Enlightened Human

Don't need a car... public transport is good enough. Apartment flat is big enough. Salary ample. What's missing? What is material well being? It is simply contentment. I'm wealthy already!

"Contentment is the greatest wealth," taught the Buddha. How true! One can have lots of money and want and want, buying and buying... Yes, maybe he does get much of what he wants materially, again and again. But does he ever have "enough?" As long as there is the wanting mind of greed, one is never "rich," just a "poor" slave of desire. What price freedom? Could it ever be bought?

It was the Buddha who told His Father King Shuddhodana when He remarked that "A 'Prince' should not beg for his food," that "It is a tradition that all Buddhas eat only offered alms." The truly rich man is the free one, unbounded by ideas of prestige and wealth, who comes and goes as he pleases without obstacles. The Buddha was such a person. Can we say that He did not inherit His Father's kingdom, much as the King wished, afterall? Well, He did much more, He "conquered" much of the world with His Wisdom and Compassion. He is a King beyond time. Even we today two and a half millennia later, as Buddhists, are His loyal "subjects" singing His praises! And yet He was one who lived a simple humble life! True wealth is immeasurable-the Buddha has got to be the richest person ever to appear in all history!

http://www.freewebs.com/kjagtap/buddha.pdf