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Part Three - The Path of Life
Chapter 18 Humility and Self-Denial
7) Non-Attachment to Wealth and Possessions
Wealth And Possessions Are Shackles that chain us to the fallen world. They promote greed and avarice, increasing self-centered desire. The love of money has been called “the root of all evil,” and materialism has become a great obstacle to humanity’s spiritual progress.
Traditionally, the path to God has required renunciation of wealth and attachment to material goods. Monks and nuns typically take formal vows of poverty. Yet ordinary people may live free from possessiveness, sacrificing wealth for the sake of a greater good. Some contribute generously to charities; others forgo lucrative careers to care for a sick family member or to go on a mission to help people in need. They find peace of mind and great satisfaction having given up the anxiety of keeping and amassing material things for a life of giving and service.
Father Moon links the religious teaching of non-attachment with his philosophy of true love. He explains that God’s love begins from the foundation of non-possessiveness, while people who are attached to possessions find that their possessions get in the way of expressing love. This principle applies not only to our relationship with God and in daily life with our loved ones, but also to the well-being of nations and this planet Earth.
1. Money as a Cause of Downfall
World Scripture
The love of money is the root of all evils. 1 Timothy 6.10
Woe is he… who has gathered riches and counted them over, thinking his riches have made him immortal! Qur’an 104.1-3
Do not race after riches, do not risk your life for success, or you will let slip the Heaven within you. Chuang Tzu 29 (Taoism) Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Deuteronomy 8.3, Matthew 4.4
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6.24
Riches ruin the foolish, but not those in quest of the Beyond. Through craving for riches the ignorant man ruins himself as he does others. Dhammapada 355 (Buddhism)
“I got this today,” they say; “tomorrow I shall get that. This wealth is mine, and that will be mine too. I have destroyed my enemies. I shall destroy others too! Am I not like God? I enjoy what I want. I am successful. I am powerful. I am happy. I am rich and well-born. Who is equal to me? I will perform sacrifices and give gifts, and rejoice in my own generosity.” This is how they go on, deluded by ignorance.
Bound by their greed and entangled in a web of delusion, whirled about by a fragmented mind, they fall into a dark hell. Bhagavad-Gita 16.13-16 (Hinduism)
When they see merchandise or diversion they scatter off to it, and they leave you standing. Say, “What is with God is better than diversion and merchandise. God is the best of providers.” Qur’an 62.11
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money; nor he who loves wealth, with gain: this also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them; and what gain has their owner but to see them with his eyes? Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much; but the surfeit of the rich will not let him sleep. There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture; and he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil, which he may carry away in his hand. Ecclesiastes 5.10-15
The life of moneymaking is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful for the sake of something else. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics I.5 (Hellenism)
You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction. Perform work in this world, Arjuna, as a man established within himself— without selfish attachments, and alike in success and defeat. For discipline is perfect evenness of mind.
Seek refuge in the attitude of detachment and you will amass the wealth of spiritual awareness. Those who are motivated only by desire for the fruits of action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do. When consciousness is unified, however, all vain anxiety is left behind. There is no cause for worry, whether things go well or ill. Bhagavad-Gita 2.47-50 (Hinduism)
The impulse “I want” and the impulse “I’ll have”—lose them! That is where most people get stuck; without those, you can use your eyes to guide you through this suffering state. Sutta Nipata 706 (Buddhism)
Busy not yourself with this world, for with fire we test gold, and with gold we test our servants. Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, Arabic 54 (Bahá’i Faith)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Money can be ugly. It can be filthier than dung. People do not become evil because they are soiled with dung, but people who misuse money become wicked—filthier than dung. So I try not to use money for myself. I try to give all of it to others. (381:304, June 17, 2002)
Money can provide you with the things you desire: women, food, good clothes, and a fine house. Certainly we need money, yet money also can be a problem. When you have money, do you want to employ it to love others, or employ it to amass power? We need money, but it should be used to benefit the whole and to realize love. (116:18, December 1, 1981)
Power, wealth and knowledge, which worldly people ordinarily desire, are not the necessary and sufficient conditions for peace and happiness. True happiness is not proportional to how much property you own, nor is it obtained by multiplying external comforts. The only sure way to obtain genuine peace and limitless happiness is to live for others and give to others with true love; when those deeds go around they will return to you. (294:68, June 11, 1998)
In creating the world as His object partner, God had no concept of possession. If a person has the concept that he owns things, then he cannot give more than he has. If he owns things worth one hundred dollars, he cannot give more than one hundred dollars’ worth of things. On the contrary, God creates by investing and forgetting, investing and forgetting. God can invest infinitely because he has no concept of self. Do you understand this principle? A person cannot be conscious of self when investing for his or her counterpart. To think, “This money is for me to use. This is my portion,” is Satan’s way of thinking. (287:265, 971005)
Humankind longs for a world of peace, free from war and suffering. Yet it is difficult to be hopeful when the traditional authority of national leaders and religions are supplanted by a “money solves all” mentality, which is utterly insufficient in the face of youth decline, family breakdown, drugs and AIDS. 294:61, June 11, 1998)
The world’s developed nations, while seeking for the ultimate material civilization, have fallen into its trap. Obsession for material wealth dominates the mind and spirit; the human soul has become the slave of matter. The result is a collapse of true love. Although cities are lined with skyscrapers and the people enjoy material abundance, the lives of city-dwellers have become like a barren desert. In such desolation, an oasis of true love is nowhere to be found. Without true love, our society is a breeding-ground for selfishness.
The most grievous victim of this selfishness is nature. The natural environment is devastated, the water and air are polluted, and even the ozone layer, which has been protecting humanity, is damaged. If this situation continues unchecked, humanity will reach the point where it cannot escape self-destruction, all due to the material civilization it has erected for itself.
The twenty-first century is the time to return to the original world that God desires. The age of material civilization will give way to an era of spiritual civilization, where spirit and mind are ascendant. The twenty-first century will arrive in just five years. At this juncture it is my earnest desire that developing countries do not repeat the same mistake of developed nations and fall into the trap of material civilization, but take a lesson from them and dash into a world where the mind and spirit rule. (271:95-96, August 23, 1995)
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