainians. Also, it is well known that Jews friendly collaborated with Hitler before such nationalization.
Also, every single war or threat of war of our times is waged by US and its vassals such as UK etc., and is nothing but a punishment for non-compliance with the moneylenders' demands. Look at Iraq, Lybia, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba, Russia, and China, and you will see that such countries have something in common, which is such non-compliance.
Tibetan feudal landlords, which used to exploit and enslave 95% of Tibetans before their peaceful liberation with the Chinese broterly help, where adept at usurary moneylending. That's why they so joyfully associate with Western countries, themselves controlled by moneylenders, and that's why China is anathema to them, because the evil activity of such moneylenders is duly and effectively curtailed in China, including Tibet.
Therefore, there's definitely nothing good in such an perverse tool of exploitation, impoverishment, and destruction of both humanity and nature as that which is nowadays called “money”.
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* Tibetan feudal landlords, which used to exploit and enslave 95% of Tibetans before their peaceful liberation with the Chinese broterly help, were adept at usurary moneylending. That's why so joyfully associated with Western countries, themselves controlled by moneylenders, and that's why China is anathema to them, because the evil activity of such moneylenders is duly and effectively curtailed in China, including Tibet.
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I grew up in a situation where money was very very tight and my parents constantly fighting about not having enough money for our family needs. On top of that, my father was obligated to send money to his parents because he was the one who graduated from university and had a "proper job". This is even though he has 6 other working siblings who could help just as well. Even then, money had never been my main concern other than that it pays for the necessity of life. In today's world, money is God. Every advertisement we see are geared towards us having to be rich to enjoy life and that we need to be "in" high flying society to be successful. That is why there are so much mental sufferings in this world as we try to match what society is selling us. Money is neutral and it is only evil or not based on our usage and motivations. So we should be clear in our practice to learn control and not be controlled by greed for money. Hence, the practice of generosity is one of the best remedies for us to gain happiness.