‘Money is not everything’. Are people who believe this trapped in dogma — the result of other peoples’ thinking?
The serenity of a monk; The secret is calm-abiding meditation which temporarily suppresses the disturbing emotions and allows equanimity to arise instead. Whenever a monk appears on the television, one cannot help but dream of a worry-free, stress-free life, where income tax, Brexit, Wall street politics amongst many things are all just unnecessary evils. I watched monks in Thailand waking up at the crack of dawn, praying in silence, working, reading literature, praying, eating and so on and so forth. I noticed that all the monks were content. They had left their families behind to live a life of no attachments and a life of reverence for the divine beings. When I compare that to the hectic, chaos, social media influenced, material-want environment that many of us live, I wondered why more of us don’t choose the more simple path; the righteous path.
Life is a journey of survival from the moment we are conceived. If we have adequate food, water and a source of oxygen, we have the basics of survival. The rest of our needs are choices. What makes us content?
If we wanted, we can have a life that is content with very basic needs, but the world around us draws us into wanting more; welcome the marketing genius. Marketing has made us want different clothes, different cars, different foods and even different water! And what drives them? We do. As long as there is demand, there will be supply — the fundamental of economics.
What makes us want a better grade of leather in our car? What makes us want to buy a Hermes bag rather than a non-branded leather bag, though both have the same capacity? What makes us want Andrex Quilted toilet rolls as opposed to a supermarkets own branded toilet paper (nearing the quality of sandpaper)? Choice.
Choice drives our desires. The more choice there is, the more we want. Some people want to be made to feel unique and willing to pay more for that privilege through purchasing exclusive goods, whereas the majority just don’t want to be left behind feeling that they cannot afford or enjoy material goods as much as their neighbours or friends.
I watched a most fascinating programme a few months ago on Al Jazeera, which documented the journey of donated clothes. Thousands of tonnes of clothes are donated by the majority of people each year. The large green metal deposit bins indicate that the clothes are going to charities. But I was alarmed to discover they are not.
Firstly, let us examine why people donate these clothes, and why the volume of clothes is so significant. Fifty years ago, when clothes tore, they were stitched up and their lifespan doubled. Buying clothes was a treat or out of necessity. Today, buying clothes is a fad. We are spurned on by commercials and advertising to buy the latest fashion. Everyone wants to dress as do the latest fashion icons and idols.
We donate clothes to make us feel less guilty. If our almost-new, hardly worn clothes go to charity, we feel that we did a good deed. But do we follow where these clothes go? No.
We go home feeling like good souls, and knowing that St. Peter will smile and be proud at the Pearly Gates on judgement day.
Those who don’t want to know what happens to those clothes — close your eyes now!
All those clothes are taken by private companies to football-pitch sized warehouses, segregated according to quality and then shipped to Eastern Europe and Africa (and other nations). They are sold to buyers there. The buyers then sell these clothes to punters in post-conflict or famine-infested nations! I was in complete disbelief. Perhaps St.Peter will show that documentary on arrival!
Going back to the monks, I wondered whether they have any desires for clothes and cars and why they are so stress-free.
Then the penny-dropped. I saw a repetitive scene of monks standing in the streets of Thailand receiving alms. Their bowls were filled by almsgiving good humans, with rice and other items. For the giver, just as we donate clothes to the green metal bins, is seen as an act of virtue. We feel a sense of doing good; what God wants us to do.
But, the monks didn’t work for their food! And there it was. The Holy Grail, The Eureka moment. Monks live a stress-free life and spend all day praying and reading literature, because they are provided with free accommodation and they receive alms from good-natured people. So, for them, money is not everything.
They don’t need to buy food, or worry about where their next grain of rice will come from. Hence, for them, a job is not necessary. But the people feeding them have to get up at the crack of dawn, and work all day, and bring up children and pay bills, to live an honest life. And from that, they still have the richness of character to give food to the monks.
Who is the better person? The monk or the worker?
To have food and water, the basics needs of human life, money is necessary. Without money, no-one will feed us. There exists soup kitchens, but again, that is funded by good people who spend their own money to feed others. Someone along the chain has to work and spend money for others to eat.
The amount of money we need is debatable for sure. If we wore clothes until they ripped, and drove cars into the ground, the demand would slow down, and supply would slow down. We would save more, need less, and perhaps lead less hectic lives. (Might not be as simplistic as that however).
Humans want a better chance to earn money, so we educate ourselves and our children at good schools. The stiff competition for entry to Eton, Harrow, Charterhouse, Yale, INSEAD, Princeton, Harvard; all to make us believe that we are on track to significant earnings that will mean we have more than enough earning for food, water and shelter, that we can choose what foods we want, different types of water and buy bigger homes and have holidays that most people only visit through a magazine.
So, we need to make more money to spend more money.
We want to mix with people who are educated well, dress well, drink at fancy bars, have jobs that entail a jet-set lifestyle. But this all comes at a cost. The cost starts from an early age and continues. We chase the dollars!
‘SHOW ME THE MONEY!’ said Jerry Maguire!
Rather than ‘money is not everything’ perhaps people should ask ‘once you have enough food and water and basic shelter, money is not everything’. I may agree with that. Because after that point, life is led by choices.
The majority of people whom I heard blurt out this unthought slogan ‘Money is not everything’ are usually the ones who don’t have much money, or who didn’t have the chance in life to make large sums of money. Should that make them bitter or judge others? I believe not. It is subjective. In Asia, religion dominates lives, be in India, Indonesia, Philippines or Thailand. The same I saw in Brazil and Venezuela. But religion was the prime discussion for the poor or the less fortunate. I believe they pray voraciously as they believe one day, they or their children may break away from the viscous circle that entraps them. Deep down, they also want to make money, have choice of food, nice homes, clean water, fresh air. But they are trapped in the dogma that has made them believe that money is an unnecessary evil, and that having excess money is the equivalent to befriending the devil itself. The irony being that they have never experienced having such sums of money that they can reach conclusions that ‘money is not everything’.
Those young Thai monks got food and water from the good natured people that work hard to sustain a living. Food and water are commodities bought by money. Food are water are the basics of life and living. Therefore, mathematically, if I rearrange that equation, MONEY IS EVERYTHING!
