Hi Everybody,
Hope all is well with you. Last week was great for me I have to say, on two counts. One I broke through a bit of a writer's block I've been having with the new book, and managed to write a few thousand words, most of which I was pleased with. And then Jason Jarrett rang from Vancouver to say that his determination this year is to get 12 podcasts out on the buddhist podcast, and the first one was Chapter 1 of...The Case for Buddhism!! It went out last week and the feedback from so many different parts of the world has been amazing. So that is just a great start to the year. It is so encouraging to get messages on facebook from so many different parts of the world, saying basically that the book and the podcasts are helpful and useful and make a difference to their lives. That is huge. How often can we really make a difference to people's lives?
Anyway, we are in the middle of Chapter 11, which is about Buddhism and Money. Not an easy subject, but a really important one I think for all of us, since we're all caught up in this desire to get more of the stuff. We pick it up on page 202.
' As I mentioned earlier, since Buddhism claims to be about our ordinary daily lives, and since money undoubtedly has a very important part to play in those daily lives, Buddhism somehow has to embrace that fact in its teachings. Man may not be able to live by bread alone, as the Christian scriptures tell us, but he certainly has to be able to buy bread pretty regularly. That is to say, man needs money. The fact is that Buddhism has a lot to say tha tis refreshingly direct about wealth and how we might best relate to it. Perhaps the crucial point we need to grasp, mainly because it runs directly counter to a widely held stereotype, is that Nichiren Buddhism is not in any way about not wanting things, or not having things or indeed about giving up lots of things. How could it be, since it is about the reality of daily life, and part of that reality for all of us, is to want things and to have things.
So Nichiren Buddhism is not about diminishing or reducing, or setting arbitrary limits on what we might or might not possess. Not at all. It teaches simply that since we clearly have extensive physical as well as spiritual needs, we have to attend to both if we are to achieve the most meaningful and the most fulfilling and value-creating lives of which we are capable. That it teaches, is the very purpose of our lives, and the key to achieving success in this, as in so many things Buddhism argues, is establishing a keen sense of balance.
Earthly Desires
These physical needs are often described in Buddhism as earthly desires, not earthly in any pejorative or derogatory sense, but simply in the sense that they are needs and wants that relate to the material aspects of our life. And Buddhism clearly accepts them as playing an essential role in our sense of well-being. That is to say, they are not in any way of a lower or marginal order of priority, simply for being material. Wanting things is part of our basic humanity, and has been ever since there have been things to want, from sharp stone hand axes and pretty cowrie shells for our homo sapiens ancestors, to these days, a better paid or more satisfying job and a more comfortable home and a car big enough to take the whole family and the dog, and a bit of spare cash for an enjoyable holiday. Buddhism is ordinary daily life.
So Buddhism makes clear that we shouldn't in any way try to reject, or struggle not to think about these wholly natural wants in our life, or see them as somehow separate from, or in conflict with our spiritual life, because there is no conflict, not at this level of wanting. It doesn't really matter what it is that launches us down the road of establishing goals for our life, both material and spiritual, and then committing ourselves to a Buddhist practice as a way of strengthening our lives and setting out to achieve them. The understanding that lies at the very heart of Buddhism, and proven over countless generations, is that once we set off down this road, it will inevitably draw out the perception that what we are really seeking in life is meaning and purpose, and a sense of self-worth, and the durable sense of well-being that comes from the exercise of altruism and compassion, whether or not we happen to achieve those material goals that we set out with. '
Well that's it for today.
Thanks for reading this far.
Hope it makes sense.
See you next time ,
William
PS
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