{"id":603,"date":"2022-12-05T10:18:27","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T10:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/?p=603"},"modified":"2022-12-07T17:41:44","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T17:41:44","slug":"money-blessing-or-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/2022\/12\/money-blessing-or-sin\/","title":{"rendered":"Money: Blessing or Sin?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Photo by Osarugue Igbinoba<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

I have a confession to make. As a good Buddhist<\/a>, I am aware that I should not be attached to anything. I know what the Buddha taught \u2013 that attachment leads to suffering. I know that as I release my attachments, I experience more freedom and more happiness. So what is my confession?<\/p>\n

I am rather fond of money. Okay, very fond indeed. I don\u2019t have a great deal of it compared to many, but I love to go into my banking app and see it sitting in my savings accounts. I relish adding up the money I receive from my psychotherapy clients and seeing how much will be left over after paying the bills. I regularly calculate how long we have before we pay off our mortgage, and I fantasise about how wonderful that will feel. This fantasy slides into how then we\u2019ll start saving money for our next, slightly bigger house. And so it goes on.<\/p>\n

There is a faint feeling of shame as I write this \u2013 as if I am exposing a weakness or something about me that is slightly unsavoury. These feelings of pleasure as I hoard money are the opposite of generosity. I am also aware that this pleasure, which is contingent on the figures on my phone and on all sorts of things I\u2019m not in control of, is preventing me from experiencing a more expansive, more delicious pleasure \u2013 the pleasure of secure refuge in the three jewels of the spiritual teacher, teachings and community. The Buddha tried clinging on to what was impermanent as a way of finding happiness. It didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

Bringing gentleness to the shame<\/strong><\/h3>\n \ This blog is called \u2018Gentle Buddhism\u2019. I\u2019m wondering how it would look to approach these money-loving parts of me with gentleness. Straight away I can see that it\u2019s not necessary to get rid of them completely. I don\u2019t believe that the Buddha lived a life devoid of pleasure. He just didn\u2019t cling on to pleasure, or try and make ordinary pleasures into something solid when they could never be reliable. My money-counting and the pleasure of having of a healthy pot of savings is necessary for a well-balanced life.<\/p>\n \ What I can do is get curious about why these parts of me spend so long on their fantasies, and in receiving comfort from the money I have saved or will be able to save in the future. Part of this is an understandable seeking of the things that money can bring me \u2013 new clothes, weekends away \u2013 wanting more. Part of this is a desire to escape things \u2013 wanting to work less hard in the future, or have a break from running a temple! Part of it is wanting to avoid the ordinary pain of life, by numbing out on expensive chocolate or too-many-books. They crop up everywhere \u2013 greed, hate and delusion.<\/p>\n \ I also have some parts of me that are afraid that I won\u2019t be looked after \u2013 by other people or by the world. The savings represents my individualism and my self-reliance, and reassure these parts of me that forget to trust that I am held by my community and the Buddha.<\/p>\n \ Welcoming the money-loving parts of me<\/strong><\/h3>\n \ There will be more, but as I write I am softening more and more towards these parts of me that use money in these different ways. They are trying to help me, and they are doing their best. If I felt more grounded and more connected to the Buddha they wouldn\u2019t be necessary, but I am a human being and so they are. I feel grateful towards them and I bow to them. They are pleased to be appreciated, after all the bad press!<\/p>\n \ Money isn\u2019t a blessing or a sin. It is just a resource. We need it to survive, and some of us are lucky to have a bit left over to play with. If we were Buddhas, we would have no feelings about money at all \u2013 we would trust that our begging bowls would be filled with food, or not, and be content. I am not a Buddha. I am a work-in-progress and I will continue to have a complicated relationship with money, as many of us do. That\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n \ I am blessed. I am blessed by having enough to eat and a warm place to live. I am blessed with friends and companion animals and the view from my office, out across the valley. I am blessed with an ageing body that still allows me to do pretty much anything I want to do. I could go on.<\/p>\n \ I will keep listening to the parts of me that love counting money, and the ones that are preoccupied with my future fantasy life. Maybe they\u2019ll learn to lean into the Buddha a little more, and let go of their attachments bit by bit. Maybe not. Either way, I know that all these different parts of me are welcomed and loved \u2013 just as they are.<\/p>\n \ Go gently _\/|\\_<\/p>\n \ *<\/p>\n \ What is your relationship with money? What parts of you have jobs around money \u2013 maybe being afraid of scarcity, or spending too much, or being too careful, or avoiding money altogether? How can you bring gentleness to these parts of you? How can you start getting to know them?<\/p>\n \ \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \ I have a confession to make. As a good Buddhist, I am aware that I should not be attached to anything. I know what the Buddha taught \u2013 that attachment leads to suffering. I know that as I release my attachments, I experience more freedom and more happiness. So what is my confession? I am […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3033,"featured_media":609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,141,144],"tags":[147],"class_list":["post-603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-being-kind-to-ourselves","category-gentle-buddhism","category-money","tag-money"],"yoast_head":"\nMoney: Blessing or Sin? - Gentle Buddhism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have a confession to make. As a good Buddhist, I am aware that I should not be attached to anything. I know what the Buddha taught \u2013 that attachment\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/2022\/12\/money-blessing-or-sin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Money: Blessing or Sin? - Gentle Buddhism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have a confession to make. As a good Buddhist, I am aware that I should not be attached to anything. I know what the Buddha taught \u2013 that attachment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/2022\/12\/money-blessing-or-sin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gentle Buddhism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SatyaRobyn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-05T10:18:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-07T17:41:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/796\/2022\/12\/osarugue-igbinoba-BDpLTEvPKVw-unsplash.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"603\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"590\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Satya Robyn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@satyarobyn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Satya Robyn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/2022\/12\/money-blessing-or-sin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/2022\/12\/money-blessing-or-sin\/\",\"name\":\"Money: Blessing or Sin? - Gentle Buddhism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-05T10:18:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-07T17:41:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/#\/schema\/person\/1734c628dea363dbfe72b792da79ece1\"},\"description\":\"I have a confession to make. As a good Buddhist, I am aware that I should not be attached to anything. I know what the Buddha taught \u2013 that attachment\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/2022\/12\/money-blessing-or-sin\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/2022\/12\/money-blessing-or-sin\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/2022\/12\/money-blessing-or-sin\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Money: Blessing or Sin?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/\",\"name\":\"Gentle Buddhism\",\"description\":\"...one breath at a time\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/#\/schema\/person\/1734c628dea363dbfe72b792da79ece1\",\"name\":\"Satya Robyn\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f36b14ea7763587fd8ed529146065d29?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f36b14ea7763587fd8ed529146065d29?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Satya Robyn\"},\"description\":\"Pureland Buddhist priest running Amida Mandala temple in Malvern. Psychotherapist, novelist, Patheos blogger, foolish being. Enjoys growing veg & vegan cake.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.satyarobyn.com\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SatyaRobyn\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/satyarobyn\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/author\/srobyn\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Money: Blessing or Sin? - Gentle Buddhism","description":"I have a confession to make. As a good Buddhist, I am aware that I should not be attached to anything. I know what the Buddha taught \u2013 that attachment","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/2022\/12\/money-blessing-or-sin\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Money: Blessing or Sin? - Gentle Buddhism","og_description":"I have a confession to make. As a good Buddhist, I am aware that I should not be attached to anything. I know what the Buddha taught \u2013 that attachment","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/2022\/12\/money-blessing-or-sin\/","og_site_name":"Gentle Buddhism","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SatyaRobyn\/","article_published_time":"2022-12-05T10:18:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-12-07T17:41:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":603,"height":590,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/796\/2022\/12\/osarugue-igbinoba-BDpLTEvPKVw-unsplash.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Satya Robyn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@satyarobyn","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Satya Robyn","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/2022\/12\/money-blessing-or-sin\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/2022\/12\/money-blessing-or-sin\/","name":"Money: Blessing or Sin? - Gentle Buddhism","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-12-05T10:18:27+00:00","dateModified":"2022-12-07T17:41:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/#\/schema\/person\/1734c628dea363dbfe72b792da79ece1"},"description":"I have a confession to make. As a good Buddhist, I am aware that I should not be attached to anything. I know what the Buddha taught \u2013 that attachment","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/2022\/12\/money-blessing-or-sin\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/2022\/12\/money-blessing-or-sin\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/2022\/12\/money-blessing-or-sin\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Money: Blessing or Sin?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/","name":"Gentle Buddhism","description":"...one breath at a time","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/#\/schema\/person\/1734c628dea363dbfe72b792da79ece1","name":"Satya Robyn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f36b14ea7763587fd8ed529146065d29?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f36b14ea7763587fd8ed529146065d29?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Satya Robyn"},"description":"Pureland Buddhist priest running Amida Mandala temple in Malvern. Psychotherapist, novelist, Patheos blogger, foolish being. Enjoys growing veg & vegan cake.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.satyarobyn.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SatyaRobyn\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/satyarobyn"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/author\/srobyn\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3033"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/notesfromthetemple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}