How should we view money, and financial security,
from a spiritual perspective?
From a spiritual perspective,
money is not the goal,
not the goal of the practice.
The goal of the practice is, from a spiritual perspective,
to calm your mind, to make it calm and peaceful.
Open your mind. Make it clear. Be kind. Care about others.
To be a good person, with a good heart —
that is the goal.
Maybe, in mundane life, making money is good.
"I have to make more money!" "Time is money!
Everything is about money. Money, money, money.
But, actually, money and wealth - material wealth -
do not bring you happiness.
One time, I was watching a kind of documentary.
It was not really a documentary — more like an interview.
The media was interviewing one of the richest people in the world,
or something like that.
There was this one guy, you know.
And they asked him,
"Do you believe that money makes you happy?"
And he said, "No.
"Money and wealth don't make me happy.
"But…" How to say?
"Money and wealth makes my life easy and convenient.
"But having ease and convenience
"don't necessary make you become happy."
Something like that, you know.
But that doesn't mean,
"Oh, I'm a spiritual practitioner, so money is poison."
"Money is not good!"
That's also not recommended.
I also think that
it's not necessary to do that.
So, the main important thing is balance.
Balance is important.
What is balance?
To think that money is everything, to always think about money,
you'll lose many things. You lose the value of life.
You cannot see human values, or the meaning of life.
No kindness. No compassion.
Just money.
And from that you'll have a lot of negative side effects.
But if you say, "Oh! Money is poison. It's not good. Not good.
"I don't want no money at all," then you're against money.
A lot of hatred, you know.
It's not nice to feel hatred, aversion, or anger with anything.
Even if you have anger with money,
you have to survive, yeah?
You have to eat. You need something to wear.
Unless you achieve a very, very high level of realization,
then it's OK.
I will teach you a special mantra, OK?
This will really benefit you.
The mantra is "Om Mani Padme Hum."
And you can change it into "Oh, money's coming home."
Nice?
No, no, no!
It's a joke, you know! Some people say,
"I'm practicing meditation. I'm practicing spirituality,"
You know, religions, or whatever.
But they are thinking like,
"Maybe this will be of benefit for me, too."
"It will help my stock portfolio." Or, "maybe I can win the lottery."
Who knows?
"Buddha, help me to win this major lottery!"
"Oh, money's coming home."
OK. Anyway…