Not Good or Bad

Wealth exists not in great possessions, but in having few wants.
Epictetus

It is not that the things we tend to desire in our misdirected way when ego is in charge are "bad".  They are neither good or bad.  The problem is our attachment to them as a means of finding the ultimate long term goal we seek. 

Money: not good or bad

There is nothing wrong or bad or evil about money, for example.  It is just paper and metal symbols. There is nothing wrong with wanting or having a big bank account or the material things that account provides. But if our "striving" for it is never ceasing because we feel we will not reach our ultimate goal without a certain amount of it, then that is a problem. 

We may  strive too hard at the expense of appreciating the very moment we are in. We may cling. We may compete.  We may defend and attack for it.  We may ironically  lose sight of what it is we are hoping to gain from the money: peace and joy and get lost in the short term goal instead.   We may then feel constantly dissatisfied and confused.  "Why am I not happy?  I got what I wanted.  I achieved my short term goal.  I guess I just must need a little more of this thing."

We go searching for more. This type of desire then intensifies and multiplies in number.

Hmmm!

Money like most things in this world is a temporary phenomena that comes and goes.  In itself it is not a problem.  The short term goal of it is not a problem.  Our attachment to outcome is.

"I will not be happy, or rest peacefully until I have a six figure bank account." 

Now that is a problem because we end up putting off the happiness and peace that is already in us, searching and striving and waiting for Life to be different than what it is this very moment. We need to be careful not to use our short term goals as fundamental stepping stones toward our future. As long as we try to "skip over" what is to get to something else...we are missing the only  time and space where joy and peace can be experienced...and that is now.

What about the possibility of never reaching that short term goal?  What happens then? What if you never get a six digit account?    You will spend your life focusing on what you don't have, feeling like failure.  Is that anyway to live?

What if it takes you fifty years of striving, working, putting off time with your family , having no fun at all ...is that a successful life? 

And what about the thing you had to do in those fifty years of attempting to meet that goal? How much of you will be in the doing when you are focusing on outcome rather than process?

Lost

If we get lost in our short term goals and fail to see what it is that we really want, we are indeed lost and helplessly dependent on something that can never ultimately make us happy to do so.

Money, like many of the things on our wish list, won't make us  happy and it cannot make us unhappy either if it is taken away or  if we have so much of it we feel overwhelmed by the pressure to hold onto it. 

It is not the money that creates joy or suffering...it is our attachment to it and our seeking something from it that it cannot give us, that keeps us from experiencing true peace and joy.  If we get the money or keep the money...it will not bring us the joy we truly hunger for. Our inability to get the money  or our losing it  is also not responsible for any sense of suffering we may experience. Not because money is a good thing or a bad thing but because it does not have the power to bless us or harm us.

Already are what we are looking for

We have actually already reached this long term goal we seek. Our natural state of being is already peaceful and joyful.  We just do not experience joy and peace  because we are so busy seeking  it in some-thing 'out there' when it is already 'in here'. Our getting lost in short term goals that are pointing in the wrong direction, our  prioritizing the need for physical gratification instead of experiencing the joy and peace of something a whole lot deeper... is the problem.

We already are what we are looking to achieve from money. We are peace and we are joy.

Hmm! I am tired...not making much sense today. lol.   All good .