have the gem.
Nyepa and the king approached the Buddha for a pronouncement on the issue.
King Selgyel narrated the entire incident and what he had said to Nyepa. The
Buddha told the king exactly the same thing that Nyepa had told him. The ultimate
poverty is insatiable desire, and the king’s greed, being insatiable, determined that
he should have the fortune. As the Buddha taught, the smaller the desire, the
greater the contentment: this is crucial for this life and the next.
Consider rich people: most of them have great mental and physical hardship in
accumulating their wealth, and most accumulated it without concern for their
health. Their enjoyment is thereby impaired by disease or sickness, high blood
pressure, or a liver problem. When the doctor tells them that they have only a
short time to live, owing to the liver damage, they realize that they must leave
their wealth behind, and their suffering knows no bounds. So it is. We may
become rich, but look at the suffering it entails! We cannot sleep without sleeping
tablets, for example, because day and night we are obsessed with increasing our
wealth and protecting it. Is there any happiness or any benefit in wealth? A
healthy body and mind provide much more happiness than the possession of
wealth. Actually, the purpose of power and wealth is a healthy body and mind,
and if sickness and stress for the sake of wealth and fame intervene, then its
purpose is undone. Why, anyhow, accumulate wealth if it has to be spent on
curing the sickness and recovering the lost peace of mind that its accumulation
entails?
3.15 EVERYONE, HIGH AND LOW, HAS BEEN A SLAVE TO ATTACHMENT
It is human nature to lose our freedom through slavery to our attachments.
Conversely, whosoever has no attachment is free. This is real freedom. There is no
need to demonstrate in the street for political change or to litigate in court for
human rights, as people do these days. What is crucial is the praxis of detachment.
In general, people have attachment to three things: money, reputation, and sex.
Just look at the way we become slaves to these attachments. First, for the sake of
money, we work hard day and night without resting, and our lives are fraught
with tension and anxiety. Consider the way people live in big cities like New York.
The speed of the traffic and the noise are overwhelming. If we examine the
lifestyle closely, we find that a building bought with a down payment of six or
seven hundred thousand dollars entails a payment of at least five thousand dollars
a month for the following thirty years. The big car bought with a down payment is
followed by regular payments of five hundred dollars a month for three years. If
the monthly fee is not paid regularly, then the car will be confiscated by the
company. So, without resting, the people have to work to earn large amounts of
money. That makes them lose their nightly sleep and skip holiday breaks. How
beautiful the external appearances, but how infinitely anxious the lifestyle! No
sleep and not enough leisure to even appreciate the taste of food! Factories and
businesses likewise—outer appearance is not in harmony with inner actuality.
Furthermore, although a family may eat at the same table in the same house,