Wealth in the Present and Happiness in the Future

By Category: Buddhism in Everyday LifeTags:

Everyone in this world wants to have wealth and live a carefree life. They also want a good rebirth. Richness in this life and pleasure in the next are the hallmarks of a successful life.

In the Sumati Sutra, the Buddha defined a “successful life” to be wealth in this life and happiness in the next life. Having wealth in the present life includes an elegant, proper appearance, attaining wealth and nobility, keeping one’s family from destruction, living blamelessly, and being trusted by others. Having happiness in the next life includes being reborn in the presence of a Buddha, seeing Buddhas at the end of life, gaining supernatural powers, completely eliminating Dharma obstacles, and forever leaving behind Mara. All these benefits can be gained by practicing the Buddha’s teachings.

As the Buddha answered Sumati’s ten questions, he provided
four methods of practice for each.

The core of the Dharma is the Bodhisattva path, the practice of Mahayana Bodhisattvas. What makes Bodhisattvas special is their initial vow, the promise to attain Buddhahood and liberate sentient beings.

They endeavor to serve others, not only for their own fulfillment, but also to bring sentient beings’ peace and happiness.

In Buddhism, people are called “beings formed from the arising of many conditions,” usually translated as simply as “living beings.” There is no one within the world who could exist on their own. To live we all rely on many other factors. Each person can only exist after a great multitude of causes and conditions come together. Anyone who wishes to succeed must first learn to become part of the group.

People’s actions create various kinds of positive and negative karmic effects, and thus people have different destinies. However, destiny is not fixed. It can be changed. An individual’s presence, a given occurrence, a single sentence, a little money, or even one thought can all change a person’s destiny.

Once, there was a novice monastic who was destined such that he only had seven days left to life. But he happened to save the lives of some ants, and the power of that wholesome action extended his lifespan of seven days to eighty years. Destiny is not fixed. If practitioners cultivate wholesome actions and merit, their destiny can be changed.

We can cultivate wholesome actions and merit by aiming to benefit all beings. Once we give rise to the bodhi mind by setting our intention to attain enlightenment, we are already Bodhisattvas. By continuing down the paths of happiness as taught by the Buddha, we can attain wealth in this life and happiness in the next.

Read more from Ten Paths to Happiness, by Venerable Master Hsing Yun.

Image from Pixabay.

More Featured Articles

To Think Positively
Humans are thinking animals! Since the beginning of time, there have always been people who fantasize, who have delusions, who dream—and many who have ideals. When we lie in our beds at night, we should be free from worry. Yet thoughts about our lives often arise then; thoughts about family, country, or even the world. Everything is within our minds.The average person often tends to Read more
Do Not Give Arise to Anger
Buddhism says we should see friends and enemies as equal. This means we should learn to tolerate unfriendly people, unideal environments, and language that is hard on the ears. Read more
The Significance of Breathing
In the Sutra of Forty-Two Sections, the Buddha asked his disciples, "How long is one's life?" One of the monks replied, "A few years." The next one answered, "A few days!" Another one said, "Less than one day!" Another responded, "Between meals!" Finally, the Buddha said, "Life lasts for the duration of one breath." Life is extraordinarily precious and yet it is based on a Read more
Not Lying
Trustworthy WordsIf you lie, you will not be trusted. If you cannot be trusted, you will be ineffective in your own life and useless to other people. Lies hurt others because they damage their trust and their sense of what is right and wrong. This is a very serious kind of damage; it wastes time, frightens people and causes them to doubt their basic intuitions Read more
A Moment and an Eternity of the Mind
What is the fastest thing in the universe? Of course, everyone knows it is light, which moves at three hundred thousand kilometers per second. However, in Buddhism, the fastest thing is not light but a person’s mind. The speed of mind is several hundred times faster than light and is not limited by time and space. In a flash you can think of Li Bo, Read more
The Web of Human Relationships
Human beings are social animals; we cannot live apart from community. As Buddhists, we are told to seek the Dharma among the people, for the Dharma does not exist in some other world or far away place; the Dharma is here among us, embodied in each and every being. When we understand that human society is nothing other than a web of human relationships, we Read more
The Unsurpassed Value of Impermanence
Birth and death are realities of life. Regardless of who we are, we cannot escape either one. While birth is celebrated, death is feared by most. In order to cope with our fear, we often seek comfort in religion. Although each of the world's major religious traditions has its own teaching concerning death, Buddhism is the only one that promotes the doctrine of impermanence as one Read more
The Beauty of Being Natural
All these naturally beautiful landscapes of the world are odes of praise to the beauty and wonder of nature. The beauty of nature is really enchanting and fascinating! Read more
True Stature
True stature is not created by form or ornament; words spoken out of jealousy and greed oppose it. Only when evil has been stopped at its roots, and when there is wisdom without anger is there true stature.— Dharmapadavadana Sutra The False Stature of This WorldEveryone wants to be well regarded by others. However, in seeking true stature, people too often waste their time in Read more
The Strength of Commitment
To "commit" is to give assurance to others and to make a conscientious effort to deliver a promise. To instill credibility and trustworthiness, we must honor our words. Confucius once said, "One without credibility is like a large vehicle without a brake pedal, or a small carriage without axles. How can one go anywhere?"Living up to one's word is a basic courtesy. In past agricultural Read more
I Am Not a Monk “Sponging Off” Buddhism (I)
At the many places I engaged in practice and study—at places such as Qixia in Nanjing, Jinshan and Jiaoshan in Zhenjiang, and Tianning in Changzhou, where I was brought up experiencing spring breezes, summer rains, autumn frosts, and winter snows—I studied silently and grew up quietly. I was always thinking as to how I could repay Buddhism’s kindness. I could not make a living by depending on Buddhism over Read more
Have Respect for Life
Life is the most precious thing in the world, so it is imperative that we respect it in all its forms. Not only must we have regard for human life, we must also respect animal life and the life of any organism in our ecosystem. The worst offense a person can ever commit is to violate the life of others, or even to cause harm Read more