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A guide to financial planning based on the Buddha's words.
1. Who should enjoy wealth
A monastic involved with money is like a small boat with a leak
as money enables the renounced to buy things, services, pleasures, etc.
Soon, there will be many leaks in the boat. Some claim that money is only a
"small rule." But it is nevertheless a rule,
otherwise the Buddha would not have introduced it. This "small
rule" prevents a small leak in the boat.
If monastics become super-wealthy and
live comfortably, the authorities might start to tax them. Then what is the
difference between a serious, hard-working lay practitioner and an affluent
monk who lives on the generosity of others?
A monastic who wants to deal with money should dis-robe and work as a lay Dharma worker, where he
could use his management skills or do social work, etc, and be just as or
even more effective, if he is not attached to a uniform and prestige.
Lay Buddhists, however, can and should enjoy all the wealth they
want, but in a Dharma-inspired, meritorious and wholesome way.
2. How to plan your finances
In the Adiya Sutta
(A 5.41), the Buddha advises us to plan
our finances in this way:
He divides his wealth into four: One part he should enjoy,
With two he invests in his work, And the fourth he should save
Should there be any misfortune.
In other words, we should "enjoy" the first quarter
(25%) of our income or wealth, that is, to bring joy or satisfaction to our
daily living; half (50%) should be usefully invested; and the last quarter
(25%) should be saved.
3. How to enjoy your wealth
Putting together the teachings of the Dighajanu
Sutta (A
8.54) and the Anana Sutta (A 4.62 ), we have the following advice for lay Buddhists
regarding wealth:
(1) Accomplishment of diligence, leading to the joy of
ownership.
(2) Accomplishment of watchfulness, leading to the joy of
enjoyment.
(3) Spiritual friendship, leading to the joy of blamelessness.
(4) Balanced livelihood, leading to the joy of debtlessness.
By (1) is meant that if you work hard and earn money morally and
non-violently, you would feel a great sense of satisfaction at your work
and that your wealth is rightfully ained.
By (2) is meant that you should guard your hard-earned wealth
ell so that you do not lose it through natural disasters, legal oblems, exploitation or foolishness. In other words,
you ould keep your wealth safe (eg in a good bank) or invest it ay by buying
insurance).
By (3) is meant that you should avoid friends and places hich are not conducive to your practice. Bad friends
not only drain your energy but also get you into trouble easily.
Frequenting places like red-light areas and gambling joints will surely
lead to various disasters (see the Sigalovada Sutta, D 31). Breaking the precepts also leads to loss
of wealth in various ways.
By (4) is meant that you should live within your means. If you
have the means, live reasonably well, take proper food, dress well, go for wholesome holidays and retreats where you
can do some meditation. A great advantage of having surplus wealth is that
you can easily discharge your debts and do good works. If you are not rich,
live within you budget.
4. Planning your finances
According to the Adiya Sutta (A 5.41), the first quarter (25%) of our income
or wealth set aside for personal consumption, can be put into five
wholesome uses, namely:
(1) personal and family use;
(2) for the benefit of friends;
(3) as security and insurance;
(4) the fivefold offering: to relatives, to guests, to the
departed, to the government (as payment of taxes, etc), and to devas;
(5) for supporting worthy Dharma
practitioners.
(1) Charity begins at home by making sure your family and dwelling are well provided for, and that there are
enough savings. (If you are living alone, your Dharma friends and wholesome
companions are your family (see Dh 204.)
(2) Charity begins at home, but should not end there. Beyond the
family, friends are our next sphere of happiness. A wise, generous person
is well loved by friends.
(3) As already mentioned in point 2, section 3 "How to
enjoy your wealth", you should wisely protect your wealth.
(4) Needs some careful consideration. Use your surplus when it
is rightful and necessary, to benefit relatives and friends.
"The departed" here refers to our ancestors.
Remembering the good they have done can be a positive bond we keep with
living family members, too. At the end of our meditations, with a peaceful
mind, we should dedicate merits to the departed with loving kindness.
"The devas" here refers to
the deities worshiped by some lay followers who had not yet fully adopted
the Buddha's teachings but still followed some cultural beliefs during the
Buddha's times. If you do not worship devas (like
most Sinhalese, Myanmarese or Thais do), you need
not do so as all beings (including the devas) are included in the cultivation of loving
kindness. For the modern practitioner, this advice refers to keeping a
suitable and simple shrine at home (if we like), spending the Buddhist holidays
in a proper and happy way, and respecting nature and our environment.
5. How Buddhist pledges work
The fifth use of wealth for supporting worthy Dharma
practitioners as stated in the Adiya Sutta,
is very significant. If we have the means, we should support good monastics (by giving them the four monastic
necessities, but not cash) and lay Dharma workers (financially and non financially).
Monastics are
generally well supported by the Buddhist public, but not the lay Dharma
workers who are new to the scene today. Full-time lay Dharma workers have
to work harder than monastics because, unlike monastics, Dharma workers have to seek funds for their
Dharma work and to support themselves. Furthermore, they lack the uniformed
charisma of the monastics. In order to support
the good work of lay Dharma workers, we need to look beyond charisma.
Pledges are also known as "regular giving" (nicca,dana). It is a kind of
training in commitment in merit, in faith, in joy and in a vision that we
can do much more together in order to bring greater happiness to ourselves
and others, in where we live and even beyond. It is a practice in loving
kindness where we show active loving kindness beyond ourselves.
An excerpt from http://dharmafarer.org, edited by FOR YOU.
Piya Tan (Tan Beng Sin), a former Theravada monk of 20 years, is a
full-time lay Dharma worker who works on an annotated translation of the
early Pali Suttas and
runs Sutta Discovery classes at the Buddhist
Fellowship Centre, The Minding Centre, Poh Ming Tse and Singapore Buddhist Missions. He also founded
The Minding Centre, which provides Dharma-based non-religious service to
those in need of counsel and solace by way of meditation and education.
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