Saturday, January 17, 2026

Dalai Lama, only money makes me happy


Greed is good [karma], Snidely Whiplash?
Yeah, but, hey, Dolly Lamar, I like money. I love money. My Christian friends, who all want to be rich, say "THE LOVE OF MONEY is the root of all evil" (Ecclesiastes 5:10, 1 Timothy 6:10). I don't know what "evil" they're talking about, but I'm pretty sure the historical Buddha's main donor, Anathapindika (whose name means "giver of alms," "feeder of the hungry," born Sudatta), was super rich merchant banker, a billionaire in his day and one of the "noble ones," that is, an enlightened person (stream enterer, the first stage of awakening). So it seems to me that it isn't "money" that's the problem so much as the clinging to it -- craving, grasping, longing, yearning, striving, and being greedy and rapacious for it. I'll never have enough. There is no "enough" of an intangible idea of "rich" or "wealthy" or "having enough."

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