【Description】
Don’t compare your financial status with that of others. Being happy and joyful is much more important than money.
However, many people wonder how to find happiness in the absence of financial abundance. Let’s listen to Meditation Master JinBodhi’s teaching on happiness.
【You willearn】
- How to free yourself from the pain of lacking money
- The easiest way to experience happiness
- How to get out of the troubling trap of financial comparison
【Content】
Every country has a leader, a king or a president. Though the queen’s photo was printed on the money, do you think she is truly happy? She had no choice. Someone’s photo has to be there anyway. The person on the money is either a savior-like royalty with huge pressure or the most wicked person in the world. Regarding your question that someone’s photo was printed on money, and how to become happy as you don’t have much money, I think if you have gratitude towards your parents for bringing you to this world, if you have parents to raise you up, that is happiness, many children are orphans. Even if you have a single parent, you should be happy as well. Some children lost both parents.
If comparing with the wealthier or more noble people to find happiness, you will never be happy. Contentment brings lasting happiness. Compare yourself to those less fortunate. If we are better off than others, we feel happy. If you compare with wealthier, more beautiful and renowned people, you will surely suffer. Do not compare yourself with more fortunate people. If you do, you will never find happiness. Like trying to find the sun at night, you just cannot. At night, you can only find stars and the moon. As an ordinary civilian, do not compare yourself with emperors, world famous movie stars, or commerce celebrities.
However, great people and celebrities can be your models to pursue. They cannot be compared. Otherwise, you have no happiness. Who should we compare with? Maybe your neighbors. Compare with the “you” a year ago, yesterday, or with your grandma. That is how you compare. But if your grandma is Empress Cixi, you would better not compare with her. I knew a businessman 20 years ago. He had been making money, but he is in extreme misery, and his heart always needs to be tended. Why? When he was young, he wanted to earn more money than Li Ka-shing. Twenty years later, he still cannot compare with Li. Now, he needs medication to ease his heart. He indeed has much more than we can imagine – about 2 billion RMB. Yet, he is still suffering.
To find happiness, do not compare yourself with celebrities. That is wrong. Don’t compare with noble people. The truth is simple. Many pursue happiness. They are beautiful and wealthy, but they still suffer. If beautiful people compare with those more beautiful than them, they would surely suffer. When already-wealthy people compare with billionaires, they surely suffer. Don’t look for afflictions when the world is in peace. Only the unwise create it for themselves. The “unwise” are people that I just talked about. They compared themselves with the wrong people. This way, afflictions arise. Compare with our past “self,” we should be happier.