I Need Money!

Kodo Sawaki Roshi, better known as Homeless Kodo, was an influential Zen Master. I have written about him in an earlier blog.

Here is another of his teachings:

To you whose life is about money, money, and more money

Human happiness and unhappiness doesn’t only depend on money. If the balance in your savings account were a measure of your happiness, it would be a simple matter. Yet it really isn’t so.

Don’t be so helpless that you start saying you need money to live. In this world you can lead a fine life without savings.
Some think they’re important because they have money. Others think they’re important because they have “satori” [enlightenment]. But no matter how much you puff up your personal sack of flesh, you won’t make yourself into any- thing besides a devil.

That which doesn’t belong to you fills the entire universe. Where personal thoughts come to an end is where the buddhadharma begins.

I remember reading an article in Fortune in 1990 about an investment banker who received a bonus of $12 million. Remember, this was nearly thirty-five years ago. He was so unhappy about this that he whined and sulked and stayed home and made scenes.

Finally, the CEO gave him an extra $3 million.

Today he heads one of the largest private equity funds in the world and is a billionaire many times over. And his messy personal life is tabloid fodder.

A hedge fund manager was a guest speaker at my course when I was teaching at Kellogg and he admonished members not to be too fixated on money. “I have many Forbes 400 clients,” he told my class, “And let me tell you, ‘They are sick, miserable f**ks.’” They just happened to be SMFs who had a lot of money.

I have written about this craving for money in an earlier blog.

Don’t compare yourself to others. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that X has so much money and therefore you can also make as much or more. And that doing so will, in some way, enhance your life. Or your experience of life.

The Indian sage, Ramana Maharshi, taught, “That which is destined to come to you will come to you no matter how much others try to prevent it. That which is not destined to come to you will not come no matter how much you strive to attain it. Know this to be the truth.”

So, does this mean you should not strive for more?

Of course not.

But strive for more only if you feel that this is your path in life and not because you will somehow fill that void in your life when you reach your goal.

I have also written about this in another blog. This is a lesson that bears repeating.

Peace!