... Chapter 6 ....... Contents ...
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| 5. To you whose life is about money, money and more money. |
The measure of man: you give him a little money and immediately he starts to move.
Man is a simpleton. All that he wants is money, health, a career and pretty girls.
Do you really think it's something special to treat yourself to luxury? I can't understand why the whole world envies the rich.
I always make fun of the rich who act so important with their money. That's why they don't give any of it to me.
In the past, much ado was made about 'auspicious directions'. But today we know that the planet revolves around the sun, and we have satellites orbiting around the Earth. There the directions on the Earth don't play a role any more.
In the end, it's got nothing to do with directions. "In illusion we take the world to be a safe fort, but in awakening we recognize emptiness in all directions. Originally there's neither east nor west, where could there be a north or south?" So we can't ask any more which directions are auspicious and which are not.
But what goes for direction is suddenly different when it comes to rich and poor. There we still cling to the belief that it's better to be rich than poor. Whereby in reality, we can't possibly know which is better. The rich also have their worries. And in any case, you can also live without money. No one has come into this world carrying a piggy bank.
Human happiness and unhappiness doesn't only depend on money. If the balance in your savings account were a measure of your happiness, it would be a simple matter. Yet it really isn't so.
Without money, you've got difficulties. Still, you should know that there are more important things than money.
You constantly think about sex. Still, you should know that there are more important things than sex.
Don't be so helpless that you start saying you need money to live. In this world you can lead a fine life without savings.
Even university professors are only concerned with earning their daily bread.
Nothing is more pitiful than feeding yourself with your position and salary.
"Work, work! When you work, you get money. When you have money, you can take it easy and still have something to eat."
Compared with such simplistic thinking, Marxism is truly sophisticated.
The humans of the world are so childish - and not only because they hang around in pinball arcades. For much higher stakes they play at victory or loss, butchering and being butchered.
It's clear what you like: having sex, wining and dining, and making yourself a career without having to make an effort. Running after what you like and running away from what you don't like is what is meant by 'wandering around in the impermanent world'. Even a rat begins to run if you give him an electric shock.
There are some who believe that they really know 'how to enjoy life', whereby their only pleasure in life is eating well.
The rich are dumb. When you rely on money, you automatically become dumb.
We were taught in school to earn a lot of money. What we unfortunately weren't taught is that money makes you dumb.
The rich are rich because money is important to them - that's why they don't give any of it away!
Some think they're important because they have money. Others think they're important because they have 'satori'. But no matter much how much you puff up your personal sack of flesh, you won't make yourself into anything besides a devil.
That which doesn't belong to you fills the entire universe. Where personal thoughts come to an end is where the buddha-dharma begins.
In the world, it's always about winning or losing, plus or minus. Yet in zazen it's about nothing. It's good for nothing. That's why it is the greatest and most all-inclusive thing there is.
Dôgen says:
The flowers that bejewel the sky of my heart,
I offer them to the buddhas of the three worlds.
... Chapter 6 ....... Contents ...