Seeking Wealth

Seeking Wealth

In seeking happiness one must ,
not by day-dream but by wayfaring.

One must then
inspire --> aspire --> perspire
to work for it, else it will becomes a Dream

e.g.
You are inspired by someone to work on a project,
and you have great wishes and determination to achieve it,
but no effort is put in to perform that task.

Contentment of Wealth
We must always aware that there are other sources and choice
of gaining happiness besides seeking wealth.

"give up a smaller happiness for the greater one"

Definition of Wealth
Now how would you define WEALTH ?

"wealth to the foolish can become a trap to him
wealth to the wise is a way to free himself "

Here a foolish man, given plenty of wealth spend it lavishly on worldly pleasure such as drinking, gambling, shows etc. while a wise man make use of the wealth he has to multiply his merits and wholesome deeds that will help in his spiritual progress, such as giving to the needy, the holy and building temple, school or home for the needy, etc.

Type of Wealth

1. Worldly ( mundane )
- tangible ( physical - money, properties, shelters, etc. ) or
- intangible ( fame & honour recognition, power, beauty, health )

2. Non-worldly ( spiritual )
- virtue, wisdom, confidence, generosity, truthful

What is the Greatest Gain / Wealth ?

The misconception of gaining wealth in Buddhism :
Buddhist should not strive for wealth ?

"those in youth, while they are energetic,
if they do not strive for wealth,
when they are old the will be in trouble"
~ dhammapada ~

Answer to Anathapindika :
"Is there a householder happiness ?"

There are 4 source of happiness :
1. Atthi Sukha : happiness derive from ownership ( inherit / earning it )
A sufficient Income accumulated in the righteous way, without indulging in any forbidden trades or profession.
2. Bhoga Sukha : happiness come from spending wealth wisely
Ability to enjoy the wealth by spending it in profitable ways such as looking after his parents, wife and children and doing meritorious deeds.
3. Anana Sukha : happiness derive from debtlessness
Freedom from debts will allow one to have a peace and consolation in one mind.
4. Anavajja Sukha : happiness derive from harmless life
Without doing harm, danger, damage or causing misery to any of his fellow beings means he does not need to repent as he recollect his wrongful actions in his later time.

Where did happiness come in Wealth ?
How does it manifest ?

Two type of persons who will never be happy.
- Ang Nik book II

1. he who only keep / safe
- he who always worry about losing it.

2. he who only spend
- he whose attitude is “get the pleasure first and pay for it later and not work for it and get the pleasure later”
e.g. the OD, credit card concept provide the supporting condition.

Obtaining Wealth ( Acquire )

Three type of people
- Ang Nik book III

A Blind Man
He who has two eyes but cannot see.
He has no eye to see the opportunity to gain wealth. Though he does not have wealth, He doesn’t know how look for it . He does not have skill to gain wealth.
Even if he has wealth, he does not know how to maintain and increase it.
He has no eye to differentiate between spiritual and mundane, good / bad, proper/ improper, wholesome/ unwholesome, skillful/unskillful, fine/not fine

One-Eye-Man
He knows the way to gain, maintain and increase his wealth but
he does not has the eye to differentiate between good and bad, proper/ improper, wholesome/ unwholesome, skillful/ unskillful, fine/ not fine.
He is a person who does not have moral values / principles.

Two-Eye-Man
He is very resourceful in both.

Which among them is the Most Dangerous ?
When you walk alone at night, which one are you most afraid of ?

The story of Mr. Rockerfellow
The multi-billionaire who works his life is seeking wealth until
one day his doctor advise him, if he choose wealth, he has 3 months to live,
and if he choose life, it will depend....

This shocking news change the way he live. He begin to give ......
the Rockerfellow Cancer Research, Library, ....
and from the happiness gain from it, he lives longer than 3 years.

The 5 Dangers

The most important things that we must be aware is the characteristics of wealth. It is subjected to these 5 dangers.

Fire burns wealth - house on fire
Water washed away wealth - flood
Thief can steal your wealth - house robbery
Authority / the King sometime forfeit your wealth - confiscation of land
The son ( family / relatives ) who flatter - over spend for non-benefit things

One must be aware / recognize / accept
the nature of wealth, that they are subjected to changes ( anicca )

Therefore when the sun set and it gets dark, one should not get upset about it.
The art of living is to take it together with the torn of the roses.
Remember if it decline or disappear -- it is not the greatest loss of life

"if you lose your wealth, you lose nothing,
if you lose your health, you lose something,
if you lose your character, you lose everything."

The Manner / Way of gaining Wealth

I. Work that is LAWFUL ..

that does not ...

harm / deprive / taking life
taking what is not been given
acquire through sensual indulgence
e.g. sexual breach, pornography, prostitution, brothel
entail lots of falsehood
e.g. forgery, dishonest, cheating, under value, imitation,
involve intoxicant e.g. dealing with drug

Remember : There are beings beside us when we are seeking wealth.

In the Wrong Livelihood ...
One is not encourage to trade things that are deal with

flesh -- slavery, brothel, kidnap
meat -- killing of livestock
weapons -- that encourage war / killing
poison -- that help one to murder / kill others beings such as animals
intoxicant -- drug, liquor >> that bring damage to life.

II. Work that is LAWFULLY GAIN

shop that sell food stuff that are half grades
office staff that did not give their best in their work
e.g. the wages pay for job that is "under work", chit-chat during overtime
selfish gain
palmistry -- providing others with pseudo truth
criminal breach of trust => which generate sorrow to others

Ask Your Own conscious with Right Thought and Right Understand,
Put yourself in their shoe -- would you be happy if you are the victim.

The 3 Qualities / Guidance / Criteria of acquiring wealth

1. Energetic
- hard work & smartwork,
- not a sitting manager who does work purely through others
- the Manner of seeking wealth - non speculation or taken risk in his work
- doing the least and gain the most ( it is neither evil nor is it wholesome )

2. Doing with your Own Hand
- not exploitation, deceive, step on others to climb up
- or when other are least careful, you step in and gain ( taking advantage )
- manipulation of stock market at the loss of others
- YOU NEED TO EARN IT

( happiness = work for it and not just having it --> put effort in seeking it. )

3. Apply Effort
- be industrious , not day dream but by wayfaring
- nothing to be shy / shame / inferior if one work in a dirty and urgly place as far as it is an honest & honorable job ; that is you did not break the fundamental principles of killing, stealing, lying, etc.

SOMETIMEs : We should not live depend on others - we should not let others decide how we feel. We should react and not response to them - we must have our principle to work and not , not knowing what we want in life.

Happiness is a triumph over our principles. Everybody try to help others and sometime they forget to help themselves

"be a soldier of Wisdom to fight against the Darkness of Ignorance
with the sword of Truth." - Buddha

Spending Wealth

Sigalovada Sutta - The Four (4) ways of managing one's wealth

1. spend on Necessities
- on yourselves, family and people around you eg. food, clothing, household things, education, family, charity, entertainment, etc.

2. & 3. spend on Investment
- put it back into our business , not necessary return
eg. taxes, loan repayment, children education, insurance
eg. to upkeep/improve oneself in skill

4. for Saving
- for the uncertainty in life, for the rainy day - not only for yourselve but also for your dependent
eg. sickness, recession, unemployment, property devaluation, accident

The whole purpose of seeking wealth .... is to spend it.
How much we need to spend for food, clothes, medicine, shelter etc. etc.?

The Manner of spending wealth

1. spend on yourselves
- include parents, children, wife, relatives, friends, guest, neighbor, companions

2. to secure your wealth
- knowing the 5 danger that can dissipate wealth, one can use a portion of one's wealth to protect the other portion of the wealth
e.g. insurance, fencing, alarm system

3. spend on others
- authority ( taxes ), contribution ( charity ) to the needy, stranger, comrade, workers - to the devas, Petas
e.g. printing of dhamma book in memory / honor of the past relatives.

" LIFE is full of OBLIGATION "

4. spiritual group
- to contribute / support back to the source where we gain our guide of life in which we gain well being and happiness
- people who strive for spiritual purity

"you can’t take happiness away without giving back it to
the fountain of happiness where you take so much from life"
-- Stevenson

GIVE as your HEART WISHES -

you have little, give little ;
you have much, give much more ;
you have a lot, give a little more.

MOST important is the HEART that GIVE
SPEND within your means / limit and in the moral manner

Remember the 3rd Happiness is a life without debts
and the 4th Happiness is knowing that one has done much good in life and avoid evil in life.

If you happen to lose all your wealth one day,
you should not be upset, for the purpose of wealth and
the whole purpose of getting rich is
TO SPEND it,
in the manner that will give you and others
HAPPINESS
within the moral framework and
You know you’ve put them into good use.

Forbidden Spending

Sigalovada Sutta - One should not spend in an unmoral,
not benefit to one and his dependent and the society as a whole.

1. Indulgence in Intoxicants such as drinking, drug ....

"the man take a drink, the drink take a drink, the drink take a man"

Instead of begging "a little bit also cannot ?"
One should ask oneself "a little bit also cannot give-up ?"

2. Excessive show - frequenting theatrical shows
3. Night activities - loitering around at unseemly hours
4. Gambling - which causes heedlessness. Including stock market
5. Bad companion - association with evil companions such as gambler, glutton, drunkard, swindler, cheater, bandit etc.

Answers

One can define wealth as what one gain or the possession he/she has ,...
( Back to the Question )

Contentment, health, confidence is the greatest gain in life - dhammapada
( Back to the Question )

The happiness manifested from wealth come about thru ......
The process on how we to go about acquiring wealth
and the manner on how we spending it.
( Back to the Question )

The One-eye-man. Because he only know how to get wealth and he does not has the moral aspect of gaining it. He can robe, kill or anything as far as his objectives are achieved.
( Back to the Question )