Essentially money is simply a means of exchange. You could think of it in terms of the middle-man between your means of earning and the things you buy. Money is the middle point between your working on a spreadsheet for your boss and the next vacation you take to some exotic location.
Money in your pocket or bank account was once your work, your effort, your employment at whatever company or industry you work for. Eventually that money will become something else such as a car payment, or groceries, or even a night at the movies. In a way you can think of money as that space between what was and what will be.
Money has the potential to change one activity into something completely different. It is a store of value and as such can become many other things and at almost any other time.
Some of the ways we can take money apart and look at it are to examine what are the things we turn money into, and what is our experience of the enterprise we engage in which is turned into money.
When I began this series I offered some exercises for you to consider which can help you answer these basic fundamental questions. What do you do and what is your relationship with the activities you engage in which are converted into money; how do you feel about your job? What is your understanding and feelings about money? Finally, what do you seek from your conversion of money into possessions and experiences, when you spend, or save it? These are the three things that are at the foundation of money in our society, or money in your life.
Some basic fears, which can obscure our relationship with money in our lives, are centered on the value of our jobs, and the value of our purchases. In other words what you feel about the work you do and the purchase you make.
How you feel about your job and the work you do is significant because most of us spend a large chunk of our time doing that very activity. At some other point I’ll spend some time in detail talking about this but basically I think we get confused sometimes about where to place the value of work. It is easy to loose sight of the value of our personal effort and think only of the value of the institution the where the work is done. It is possible and sometimes necessary to separate the two, because in our interconnected world it isn’t always possible to work at the perfect job, which only contributes to the good of society.
In our modern society there are few, if any, jobs which in some way or another would not perfectly fit the standard for Right Livelihood. But the nature of the company does not prevent us from doing good work or contributing value in that work. Nor does it prevent us from doing the best we are able and being a model of our Buddhist beliefs. If we only think of the object (the company) and never examine the subject (our actions on behalf of the company) then there will be a disconnect, and that will lead to feelings of dissatisfaction, and further to unhappiness. Now of course if the work is truly illegal or even harmful to other beings then we should try to change our careers but that isn’t always possible and so we may need to change things from within.
The way you feel about the value you contribute to the enterprise or work you are engaged in will directly impact your belief and relationship with money if you have not done the work of separating the two. I plan on talking more about this in a later blog.
The second fear I mentioned above, the fear of translating money into good enough possessions and experiences is a real concern and one that many people don’t sufficiently explore. The exercise I suggested where you took an inventory of your possessions was an attempt to cause you to consider the nature of your purchases and your expectations when you spend money.
Money does not come with any instructions on either how to get it nor how to spend it. Money is a neutral element, and as such is neither good nor bad. We may have received instruction in economics or even finance but few of us have delved into what our expectations are of money and what it really takes to achieve happiness. It is no wonder we are like blind men seeking to navigate a maze when it comes to translating money into something of a different value. We have transferred our expectation of happiness onto something that really has no ability to meet that expectation.
We will need to gain better skill at learning what is happiness and what produces happiness so we will be better prepared to turn money into those things.
Of course there is a reverse pitfall as well and that is to look only at the price of the painting and to never see the beauty in the art. When we focus solely on the value of something and ignore the experience can also lead to unhappiness and a sense of dissatisfaction. When the house you own becomes more of an investment and less of a home you are in a sense engaging in a transference of values and removing the happiness potential. In a way by focusing on the value of something you are converting that thing into a medium of exchange similar to money.
Work, money, happiness are tricky and complicated subjects. I hope you have taken the time to do some of the suggested exercises and will continue to do them. They can help untangle or reveal your beliefs about money, the values you place on it either realistically or not, and what expectations you have for money. These basic exercises and questions might be very comfortable for you as an extension of your Buddhist practice, yet for many they are uncomfortable to engage in. As a rule of thumb I suggest in all activities calling for reflection be alert to warning signs. Some classic warning signs are thoughts of not needing to do the activity either because you don’t have a problem or you don’t need to or some such excuse. Another warning sign is that it is too painful or too difficult, this just means you may need to go gently but not simply avoid.
Consider again looking at the older posts and engaging in the meditations I proposed.
