How Can We Acquire Wealth with Peace of Mind?

2026/09/24

How Can We Acquire Wealth with Peace of Mind?

In this world, no one can live without the basic necessities of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. Everyone must work to provide for these needs. As the saying goes:

“The bustling world is driven by profit; the surging crowds are drawn by gain.”

It can be said that no one can live entirely without money, and few people dislike having it. As a result, money and wealth have often become symbols of a person’s social status and are frequently used in modern society as measures of one’s ability and success.

However, as another saying goes, “A person of integrity may value wealth, but acquires it through proper means.” Under the pressure of making a living or the desire to compare themselves with others, many people become eager for quick success. Some stray onto improper paths and even resort to unscrupulous means for profit, completely forgetting the principle that ill-gotten wealth should not be taken; what comes easily through improper means may just as easily be lost.

But what exactly constitutes ill-gotten wealth?

Many people narrowly assume that only money or property obtained through theft, deception, robbery, embezzlement, or similar wrongdoing can be considered ill-gotten. In reality, the scope of ill-gotten wealth extends far beyond these obvious examples.

Take an ordinary employee as a simple example. First and foremost, we should be diligent, dedicated to our work, and conscientious in carrying out our responsibilities. The salary and compensation we receive in return are then rightfully earned.

On the other hand, if a person is lazy, avoids responsibility, exploits loopholes in the system or workplace, does as little work as possible while still collecting a full salary, and constantly tries to get by through cunning shortcuts, then it is difficult to regard all that income as properly earned. Such a person has failed the organization as well as the supervisors and coworkers who placed their trust in them. Sooner or later, those debts will have to be repaid.

There is an old saying: “Whom has Heaven ever spared?”

Putting that aside, people who habitually behave this way are unlikely to make substantial progress wherever they go. Without planting the cause of diligence and self-improvement, how can one expect to reap the fruit of advancement? We often find that when organizations reduce their workforce, those who habitually shirk responsibilities, take shortcuts, and rely on petty cleverness are particularly vulnerable. In the end, their cleverness may work against them.

Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III teaches us in Philosophical Sayings for Worldly Matters:

“Richness comes from diligence. A rich person is one who is diligent and who chooses a fit career with proper goals.”

In other words, if we wish to attain prosperity, we must first be diligent. Diligence alone does not necessarily guarantee wealth, but without diligence, prosperity is difficult to achieve. Therefore, we must work diligently and apply ourselves through proper and constructive effort.

Second, diligence must be accompanied by ability and talent. Simply working hard without developing the necessary knowledge and capabilities may not be enough to build a successful undertaking. With knowledge, ability, and wisdom, we learn how to distinguish what should be pursued from what should be avoided. We become better able to assess circumstances and make sound choices—choosing endeavors with wholesome and promising prospects rather than improper, harmful, narrow, or unsustainable paths.

Third, and most importantly, the nature of one’s undertaking must be proper. The occupation or business we choose should follow a righteous path, and our intentions and conduct must also be upright. We should never harm the interests or well-being of others merely for our own benefit.

When it comes to what constitutes a proper occupation, however, many people have misconceptions. Some assume that anything permitted by law must therefore be proper. That is not necessarily so from the Buddhist perspective.

Take, for example, businesses involving the sale of live animals for food and the slaughtering of animals. Although such businesses may be permitted under national law, from the Buddhist perspective they cannot truly be regarded as proper livelihoods because they involve extensive killing. Such actions are believed to affect the karmic consequences one experiences in this life and in future lives.

This is not regarded in Buddhism merely as superstition, but as a matter of cause and effect. The Buddha taught that all living beings are equal. Pigs, dogs, cattle, sheep, fish, shrimp, birds, and other animals are all living beings. They too can experience pain and fear; they struggle, cry out, and try to escape suffering.

If our accumulation of wealth is built upon the suffering and cries of countless living beings, how can we assume that we ourselves will remain entirely untouched by the consequences? In ordinary language, one might ask, “Where would justice under Heaven be?” From the perspective of Buddhist teachings, the question is one of cause and effect.

If we observe carefully, we may see people who accumulated wealth through businesses involving the killing of living beings but later lost much of that wealth through illness, accidents, or other misfortunes.

I once knew the owner of a pharmacy whose business had initially been doing quite well. Several years later, however, the pharmacy was shut down following an investigation, leaving the owner owing substantial sums of money to various sales representatives. Whatever could be removed from the store was taken away.

Not long afterward, the owner passed away before reaching the age of sixty. His wife spent several years moving from place to place before eventually finding work as a caregiver, which barely provided her with enough to live on. Even then, she was afraid to let others know where she was. Their son was also imprisoned for several years because of debts involving high-interest loans and other problems.

I wondered how a family that had once operated a seemingly successful pharmacy could have fallen into such circumstances. Later, I heard that the elderly couple had worked as pig slaughterers in their earlier years. After saving several hundred thousand yuan, they left that business and opened the pharmacy. Their son, however, lived extravagantly, quickly squandered the family’s savings, and accumulated high-interest debt. In the end, a once-established family fell apart.

I also knew of someone who had worked in the fishing industry for more than twenty years. His daughter developed an unusual illness that severely affected her mental functioning. The family spent a great deal of money seeking treatment, but her condition did not improve. Later, the man himself became seriously ill, and the family eventually exhausted all of its savings.

If we pay attention, we may encounter many stories of this kind.

Many people wonder why so many unfortunate things happen in life. From the Buddhist perspective presented here, apart from the effects of harmful causes created in previous lives ripening in this life, some suffering may also be related to unwholesome karma created through our present actions.

The Mangala Sutta (Discourse on Blessings) teaches:

“To engage in occupations that cause no harm—this is the greatest blessing.”

Therefore, for the well-being and peace of ourselves and our families, we should stay away from occupations involving killing. From this Buddhist perspective, wealth accumulated through the taking of life is among the most troubling forms of improperly acquired wealth. The more such wealth is accumulated, the heavier the corresponding karmic consequences may become, for causes bring corresponding effects, and no one can ultimately escape the workings of cause and effect.

Therefore, if we wish to prosper, we should apply our diligence, abilities, and talents to righteous and wholesome endeavors. Wealth acquired in this manner can truly be used for our benefit without becoming a source of calamity.

As the saying goes, “Great virtue carries great responsibility and abundance.”

Virtue refers to morality, character, self-cultivation, and integrity. Material possessions include money, wealth, influence, and the conditions of our lives. Position refers to status, authority, office, and power.

We should therefore guard our minds and uphold virtue. We must never allow greed to drive us into reckless conduct. If one possesses little virtue yet seeks an exalted position, has limited wisdom yet attempts enormous undertakings, has little strength yet tries to bear an overwhelming burden, or possesses insufficient ability yet seeks great responsibilities—how could such imbalance not eventually bring trouble?

True prosperity, therefore, is not simply about how much wealth we accumulate. What matters equally is how that wealth is obtained, what causes we create in obtaining it, and whether we can enjoy it with a clear and peaceful conscience.

Written by: Danbo
Edited by: Dongji

Link: https://myhappylifestyle.net/2026/09/24/dorjechangbuddhaiii-how-can-we-acquire-wealth-with-peace-of-mind/

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In Buddhist Cultivation, Never Overlook the “Drizzle” and the Butterfly Effect

2026/09/26

In Buddhist Cultivation, Never Overlook the “Drizzle” and the Butterfly Effect

(1) A Drizzle Can Soak You Before You Realize It

There was once a young monk cultivating himself at a Buddhist temple. He tended to pay little attention to small details, believing that minor matters were insignificant.

One day, his master asked him, “Which is more likely to get you soaked—a heavy downpour or a light drizzle?”

The disciple replied without hesitation, “Master, of course a heavy downpour is more likely to soak you.”

“But in everyday life,” the master said, “people are often more likely to have their clothes soaked by a drizzle than by a downpour.”

The disciple was puzzled. “A downpour brings much more rain, while a drizzle brings very little. How could a drizzle be more likely to soak our clothes?”

The master explained:

“When a heavy rain suddenly begins, people immediately become alert. Those carrying umbrellas quickly open them, while those without umbrellas hurry beneath the eaves to take shelter.

“But when there is only a light drizzle, people may hardly notice it. Even if they do, they often think nothing of it, believing that such a small amount of rain could never soak their clothes. So they continue walking through the rain as usual. Before they realize it, their clothes are completely wet.”

The master continued:

“Cultivating ourselves and learning Buddhism is much the same. As practitioners, everything in our conduct matters—our words and actions, every gesture and movement, every facial expression, every sentence we speak, and even every thought that arises.

“These things are like a fine drizzle. They may appear insignificant, but if we fail to pay attention and remain vigilant, we may intentionally or unintentionally hurt others or cause them distress and concern. In doing so, we may accumulate negative karma without even realizing it, ultimately preventing ourselves from attaining accomplishment and liberation.”

The disciple finally understood.

The “drizzle” represents our habitual tendencies and the seemingly minor details of our cultivation. Because they appear so small, we often fail to notice them. Yet if we continually neglect them, they can undermine our cultivation, leaving our efforts fruitless and even causing us to accumulate negative karma without realizing it.

(2) The Butterfly Effect

An apparently insignificant action can sometimes trigger a chain of far-reaching consequences. This is commonly known as the “butterfly effect.”

For nearly a century, from 1908 to 2003, British cyclists had won only one Olympic gold medal and had never won the Tour de France. Their results had been so disappointing that even bicycle manufacturers were unwilling to sell bicycles to the British team.

Then, in 2003, the team brought in a new coach.

The new coach asked the athletes to seek a 1% improvement in every aspect of their training.

Some might wonder: What difference could just 1% possibly make?

Yet these seemingly tiny improvements eventually helped transform British cycling.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, British cyclists delivered an extraordinary performance in track and road cycling, winning 60 percent of the available gold medals. During the ten years from 2007 through 2017, British cyclists won 178 world championships, 66 Olympic or Paralympic gold medals, and five Tour de France victories. These achievements came to be widely regarded as one of the most remarkable periods of success in cycling history.

The same principle can be applied to our daily cultivation.

If every day we could correct our habitual tendencies and undesirable habits by just 1%, while increasing our sincerity and devotion toward Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and strengthening our compassion for living beings by 1%, then each day we would be making progress along the path toward liberation. Our learning and cultivation would inevitably bring genuine benefit.

Unfortunately, just as we tend to overlook a light drizzle, we often overlook this seemingly insignificant 1% of diligent effort and improvement.

(3) Great Virtue Is Accomplished Through the Accumulation of Small Virtues

A great wind begins with the faintest stirring of the grass; mighty waves arise from tiny ripples.

As another ancient saying warns:

“A thousand-mile dike can collapse because of an ant hole.”

There is also an ancient Chinese teaching:

“Do not commit an evil deed simply because it seems small, and do not refrain from doing a good deed simply because it seems insignificant.”

In Buddhism, there is a vow:

“I vow to eliminate all evil, leaving no evil uneliminated; I vow to cultivate all goodness, leaving no good uncultivated; I vow to liberate all living beings, leaving no living being unliberated.”

If we do not put an end to small wrongdoings and do not accumulate small acts of goodness, how can we ultimately attain the realization of the holy ones?

Many eminent Buddhist practitioners of the past have set examples for us through the meticulous attention they paid to seemingly minor aspects of their cultivation.

Master Yinguang was exceptionally attentive to details in his daily practice. When he lived at Fayu Temple on Mount Putuo, the basin he used for washing had a cover to prevent mosquitoes and other tiny insects from falling into the water and drowning. The oil lamp before the Buddha also had a protective cover so that moths would not fly into the flame and be burned to death.

Before Master Hongyi sat down on a rattan chair, he would gently shake the chair from side to side several times. He did this to avoid harming tiny insects that might be hiding in the crevices of the chair. By moving the chair first, he was, in effect, giving these small creatures a warning and allowing them time to move away to safety.

When Master Nenghai was at the Vajra Bodhimanda in Shanghai, his student, Master Dao’an, recalled that whenever Master Nenghai had his head shaved, he would not allow the cut hair to fall onto the ground. Instead, all the hair had to fall onto newspapers spread across his lap.

Afterward, the hair would be carefully wrapped in the newspaper and placed beneath roof tiles or into crevices in a wall. He did this simply to prevent strands of hair lying on the ground from injuring tiny insects.

Cultivation must begin with the smallest details.

As the saying goes:

“If one is careless about minor conduct, it will eventually impair one’s great virtue.”

This accords with one of the teachings imparted by Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III in Philosophical Sayings for Worldly Matters:

“Moral excellence is the total addition of small good deeds. Great roads are built when grains of sand are put together. To a person aspiring to become virtuous, nothing that helps is too trivial to claim his attention.”

True cultivation is reflected not only in great vows or major actions, but also in the smallest details of everyday life. A thought, a word, a facial expression, or a seemingly insignificant action may appear no more consequential than a drop of drizzle. Yet when such small causes accumulate, their effects can become profound.

Likewise, every small act of kindness, every habitual tendency we correct, and every increase in compassion may seem insignificant at the moment. But accumulated day after day, these small improvements can gradually transform our conduct and our cultivation.

Great virtue does not arise all at once. It is accomplished through the accumulation of small virtues.

Written by: Zai Lushang

Link: https://myhappylifestyle.net/2026/09/26/dorjechangbuddhaiii-in-buddhist-cultivation-never-overlook-the-drizzle/

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When We Put “Me” at the Center, We Inevitably Find Things Hard to Accept, Hard to Hear, and Hard to Understand

2026/09/28

When We Put “Me” at the Center, We Inevitably Find Things Hard to Accept, Hard to Hear, and Hard to Understand

A close friend once complained to me about her child.

“My child is driving me crazy! He’s only four or five years old, yet he can already turn the whole household upside down!”

I asked, “What happened?”

She said, “He refuses to eat properly. After mealtime is over, he goes looking for cold leftovers. He wants to play until midnight, and if we refuse to play with him, he hits us—and he hits hard. Lately, he has been coughing constantly and has eczema all over his body. He has practically become a regular at the hospital…”

His eating habits were irregular, his sleep schedule was irregular, and he loved eating cold foods. With habits like these affecting his digestive health, how could he not get sick?

I then asked, “Do you often hit him? Is that why he has learned to hit others?”

“Ah,” she sighed. “My father believes in strict discipline and corporal punishment. Whenever the child misbehaves, Grandpa gives him a good spanking. I’ve tried talking to my father and asking him not to hit the child so much, but he won’t listen. As a result, the more the child is hit, the more unruly he becomes, and the more unruly he becomes, the more he gets hit. By the time I come home from work, I’m completely exhausted by all of this. Now even my father and I get upset with each other over the smallest things. We find each other’s behavior hard to accept, each other’s words hard to hear, and each other’s thinking impossible to understand…”

I couldn’t help but sympathize with my friend. Her child had not even reached the stage when she would have to help him with schoolwork, yet the household was already in complete chaos.

As the saying goes, “It takes ten years to grow a tree, but a hundred years to nurture a person.” Raising and educating a child is truly no easy task. When family members disagree about how a child should be raised, conflict is almost inevitable.

For many years, educators have advocated encouragement and positive reinforcement rather than corporal punishment. We cannot truly win people over through force; we need to reason with them and reach them through understanding and compassion. Two generations have different life experiences, levels of education, personalities, and understandings of life. Naturally, their approaches to raising a child can be very different. One wants strict and forceful discipline, while the other favors a gentle and patient approach. In the end, neither approach is carried out effectively, and the two sides only grow increasingly frustrated with each other.

But do situations in which people find one another “hard to accept, hard to listen to, and hard to understand” exist only between fathers and daughters? Of course not. Conflicts arise between husbands and wives, relatives and friends, coworkers, classmates, people from the same hometown, and even complete strangers.

Two of my coworkers once had a disagreement over a work assignment.

Coworkers A and B were responsible for producing the company magazine. A handled planning, editing, proofreading, and communication with the printing company, while B was responsible only for layout and typesetting. Because they were rushing to meet the deadline, A reviewed three rounds of proofs, checked the sample copy, and then authorized printing.

The following day, A looked through the sample again and discovered that the month printed on the cover was incorrect. During proofreading, A had already asked B to correct it. However, B had carelessly failed to properly save the final revised file, so the error remained. At the same time, A had also failed to notice the mistake when reviewing the sample copy.

When they contacted the printing company again, they learned that the company magazine was already being printed. Reprinting the cover would require additional expense. And so, a loss that should never have occurred was incurred.

A blamed B: “Why didn’t you properly save the file after making the correction? Why didn’t you take responsibility for your work?”

B, in turn, blamed A: “Why didn’t you carefully check the sample?”

Each found fault with the other. Neither wanted to hear what the other had to say, and neither could understand how the other could have been so careless.

In fact, both of these real-life situations—the disagreement between father and daughter over how to raise the child and the conflict between coworkers caused by a lack of carefulness—stemmed from putting “me” at the center.

The grandfather thought, “If my grandson doesn’t behave, he needs to be disciplined physically. After all, this is how I raised several children.”

The mother thought, “When my son misbehaves, adults should reason with him. We shouldn’t substitute punishment for proper guidance. We should teach him gently and patiently.”

And what about the two coworkers?

One thought, “I already checked everything thoroughly.”

The other thought, “You were the one who failed to check carefully.”

Because they failed to cooperate effectively, mistakes naturally occurred.

Yet the father and daughter actually shared the same goal: to raise the child well.

And the two coworkers also shared the same goal: to produce the magazine well.

The attitude of “I don’t care what you think; what matters is what I think” places the self above everything else.

If people want to live together harmoniously, they need to learn to put themselves in one another’s shoes. If the grandfather listened to his daughter’s suggestion to use gentleness rather than force, and if the daughter communicated more patiently with her elderly father about ways of educating the child, wouldn’t their relationship become more harmonious?

Likewise, if the two coworkers showed greater understanding toward each other’s responsibilities, reminded one another when necessary, and complemented each other’s work, wouldn’t they be able to accomplish the task successfully? What would there be to argue about?

As Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III said:

“A protracted dispute is wrong on both sides. Why? Entangled in such a dispute, both sides see only the faults of the opposing party and the merits of his own. Continuing dispute will but increase the wrongdoing. When one realizes that the other party is as annoyed as he is, one is apt to withdraw from the dispute.”

By letting go of attachment to the self and our own views, and by learning to be tolerant and understanding of one another, we become able to listen to other people’s opinions and recognize their strengths. In this way, we can gradually move from stubbornly clinging to our own views toward accepting and appreciating others.

Always remember: “I” am not the measure of the world.

If we always put “me” first in everything, we are simply creating trouble for ourselves. Instead, we should think: I am a Buddhist practitioner who still has much to be ashamed of. I still have many shortcomings and faults. I should learn more from the strengths of others and spend less time looking for their faults.

As the saying goes:

“The sea is vast because it embraces hundreds of rivers; a person is great because of the capacity to be tolerant.”

When we broaden our hearts and minds, expand our perspective, and elevate our moral character, our work and our lives can proceed more smoothly. We can gradually move away from selfish attachment to the self and toward benefiting both ourselves and others.

Isn’t letting go of the constant focus on “me” itself part of cultivation?

Written by: He Suoyou

Link: https://myhappylifestyle.net/2026/09/28/dorjechangbuddhaiii-when-we-put-me-at-the-center/

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Only by Being Content and Cherishing Our Blessings Can We Find Happiness

2026/09/30

During the Ming Dynasty, there was a man named Hu Jiushao. He farmed while teaching his son to read and study, and the family had enough to meet their basic needs. Yet every day, he would burn incense and offer prayers, thanking Heaven for blessing him with another day of peace and contentment.

His wife laughed at him and said, “We eat vegetable porridge for all three meals. How can you call this a blessed life?”

He replied:

“First, we live in a time of peace and do not have to endure the suffering of war.

Second, our family has food to eat and clothes to wear, so we neither go hungry nor suffer from the cold.

Third, everyone in our family is healthy, and none of us has suffered the misfortune of imprisonment. Aren’t these blessings?”

In fact, people often fail to experience a sense of happiness because they have too many desires and do not know how to be content. As Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III taught:
“A person not appreciative of the good life he is living is one who has forgotten his past miseries. A person in good health is not aware of its blessings until he loses it.”

This means that some people are blessed without realizing how fortunate they are. Even though things are going well for them in many respects, they still feel that this is unsatisfactory and that is not as they wish. They are full of complaints and feel unhappy with their circumstances. This is mainly because, while living in happiness, they have forgotten the hardships of adversity.

When enjoying happiness, they forget the difficulties they once experienced. It is just like people who are strong and healthy often failing to appreciate how painful it is to become ill. They may neglect their health and fail to cherish their strong and healthy bodies. Once they fall ill, however, they may find themselves confined to bed, unable to move about and without even the desire to eat. Only then do they realize the joy and blessing of good health.

The story above reminds us that many of life’s blessings can be found in the ordinary things we have grown accustomed to. Peace, having enough food and clothing, and good health may seem ordinary, but once they are lost, we come to realize just how precious they truly are. Therefore, we should learn to be content, cherish our blessings, and appreciate everything we have in the present.

Only by being content and knowing how to cherish what we have can we experience an enduring sense of happiness and joy.

Written by: Yazhu

Edited by: Bodhi Seed

Link: https://myhappylifestyle.net/2026/09/30/dorjechangbuddhaiii-only-by-being-content-and-cherishing-our-blessings-can-we-find-happiness/

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