Today and every Thursday for the month of February I am going to write about finances, money, and wealth and how it all ties in to and can be thought about in terms of our Buddhist practice. The month of February is Financial Health in the United States, which is what originally gave me the idea.
Several years ago when I worked for Bank of America I would volunteer on Monday evenings teaching financial ‘literacy’ skills at Goodwill. Sometimes the group of students would be folks who were trying to start their lives over due to various setbacks they had suffered. At other times the groups were immigrants who were trying to start new lives in the United States.
The course was 10 weeks long and covered a wide range of subjects all dealing with finances and financial issues. Bank of America provided all the materials, though I was free to teach and structure the class in whatever manner I thought would be most beneficial to the students.
One thing that I found to be almost universal was that most Americans don’t really understand money, and most of those who had come from other countries didn’t understand credit, or not paying cash for something. Just because we practice Buddhism doesn’t guarantee that we will be better equipped to handle finances. We bring the same things that troubled us in life before Buddhism into our Buddhist practice. If we don’t actually apply any effort at making changes though we are likely to struggle with the same issues.
I am not an expert at all things financial and I am certainly not an expert at investment. I won’t be making recommendations about how to invest or structure a savings portfolio, or making long-term financial decisions about retirement. I am not qualified to offer that kind of advice and that isn’t really what I was thinking the purpose of this series would best accomplish. What I have in mind is more about basic concepts in finances, philosophy of money, some of the ways in which we are tricked into focusing on the wrong things when thinking about money, and some strategies about how we might bring Buddhism into that area of our lives.
Today to begin this series I would like to present to you a Money Meditation. I would like for you to consider this not as some cheap trick only to do one time, thinking it is cute and then forgetting about it. I propose that you make it a regular part of your practice, at least for a while. Perhaps since these posts will appear on Thursday you could make it a part of your Thursday practice. As with all things in life and certainly it is the case in Buddhism you will receive the most benefit if you actually make effort and do the practice.
I would like for you to remove from your wallet the highest denomination paper money you have. You might even consider getting ahold of high denomination paper bill and setting it aside just for these meditations. Please do this with the currency of your nation, so in the US it will be a dollar, in Europe it will be the Euro, in the UK it will be the pound, you get the idea.
To start with place along side of it a piece of paper currency that represents the lowest denomination of paper money. Now put both of those in front of you as you begin to practice. You can do this either as a silent meditation or you can begin chanting Odaimoku. As you are meditating, and remember chanting Odaimoku can be a meditation practice, consider these two pieces of paper. Ask yourself some of these questions and really think, ponder, and see if you can begin to feel deeply a response to the questions that perhaps goes beyond the words that come first to your mind. There is no right or wrong here, we are just going to explore your feelings.
Consider what the difference is between the two pieces of paper, what makes one worth more to society, to you, to a child who knows nothing about money, to someone from another country; what is it that has value and worth to you? What makes that piece of paper and an identical piece of paper of a different denomination mean the same thing to you as an accumulation of coins equal in value? Why is the paper worth the same to you and to society?
Now imagine if you will, and meditate on this, what if you lost a scrap of paper down the drain in the street. What would your feelings be? What are your feelings as you consider loosing the smaller denomination paper currency compared to the larger denomination currency? Are you still considering what it is fundamentally, the paper, and the ink?
Now finally look at the currency in detail. What does it look like, what is drawn on it, what are the markings on it, what pictures are on the currency? What does the paper feel like? What does the ink feel like, sometimes the currency is printed using an engraving process and the ink sits above the paper? Are there watermarks in the paper, or any special anti-counterfeit devices embedded in the paper? What color or colors are the inks? What are the differences between denominations? Really look and think about the currency in a non-monetary way.
I know I suggested doing this a minimum of once a week, however if you are able to do this more frequently it will be better and you will have a more significant experience as we expand this Money Meditation in future installments.
If you are able I suggest keeping a journal or diary of your thoughts, feelings, questions, observations. Also try to get into the habit of also including at least one gratitude. If you have any regrets make sure you have an equal number of gratitude items also listed. The number of regrets concerning money should not be greater than the number of thinks for which you are grateful.
Give this a try for the next seven days and we will pick this back up again next Thursday. See you then.
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Now it’s your turn. Please add your thoughts.
