Thinking Differently About Money

 

02.10.2023 THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT MONEY I’ve never really been confident about money. Never really had a lot of it, either. (Nor do I expect, or particularly want, to!) But I’ve started to see that one’s comfort with money — money being, for better or worse, a stressy and more or less non-negotiable aspect of life — can be less dependent on “traditional money acumen” and more on our own conscious practice of working with our conditioned thinking and feelings about money. That’s because I was recently fortunate enough to work with Spencer Sherman, a longtime Buddhist meditator and financial advisor, on his just-released Lion’s Roar online course, The Dharma of Money. Financial terminology has generally confounded me, yet Spencer is speaking my language. Yes, what he’s talking about may well lead to greater financial success, but at the core, he’s teaching us how to live with greater financial awareness by approaching money with dharma-informed values and methods: clarity, generosity, meditation, open-mindedness, loving-kindness. However I feel about money, I’ll always want more of those things! Like The Dharma of Money, these Lion’s Roar articles from Spencer and others point the way. May they serve you well. —Rod Meade Sperry

4 Better Ways to Relate to Money There’s a lot of neurosis around the subject of money. Financial expert Spencer Sherman on four states of mind we can cultivate to improve our relationship with it. What I appreciate about Buddhist practices is that they foster acceptance of all that life presents. My tendency, like many of us, is to see difficulties—pandemics, political upheavals, financial problems—as things merely to survive, to get through. But what about viewing financial hardship and negative attitudes as opportunities to grow and change, to improve our lives?

The Promise of Buddhist Economics UC Berkeley economist Clair Brown argues for an economic system based on altruism, sustainability, and a meaningful life. Because even economics is about more than money. Free market economics says that everyone can increase their happiness and life satisfaction by buying and consuming more. That’s how humans become more content, happier, and satisfied — by consuming more. In Buddhist economics, happiness is defined by the concept of interconnectedness. All people, all beings, are interdependent with each other and with nature. Happiness comes from making sure people lead comfortable, dignified lives and interact with each other and nature in a meaningful, caring way.

First, an Open Hand Dharma teacher, researcher, and inventor Nikki Mirghafori on the power of generosity. Generosity supports insight into the three characteristics of existence: Practicing generosity provides insight into impermanence (anicca): things come, things go. Nothing is for me to keep, to hang on to. Holding onto things with a sense of scarcity creates more lack, more unsatisfactoriness, more suffering (dukkha). And in true generosity, we see that there is no separation between the giver, the receiver, and what is given (anatta). I have come to understand generosity not as a preparatory practice, or one of only merit-making for lay folks, but as synonymous with liberation itself in ways I couldn’t have imagined.

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