The following reflection originally appeared in the newsletter I sent out on September 2nd, 2024.
Feel free to read just the bold words and skip the rest.
Introduction
If a financial advisor wrote about wise money, perhaps they would discuss basic financial literacy, retirement accounts, budgeting, investing, risk tolerance, financial planning, or how to make bundles of money, among other things.
Most of that stuff would probably be useful and wise to learn — maybe I would even read the article!
However, as I am not a financial advisor, today I wish to discuss money, wealth, and finances from a Buddhist perspective; that is, a tradition ultimately focused on inner freedom, as opposed to the freedom to do whatever you want that’s championed in modern society.
More succinctly, I’ll explore how to have a clear sense of purpose, integrity, and contentment in how one spends, acquires, and relates to money.
Even though the Buddha’s 2,600-years-ago economic world was very distinct from ours, his teachings feel timelessly relevant. Let us dive in!
Purpose Part I
At the deepest level, what motivates all our actions, whether conscious or not, is the desire to be well and not suffer.
Our society says the way to do this is to accumulate riches, either using it for abstract ends like power, status, and fame, or more concrete ends like pleasure, trips, nicer things, and material goods.
However, people can get rich, have all of that, and still be miserable. And other people can be very poor, with none of that, and be quite happy and fulfilled. I’ve met folks in both categories.
In other words, money as a way to true & deep well-being is questionable at best.
Of course, many studies as well as the practical experience of anyone who has ever struggled to make ends meet, all reveal that having enough money to meet our basic needs, like food, shelter, medicine, and clothing, is actually quite important. And yet, Buddhist monks & nuns traditionally live without money, but they are also embedded in a system of generosity where other people provide those requisites for them.
This is to say that while it’s important to have a baseline of financial resources, we quickly see that money is just a tool to help us achieve… what exactly?
Relating to Money
Before we go further, it’s helpful to explore our underlying views and feelings towards money.
When you think about your bank account, financial planning, budgeting, capitalist society, spending money, what’s required of you to earn a “good wage,” the financial ramifications of vacation or putting your kids through school, what comes up for you?
Are there initial feelings of anxiety, excitement, desire, sadness, aversion, anger, or anything else? Just notice that. Not good, not bad. Just notice the feelings that are part of the money constellation.
When we notice the feelings actually present, we have the chance to touch into a deeper wisdom and act from that place, rather than our conditioned reaction — mindfulness can hold quite a lot.
And then, on a deeper level than feelings, we hold various subconscious views and beliefs.
A common view in spiritual circles is that money is bad or evil. However, in many discourses, the Buddha affirmed the role and value of having wealth.
In one text he lists five reasons to get rich, and in another, he lists four types of happiness, two of which involve having and using wealth. The citations could go on and on, but in basically all of them, he affirms the worldly purpose money serves, while also emphasizing that a significantly deeper happiness comes from what you do with your money, as well as the depth of integrity with which you earn and spend it.
To put it simply, for the Buddha, wealth is simply a tool — neutral in tone, but similar to a hammer, can be used to create suffering or well-being.
Whether we see it or not, it’s also hard not to be influenced by the cultural bombardment of more is better — that more money, more comfort, more pleasure, more luxury, more security, and on and on, means more well-being. It’s really powerful to see where this view impacts you — maybe in terms of how much you work, what types of jobs you choose, or the various things you spend your money on, ranging from trips to possessions.
On top of this, we are all impacted greatly by our upbringing. How did we see money modeled by our parents and communities? Personally, my parents instilled in me a strong sense of differentiating needs from wants. A friend of mine witnessed his parents go into great debt because they lived beyond their means. Both these childhood experiences have greatly impacted our relationships with money throughout our lives. You undoubtedly have many of your own.
Finally, it’s interesting to observe how much money-related thoughts flow through your mind, or how much earning/spending money occupies your time. It’s not that there is anything wrong with one way or another, but if you look closely, does how much energy you give to it match the amount of value you attribute to it?
Again, the more we can see our conditioned relationship to money, the more we have a chance to release unhelpful reactions and cultivate a wiser more thoughtful relationship with it.
Purpose Part II
In the article I linked above on Buddhist reasons to get rich, most of them have to do with generosity, supporting others, and spiritual undertakings — uses of money that provide well-being much deeper than comfort, pleasure, and luxury.
I spent two years as a Buddhist monk in Myanmar, which is one of the poorest countries in the world, yet typically ranks among the most generous. As it’s a Buddhist country, I saw how the core Buddhist value of generosity weaved through the fabric of society and contributed to cultural well-being and interconnection. It was very moving.
In any case, while the Buddha emphasizes the wholesome things we can do with money, like giving, the simplest takeaway here is that money is just a means to an end. The question for each of us then becomes what exactly is that end?
Personally, my purpose or “end” is to provide basic needs & comfort for myself and my family, have a retirement / disaster fund, deepen my social connections, pursue my hobbies, and, most importantly, to use my money to further my spiritual practice and bring goodness into the world through ethical consumption and donations.
If you had to put the purpose of your money into one sentence, what would it be?
It’s also fascinating to look at the areas where we spend money that falls outside of our self-stated purpose. For me, when I see those incongruencies, rather than beat myself up, I just observe that with curiosity.
Maybe those things, like art or simple pleasures, are to some degree actually part of my purpose — and that’s fine. Or maybe time goes on and the extraneous things drop off, or maybe my purpose shifts altogether — and that’s fine too.
The path of wisdom is about clear seeing. The more deeply we see what actually is, then we tend to naturally move towards congruence.
Integrity
In terms of earning money, the Buddha instructed people to be like a bee gathering honey, not harming the flower in the process of collecting nectar.
In this way, the Buddha talks about integrity not so much in relation to our personal values, but rather to a more universal set of values anchored around non-harming.
In more plain speak, Bhikkhu Bodhi sums up the Buddha’s position like this, “One should acquire [wealth] only by legal means, not illegally; one should acquire it peacefully, without coercion or violence; one should acquire it honestly, not by trickery or deceit; and one should acquire it in ways which do not entail harm and suffering for others.”
Part of this might include deeply contemplating the type of work we are involved with. I often get questions from people who say, “I work for X corporation, and they don’t seem evil per se, but they are contributing to the capitalist machine that I think is harmful.” My response is usually that the fact that you are asking the question is huge! Trust your inner compass. The Buddha gives a short list of harmful things like dealing in weapons, poisons, trading or killing living beings, and some others.
However, my sense is that if the harm isn’t overt, like in the capitalist machine example, and the company is generally on the honest/ethical side, what becomes more important is the degree of integrity you hold in your particular role.
At the end of the day, it’s hard to opt out of capitalism — we still need to support ourselves, and it’s possible to be in the system without anger, resentment, and angst.
Two personal stories:
In my mid-20s, I co-ran a small business selling used electronics. It was hard to work this job and be financially viable while also being fully transparent and honest. Ultimately, this integrity challenge was a big part of what led me to quit that job.
Years later, after I returned from a 4-year spiritual journey, I wanted to teach the dhamma as a way of supporting myself, yet it was initially a struggle. In spite of all my monk training, I ended up feeling quite a bit of anxiety, as I wasn’t able to cover my meager living expenses, and even floated myself for a while on a 0% APR credit card. Eventually, I came to see the harm this was causing me. I took in the Buddha’s basic advice to live within one’s means, got a part-time job for a company that was wholesome enough, and focused on my attitude and how I could cultivate a deeper integrity in that role — what a blessing that job was in my life for those years!
Touching on the above link more directly, there is a curious form of non-integrity of spending more than one has — if that’s the case, maybe one needs to see the financial advisor, meet one’s “purpose” in a simpler way, or like I did when I was already living meagerly, find a way to make enough money to survive.
It’s also fairly obvious that in a consumer society, we primarily vote with our dollars — what products, companies, or institutions are we supporting with our money? It may cost a little more to choose the apple or t-shirt that’s produced like a bee gathers nectar, but perhaps the reduced harm is worth it, especially if our deepest well-being doesn’t come from maximizing possessions anyway.
Of course, when you’re living check-to-check and struggling to make ends meet, being a conscious consumer can easily become an impossible task. And even if you aren’t struggling, it can sometimes feel like a part-time job just to make sure things are sourced ethically. My working principle is to try my best with the resources I have, and go easy on myself. Compassion isn’t just for other people!
To summarize all this, are there ways in your earning/spending money that you are creating harm for yourself or others — aka, that are out-of-integrity? Maybe it’s in the attitude you bring to your work. Maybe it’s the type of work you do. Maybe it’s the products you buy. Maybe it has to do with honesty, kindness, or other virtues.
Again, the purpose of these reflections isn’t to provoke guilt or self-criticism, but to prompt self-learning that leads to deeper integrity and wise living.
Contentment
One of my favorite quotes from the Buddha is where he described wise people as being “contented and easily satisfied, unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.”
Relaying that quote to this essay and our consumption-driven society, it’s indescribably important to have a clear sense of “what is enough?”
One of my hobbies is backpacking/camping, and I can see in myself the occasional desire for nicer gear. The thoughts go, “sure, this backpack is pretty good, but it’s old and has some rips; maybe it’s time for a new one,” or, “this rain jacket works, but I could use a lighter, more versatile rain jacket,” and on and on.
Maybe sometimes it’s appropriate to upgrade, like when my rain jacket stops preventing rain or when the backpack has thoroughly fallen apart, but the voice of our society says more, better, bigger, newer, fancier — without limits!
For you, maybe it’s not backpacking, but rather your vehicle, wardrobe, cuisine, smartphone, or the size of your retirement account.
On the deepest level, our happiness comes not from getting more, but from our ability to be at peace right now, whether we have much or have little — the Buddha literally calls “contentment the greatest wealth.”
In turn, when you notice the voice in your head saying to buy, upgrade, spend, or get more of this or that, ask yourself, “what is enough? At what point will I be satisfied?” Maybe you see you already have enough, or just as good, you see the point at which you can stop, which cuts right through the cultural delusion of never enough.
As a note, please understand I am not saying we all need to be renunciate monks and nuns. It’s fine to have stuff, go on trips, and enjoy ourselves, but the goal of this reflection is to mediate that drive with a sense of purpose, integrity, and what is enough.
As one concrete practice, I generally don’t allow myself to impulse buy anything over 10 bucks or so, instead only purchasing things if they’ve been on my mind for a while. Even if there is some non-contentment in the end purchase, maybe the lesson I need comes through just getting the thing & learning from the experience— assuming of course it’s done with integrity!
Conclusion
So much more could be said about money and wealth.
However, on the simplest level, it’s helpful to deeply consider our relationship with money, clearing out the baggage so we can have a clean, sober relationship with it.
As we do this, we have the opportunity to see money as a powerful but limited tool, which we can use in wise and skillful ways to help lessen suffering and increase well-being in ourselves and others.
And when money has hit the limits of its effectiveness, we can put it aside and embrace the deeper spiritual teachings on how peace is always available right now — regardless of our financial situation.
*** I somehow didn’t fit in my favorite Buddhist discourse on money, where the Buddha re-defines true wealth ***
—————
If you would like to get a monthly’ish email with reflections like this one, along with some event updates, sign up here for the newsletter.