“Every advantage has its tax.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Happy tax day everyone, and what a spectacular golden array the sun produced today! I know for some, tax time can be a bit stressful, but as I mentioned to a client last week, a mentor of mine likes to consider his bills a blessing.
Richard Carlton, in his book ‘The Don’t Sweat Guide to Taxes’ writes: “At tax time, it helps to remember that if your tax obligation has increased from the previous year, it’s usually because you’re enjoying more income. That’s a situation to which most of us aspire. Higher taxes are a price that we pay for greater success.”
Yesterday, a friend wrote in that money is just a tool you can bypass to get to the true blessings…
No doubt, the best things in life are income free and tax free. Yet I ask, why not both money and true blessings?
Mother Teresa notes: “Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God, the rest will be given.”
As for the Buddha, he too determined that the middle path was most effective, having been both a prince and a renunciate. And much is written about life as a “householder” with “right livelihood”. Monastics give up material possession, but laypeople do not.
Despite western preconceptions to the contrary, the Buddha wasn’t against people making money. In fact he encouraged it, which is why the “Happy Money Buddha” is a very popular feng shui symbol.
Money is useful to the extent that it supports our physical needs, allows us to make others happy, and — most importantly — to the extent that we use it to support genuine spiritual practice. In Buddhist terms we validate our wealth creation by giving our money away to support what’s really important in life, which is the pursuit of wellbeing, truth, and goodness. Money is simply a conduit.
The challenge is to live in a material culture without getting snared by it. We don’t have to run screaming from all of life’s pleasures. If we are not attached to money, we should not be afraid of it.
It’s materialism that is the problem, and what Buddha calls a “false refuge.”
There is no satisfying sensual desires,
even with the rain of gold coins.
Knowing the bliss of debtlessness,
& recollecting the bliss of having,
enjoying the bliss of wealth,
the mortal then sees clearly with discernment.
Seeing clearly — the wise one —
he knows both sides:
that these are not worth one sixteenth,
of the bliss of blamelessness.
So enjoy your blessing! Share your wealth, and be grateful that you are even able to stand in line to pay the piper today ♥
