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Why must you live an "opulent" life? (Because) "sense of opulence" is the essential "seed money" for you to move upwards in life. “Opulence" here means an “extra margin" in your heart. A person with “an extra margin in his heart" has "space" in doing things and thus has variance and creativity in thinking and ideas. Then you will have the abilities to go upwards in life.
Whether you can live in the sense of opulence now also has something to do with your parents because fathers' habits become sons' constraints. Take those born in the 60s and 70s in Taiwan for example——their parents, born in the 30s and 40s, are used to being frugal due to war or poverty. Literally frugality is not wrong; however, extreme frugality makes a person habitually stingy to himself. "Becoming stingy to oneself" then is a huge mistake……
A person stingy to himself has indeed become someone who "only believes in money". The energy state of his heart is often "whirling tight" without any marginal space. For example, some parents, born in the 30s and 40s, the times of poverty, work very hard, and save money very hard, too. With the saved money, they invest and buy real estate ferociously, and become the so-called rich men as expected; however, they do not live a life of "opulence". The reason——They think that money is very important, and it is all hard-earned; therefore, they do not pay much attention to the pleasure and quality of life. They have lots of attachments so that they even live like wretched skinflints. For example, someone gives them a gift, which they will put to good use no matter what. Since there is already something available, they will begrudge to buy similar things that they really like or that are of better quality. Or there are probably a lot of problems in the house, but they would spend only small amounts of money to make scrappy changes. They are simply unwilling to have a designer fix the problems totally and upgrade the whole house. In their agenda, they always feel that they can just do it on their own. But in fact, it is all because of their begrudging attachments that they are putting up with things. So sometimes you go to a rich man’s home and you raise eyebrows at how he lives his life. Paradoxically, he has all his children study medicine or doctoral degrees abroad.
Indeed, they seemingly have the heart to spend money on their children. However, it is not out of "Opulence", but it becomes a matter of reputation and a "point of honor" so that they lavish fantastic sums. Their children truly feel that living under the eyes of such parents is very boring and stressful (because such parents care only about their grades and performances). Therefore, when these children grow up, they would choose to keep a distance from parents. Then the parents would wonder if their children are full-fledged and prepared to leave them, or else why do they give them a wide berth? But the parents would not examine themselves. Instead, out of insecurity, they use money to control their children. For example, they would plan to buy their child a house near them, tempting the child to live closer. Or they would hint that only the obedient child would have the biggest bankroll, etc....... Then, the child who is not greedy for parents' property would work and carve out a niche of his own. But if the child happens to be insecure, he would covet parents’ money and would not have both feet on the ground and be responsible for his own life. He would try to please the parents for "money", deviating from his right direction, and suppressing many emotions he has against his parents. So, with lots of abnormalities and distortions, he can neither develop well in life nor can he feel opulent from his heart.
Thus, in terms of figures on deposit, such parents are very rich, but they have lived all their lives for the gazes of others. They have lived in a very self-conscious and uncomfortable manner. In fact, they have remained in poverty.
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Another group of the parents born in the 20s and 30s is poor in terms of both money and mentality. These parents seldom see beyond their noses. They do not know how to use money to cultivate themselves or make investments. The money they earn is all spent on daily life before they know it. In this way, they remain unable to save the first barrel of gold. They are even chased by bills. Accordingly, they distance themselves more and more from others in terms of wealth. Finally, they fall below the poverty threshold. Being poor, they will think in a more conservative way and become the kind of people who are mean to themselves. They will be even more unwilling to pay for the "must-spend". (Poverty stifles ambition.) The result is a circle of poverty. Even in the era of economic take-off, they cannot go up with the overall trend.
The third group of the parents truly has a "margin" in the heart and lives out opulence. In addition to financial management, they also know how to use it for pleasure in life, which will nourish and "broaden" the heart. When one's heart is broadened (which means having a margin), he can accept more angles in thinking. He has the courage to invest money in the right time. He will not pinch pennies necessary for pleasure. Thus, he has an extensive contact with the society. He can see and understand the trend of the times. When these people become parents, their gaps with the next generation will be narrower. Consequently, such families will have better development later. Besides more and more opulence, the parents, in their old age, tend to have a more amicable relationship with their children. Such families will thrive.
These are the three types of family the parents born in the 30s and 40s have developed: Rich Poverty, Poor Poverty, and True Opulence. Who is from what family? We believe you can find corresponding examples in real life. After that, you might as well observe the grandpas and grandmas in those families. What are their tendencies? You will see the foregoing contexts (of cause and consequence) and their true existence.
Only those from the family of "True Opulence" are genuinely “grateful" to life. At the same time, when they see the life patterns of the Rich Poverty and the Poor Poverty families (and their distortions), they come to realize (that is, "Self-Examine") more easily. Thus, they will be clearer about what the right direction is, what should be done in their lives and for their families so that they can truly feel more joys and graces. Then they will carry on their right "devotion" to this future and enjoy more "opulence" in opulence.
So why is "opulence" super important? The reason is, when you are situated in opulence, you will see "Gratitude" and "Self-Examination" through this opulence, and then you will do the right thing and truly "devote" yourself to your future. As it would be very hard for you to make a person, wealthy but stingy to himself, see "Gratitude", so would it be very hard for you to make a person, living below the poverty line and hard-pressed every day, see "Gratitude". Only "Opulence" will enable you to get rid of the pattern in which you make decisions based on the "Insecurity" of your mind.
So how can you kick off and get into "opulence"? The key is, when you "Have" something, you start from this "Have" and develop "Gratitude" and "Self-Examination". With gratitude and self-examination, you will find that your heart begins to have a "margin". (It is not what this sentence means literally. True "comprehension" comes after you have put it into practice.) Then, you will be able "not to save money" on the "must-buy", and not to be conservative on the "must-jump-start". As a result, no matter what situation you are in, you will gradually move upwards.
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Why must life be gradually moving upwards by doing so? The reason is, a person with a "margin" will not be caught easily with "fear of the mind" and "insecurity". Because he is not to be caught by fear easily, he can value quality of life. The person who "values quality of life", however, will not haphazardly splurge as some people think because he will have been practicing Gratitude as we have mentioned. Instead, his "enjoying life" includes the "Devotion" derived from "Gratitude + Self-Examination"——In other words, he is even more willing to make an extra effort for people around him and for quality of his work. Therefore, valuing the quality of life connects him with good people and things year by year; and because of his willingness to devote himself, eminences to promote him and good opportunities for him will gradually emerge. Then he will have broader horizons and more opportunities for development. His life, of course, will keep moving upwards.
On the other hand, although someone has made a fortune, if he has been living in insecurity without any "margin" in his heart, he will lead himself and his family to sink gradually. For example, he is a narrow-minded person with no quality of life. His children would feel suffocated and want to stay away from him, which makes him more insecure. He will even want to control his children with money. If the children are controlled by his money, then a supply-demand of "abnormally mutual agreement" will form. At first glance, they are parents and children, but in fact their relationship is like that among "spies", in which they observe words and gestures and exploit each other. At the same time, even these children themselves will fall into a relationship of calculation, comparison and competition. They temporarily maintain superficial harmony only because the parents are still alive. However, such karma as the so-called “Family suddenly declines” or "Wealth never survives three generations", is thus predestined.
Of course, in such a family, there will be children who live a healthier life and who can see their parents' fear and hidden agenda. Then they will keep a distance from parents and go live their own lives. However, due to attachment to family relationship, they always buy something better for their parents, hoping that they can experience the "opulence" and change the behavioral pattern of stinginess to themselves. However, these parents dislike things given by such children, making them feel very sad. In fact, these parents' subconscious OS (Overlapping Sound) is, "Why didn't you buy the most expensive for me? You should have given me the best.”
This is a pattern of abnormal behavior. They do not give themselves the best, but they ask their children to give them the best. The most important thing of a gift from a child is his regards, but they cannot see his “regards". They only see the fact that "we work so hard and spend money on you...", so they think they deserve the "best". But did these parents, wealthy but with poverty mindsets, actually "spend money on their children" in the past? In fact, it was not so. They consider their children to be their investment targets and they invest in "their own expectations". Some children try to influence their parents, hoping that they can be happier. However, if there is no wisdom in it, the children will continue to erode themselves and always cry in their hearts: "I love you both so much, but why can't you see?" Then, the child will work even harder to prove his ability and his love for parents, so he will become a “child begging for love”. He continues to suffer in constant frustrations and fall into the vortex of melancholy.
Such parents often lead to a worsening or even broken parent-child relationship. The Higher Spirit says that many wealthy Chinese families have such relationships. Later, those children with healthier mindsets will live on their own. They go home at most for the three festivals to share a meal, give red envelopes and do things that are cosmetic. So why is this? The reason is that parents of the family are used to being tight-fisted, and they have long lost "Gratitude + Self-Examination = Devotion" for what they have.
Therefore, you have no need to envy anyone born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Those from wealthy families are not necessarily enjoying opulence.
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Thus, "opulence" is indeed important. If you do not feel opulence in your life, even if someone tells you about business opportunities or where to meet nice people and things, you simply cannot see them, or you regard them as a puff of wind passing the ear and you hang back. Then you will continue to be poor, and do not know why your life remains unmoved. However, when you start to feel opulence in your heart through the practice of "Gratitude" and "Self-Examination", you will begin to erase your stereotypes (of fear and insecurity) and see that "in fact, my life can also be like this or that ......". When you have such sayings in your heart, congratulations! This means that you have seen a "picture of opulence" that belongs to your own future, which will be your hope and motivation to move forward. At this time, if you think about what you used to think and do before, you will find that almost all is about "other people’s opinions" or "others' respect"...... which you used to live for. But on seeing "opulence", you will clearly understand how meaningless those are.
It is at this point of time "when you finally see the path that belongs to you". This path is the one that Buddha truly wants to reveal to the world—— the path to "Let Yourself Become a Buddha" and "Achieve Your Unique Buddha World”.
Therefore, what is the so-called "Path to Buddhahood"? It is through "Awakening" to know how to "devote to Yourself" and achieve the “Opulence" of your own life.
"Going to heaven" in some religions is nothing else but the same idea! Thus, if you do not know how to make yourself live an opulent life while alive, then saying that you will go to heaven after death is meaningless. You simply cannot go in! You simply do not have that ticket.
So how do you go toward the "Buddha World"? "Opulence" is the path. Everyone should practically find out in everyday life what they should do next in "learning opulence". Such "practice" will not become illusory. The Higher Spirit says that when you really walk on the path of "learning opulence", the Buddhist scriptures you study will then be meaningful to you. You will not stay in the stage of chants or word analysis by the mind. The process of "learning opulence" will bring you a lot of small but tangible experiences, which lend you credence to the Buddhist scriptures and make you understand how the experienced people (Buddhas and Bodhisattvas) have gone through. Then you will really see many "Truths”!
If you do not approach the Buddhist scriptures this way, if you chant and regard it as an amulet, then the more you chant, the more you will become ignorant because you break away from real life and learning opulence. The more ignorant one becomes, the more insecure one will be, which instead forms another pattern of "being controlled by religion". Such manipulation is something that Buddha does not want anyone to fall into because it is a state of "falling asleep". Therefore, to learn from "Buddha" means to learn "Awakening", which means that you can see clearly from your real life every moment of yours and every person and thing around you, then you can get nourishment and growth from this real life. "Opulence" is the consequence of "Awakening", and it is the scenery on the Path to Bodhisattva. It is the real key leading you and your world to a win-win situation and giving you "proper knowledge and proper view". In the "opulence" is hidden the true "prajna wisdom" that will naturally liberate you from greed, anger and ignorance.
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