9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
1 Timothy 6:9-10
This turns out not to be entirely the case, according to Buddhism, because suffering also comes from attachment to greed for sex, power, and more, as well as from hatreds of all kinds, and the full range of delusions.
But it is close enough to get started with.
For example, see Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine, which I wrote about for Readers and Book Lovers last Saturday, and will again in a week. It is about a decades-long shared delusion among economists and governments, of Friedmanite Market Fundamentalism, leading to economic and military coups in dozens of countries, from Chile to Israel. They reached their peak in the W administration with the Iraq War and the Hurricane Katrina disaster, which reduced New Orleans to the state of Baghdad in a matter of days. Fortunately, since then they have been receding fairly rapidly in many countries around the world, including in Bidenomics.
First Epistle to Timothy
The authorship of First Timothy was traditionally attributed to the Apostle Paul, although in pre-Nicene Christianity this attribution was open to dispute.[4] He is named as the author of the letter in the text (1:1). Nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship questioned the authenticity of the letter, with many scholars suggesting that First Timothy, along with Second Timothy and Titus, are not the work of Paul, but to an unidentified Christian writing some time in the late-first to mid-second centuries.[5] Most scholars now affirm this view.[6][7]
In early Buddhist practice, monks/bhikkhus could not handle money. They were restricted to just a few personal possessions each, and had to beg for food every day. Later on, many Buddhist organizations modified the old rules on food, possessions, and money, while trying to maintain the basic practice of living without attachment, in order to learn to be completely unselfish.
But let us have a real koan.
47. The Stingy Artist
Gessen was an artist monk. Before he would start a drawing or painting he always insisted upon being paid in advance, and his fees were high. He was known as the "Stingy Artist."
A geisha once gave him a commission for a painting. "How much can you pay?" inquired Gessen.
"Whatever you charge," replied the girl, "but I want you to do the work in front of me."
So on a certain day Gessen was called by the geisha. She was holding a feast for her patron.
Gessen with fine brush work did the painting. When it was completed he asked the highest sum of his time.
He received his pay. Then the geisha turned to her patron, saying: "All this artist wants is money. His paintings are fine but his mind is dirty; money has caused it to become muddy. Drawn by such a filthy mind, his work is not fit to exhibit. It is just about good enough for one of my petticoats."
Removing her skirt, she then asked Gessen to do another picture on the back of her petticoat.
"How much will you pay?" asked Gessen.
"Oh, any amount," answered the girl.
Gessen named a fancy price, painted the picture in the manner requested, and went away.
It was learned later that Gessen had these reasons for desiring money:
A ravaging famine often visited his province. The rich would not help the poor, so Gessen had a secret warehouse, unknown to anyone, which he kept filled with grain, prepared for those emergencies.
From his village to the National Shrine the road was in very poor condition and many travellers suffered while traversing it. He desired to build a better road.
His teacher had passed away without realizing his wish to build a temple, and Gessen wished to complete this temple for him.
After Gessen had accomplished his three wishes he threw away his brushes and artist's materials and, retiring to the mountains, never painted again.
What’s your money koan?
Mine are Free Software, Creative Commons content, and ending global poverty and oppression, which can be done at a vast profit for some tens of billions of dollars a year. I am not going to raise that kind of money, but I can talk about the shame, and indeed bad karma, of a world that refuses to take on such a project because the profits will go to those now suffering poverty and abuse, not to megacorporations with major political clout.
A modest global wealth tax could take care of it, and at the same time deal with Global Warming, dread diseases, and some other pressing matters.
Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
Anonymous