2. Do You Think Money Is Evil?

No.  Money is illusion.  Illusion is neither good nor evil.  Attachment to illusion is evil.  Attachment to illusion is called idolatry.    

Few will even question what money really is, because it is so pervasive, like air.  Yet, unlike air, money does not exist outside the mind, but is only pervasive in the mind (unless we get into deeper Buddhist philosophy, which points out that all things arise from mind).    

Contrary to common definitions, money is not gold or silver, cowry shells or cattle; money is not bills, it is not credit cards, it is not numbers in a bank or tabulations on paper.  Money is purely belief in the head.  Money exists no place else but in the mind.  Money is a strange phenomenon that exists only because two or more people believe it exists. 

Where two or more are gathered in the belief of money, money is in their midst.   

To say that I live without money isn't saying anything, really.  That's like saying I live without belief in Santa Claus.  Now, if we lived in a world where everybody believed in Santa Claus, you might think I'm stepping out on a limb to live without Santa Claus, who never existed.   

What if we saw gold for what it is?  Gold is pretty, but virtually useless in most cases.  But somebody decided it has an inflated worth, and everybody decided to believe this decision.  Now few people see gold for its reality, but they see fictitious values.  Natives in North America thought Europeans were utterly insane because of their lust for such a useless yellow substance.

What if we spent as much of our wealth and energy on living beings as we do on guarding and revering gold bars at Fort Knox, gold bars which do nothing, gold bars which don't hear, don't see, don't smell, don't taste and don't speak, and which provide neither food nor clothing nor shelter nor warmth to a single living being!  What if we spent as much of our wealth and energy on living beings and as we do on guarding and revering pieces of paper and coins, as well as numbers in data-bases, which do absolutely nothing, which don't hear, don't see, don't smell, don't taste and don't speak, and which provide neither food nor clothing nor shelter nor warmth to a single living being!  

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; eyes they have, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear; noses they have, but they do not smell; they have hands, but they do not handle; feet they have, but they do not walk; nor do they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them.   (Psalm 115:4-8)

Imagine if you had eyes that saw.  Imagine that you had eyes that saw reality rather than your own belief.  Imagine if you saw a $100 bill as a piece of paper with a pretty work of art on it, and nothing else.    

Our real selves live without money, always have, and always will. 

Only our pretend selves can live with and use and own money.  Don't get me wrong, that's not even saying that money is evil, or that to pretend is evil!  But when we think our pretense is reality, this is when we've sunk into disaster.

Think about this, please.