I Need More Money!
Philosophy By Grandmaster Henry Sue
Sometimes you will say to yourself ‘I need more money’ Others times you will say ‘I need to become healthier’. So which one should take priority? None really, because it’s all about ‘balance’.
Let me explain:
It’s hard to have good health without money in today’s world as good food, gyms, health practitioners, accommodation, ect (the list could go on and on) costs money. But the problem starts when you work hard because of greed. You want to make a lot of money because you want to be considered successful, but how much money is enough money? It is never enough, because the human mind is never satisfied. First you have one car, than you want another. When you have paid off your own home, you want to buy one for your children. Your bank account is never big enough.
What ends up happening is that you work so hard for so long that you neglect your health. You work hard until the day you die. By the time you do feel that you have made enough money, in most cases it is too late. You have traded your health in for money. You can always make more money but can you always make more health. Once a kidney, liver or heart is no good anymore it is very hard to find a replacement, and not to mention the quality of your life you are left with?
So how do we avoid trading in our health for money? Well first we need to understand the root of the problem. So what we will do is go through some common situations where peoples ways of thinking are the cause of the problem.
Don’t think of this generation, think of the next!
One problem or mindset that really stands out to me especially in China is the philosophy of: You don’t think of this generation, you only think of the next generation.
You work hard now, so that your children will have it easier. You think of planting a tree now so that the next generation can enjoy the fruits it will carry.
You tell yourself that what you are doing is for your children and that your children should not have to live the hard life that you have lived, but you neglect yourself and forget to enjoy yourself. Is this a healthy or unhealthy attitude?
You may tell yourself that if I work hard and make a lot of money I can send my kids to the best schools for the best education that money can buy. But even though you may be very proud to be able to say that your son is a lawyer or a doctor, you first you have to remember: that we cannot travel the roads for our children that they have to travel in order for them to pick up wisdom that they need to learn to live a successful and fruitful life.
How can they pickup wisdom if they don’t travel the roads that enrich them with that knowledge themselves?
Just like a knife. If it has never been bashed, spat on and rubbed against a hard and tough surface, it will never become sharp.
The alternative is to keep the knife wrapped in silk in a beautiful box stored away to keep it safe and to preserve it’s beauty. But the end result will be that it will stay ‘blunt’ and become useless. This is true for human beings also. Just like the knife that had to travel the hard road of being bashed against a hard surface, spat on and worked to a sharp blade, once done it is then capable of creating beauty.
The knife is now sharp enough to sculpt with precision and create fine detail that can only be done after a hard road of preparation and experience has been traveled. This is also a very important point for all the kung Fu students out there to take note of. Nothing extraordinary can come from training ordinary or being ordinary.
For example, what if your son becomes a lawyer or doctor but has not travelled the path that has made him passionate about his chosen profession, and instead has only chosen this line of work for the money or to please his parents based on their passion for money or stature.
His aim then becomes to make more money and eventually to make more money than his father. He then decides that he will only take on clients or patients who have lots of money and if you do not have enough money he may decide not to defend you or treat you. This person becomes selfish and forgets that we cannot live in this world on our own. In the olden days in China it is said that the doctor ‘should have the heart of a parent’.
In other words, he should care about the people before thinking about his pay. Treating the person as a human being came first, paying for the medicine later. Now if you do not train your children to appreciate the real ‘value’ of people, like true love, friendship and appreciation, you will only focus on the ‘power’ of money. You will only care about yourself and your own wealth. You won’t care about people because you have not learned the importance of interacting with them or understanding what they have accomplished or been through.
‘My father said without money you can’t do anything’
Maybe you focus on money is because you want to impress people. ‘My father said without money you can’t do anything’. So you focus on fast cars, expensive wine and showing off. You do not know how important health is, because you have not learned the importance of it. You did not teach them to go to the mountains and enjoy nature or to walk instead of drive, in other words how to enjoy a healthy life style. All you focused on was making money, but you cannot have a healthy body if you don’t have a healthy mind.
Because you have worked very hard for your children you build high expectations within yourself. But don’t expect too much of them, as you may not understand the values of human relationships. They have never experienced hardship as they were given everything. But hardship is ‘learning in disguise’. It gives us wisdom and brings meaning to our lives.
In the midst of all your own misery you will notice the number of people who are struggling alongside you. You will learn to appreciate those people, especially the ones that help you and the ones that you help. In the process you learn about life. You learn about anxiety, needs, disappointments and desperation. Above all you’ll learn about the true value of friendship and how to be a good human being.
How much money do we really need anyway? The more we eat the fatter we get. Too much wine leads to all sorts of diseases. But people who only focus on money think that you can ‘buy’ your health. After all, when you are sick you can easily go to a first class hospital and will be well looked after. But can you really? Even a billionaire can die early if he does not look properly after his body. If something serious happens there is not enough money in the world to help you. You cannot buy your way out of death. All the money in the world will not help you then. But by that time it will be well and truly too late.
So how should we balance it then? Of course we can help our children and they do not have to suffer as we did, but they still have to find their own way. Don’t rob them of the experience. Remember that through hardship, you became to understand life and through those experiences that you gained the wisdom to become a better person.
Make sure that you build a healthy physical and mental life for your next generation, not just a wealthy life. Your dream should never be just about more money, your dream should first of all be about a healthy mind and a healthy body for your children. After all, what good is all your money if you’re sick or dead?
So this generation has to change its attitude. Honesty, gratitude, appreciation, true friendship, reliability, trustworthiness and punctuality are some of the more important things that count. Realize that if you work too hard and too long and your health gets affected, all the money is no longer any good to you. Now, don’t get lazy, work to normal human ability and leave some time to play.
Anything that we do, we need to be rewarded for. After you have worked hard, do something totally different that you like, go fishing, play golf, relax. That way you totally rejuvenate mentally and physically. The enjoyment you get from this will give you a reason to work for, otherwise the only reason may be to support the next generation.
Look after yourself and make it a little easier for the next generation, but not too easy.
Every person is important in his or her own right. If you help someone today, he or she may help you tomorrow. Do things for the right reasons. Don’t expect anything in return. If you do good to some person it will come back to you. If you believe in destiny, fate or Karma, every good force you send out, will grow into something nice. You may not see the good that happens, but it will. Like a bird that takes a seed away and that makes a tree grow somewhere else. It’s not about us. You should not want too much of anything. We should balance our lives and share it with the people we love. Money comes second. As the Chinese say ‘There are three wealths in life, and they come in this order: 1. Happiness 2. Health in mind and body 3. Profession’.
Imagine if you have a lot of money and you’re not happy. This is not a good way to live. Learn the wisdom of life through hardship and use that wisdom to help others. Many people who are very rich are looking for a true friend or true love, but these are the things that you cannot buy. True friends don’t expect anything, they help you when you are in need, poor or ‘in the dumps’, they don’t care how rich you are.
Money is important, but put it in the right perspective. ‘Money cannot buy health, but with health you can earn money’ or as some wise man once said in China ‘When you have a green mountain, you’re never short of firewood’. Keep your mountain green.
Grandmaster Henry Sue
P.S. I would love to hear your thoughts or feedback on the above Philosophy newsletter, and please if you have any questions in regards to the above newsletter don’t hesitate to ask using the comments area below and I will do my best to answer your questions as soon as possible.
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