ZEN I GOT RICH

How to Be a Zen-Rich Person According

to The Money Café 

Zen . . . does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
— Alan Watts

Zen on this webpage is used in the context of combining meditation and reflection with the task of getting your financial affairs, career, and personal life in order. In this regard, the following principles work in enhancing both emotional and financial prosperity.

No doubt some self-appointed critics will take no time in asking, "Where is the Zen on this webpage?" As any Zen master would reply, "Zen is where you find it."

Being truly rich, Zen-Rich in other words, can be elusive indeed. You take yourself with you whereever you go. So if you are coming from a state of poverty consciousness, how can you ever feel rich. As they say in Zen: If you can't find it where you are standing, where do you expect to wander in search of it?

As a Zen-Rich Person, your individuality will really stand out when you are able to go against what everyone else is doing. Granted, this takes guts. But the fact that you don't have to be cool and trendy will confirm your individuality.

Those who have not found their true wealth, which the radiant joy of Being [enlightenment] and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great wealth.
— Eckhart Tolle

The defining moment of your uniqueness and that you are Zen-Rich will be when you start a major trend all by yourself. Of course, when friends, advertisers, and trend-seekers have adopted your unique way of being, this is a good sign that it's time to move on to something different.

Miguel de Cervantes advised, "Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world." The more you know and accept yourself, the less you have to try and impress others.

Make no mistake, my friend, it takes more than money to make men rich.
— A. P. Gouthey

True wealth has nothing to do with money. True wealth is built from friends and family, from experiences and relationships — it is derived from a life filled with meaning. Without these things, money means nothing. Do yourself a favor this week, and spend some time with the people you love.

Zen Tid-Bit #1 to Help You Be Zen-Rich

Banzan, a famous Zen master, spent a long time pursuing enlightenment. For years enlightenment eluded him. As he was walking in the marketplace one day, he heard a customer say to a butcher, "Can you give me the best piece of meat you have?"

"Every piece of meat I have," replied the butcher, "is the best. There is no piece of meat in my selection that is not the best."  Upon hearing this, Banzan was instantly enlightened.

The moral of this parable is straightforward: Accept what you have — the piece of meat you are eating or the friends you have — and it will be the best.

Moreover, the moment you are living right now is the best — because it is the only one you have and the only one you can live right now.

Zen Tid-Bit #2 to Help You Be Zen-Rich

An enlighted Zen Master always responded to others' outbursts of judgments, criticism, arguments, and ridicule with kindness, peace, and love.

One of his followers asked the Master how he could possibly be so kind and serene in the face of such negative things directed his way.

The Master replied, "If someone offers you a gift, and you refuse
to accept the gift, to whom does the gift belong?" 

Zen Tid-Bit #3 to Help You Be Zen-Rich

Zen tells us not to envy or be resentful. This takes away from life instead of adding to it. You add to life by loving the people who have more than you. When you resent someone for what they have or how successful they are, you cannot become like them because you would have to become someone you resent.

Zen Tid-Bit #4 to Help You Be Zen-Rich

Zen masters tell us that life must be enjoyed while it's happening, and not sometime in the future. In this regard, you were given 86,400 seconds for living today. Be honest with yourself. How many have you enjoyed so far?

Your goal should be to make your stay on earth as close to Heaven as it can be. Indeed, Zen Masters tell us that there is no sense to waiting for Heaven. Zen says that this is life and today this is Heaven.

Zen Quotes, Zen Proverbs, and Zen Sayings

to Help You Become Zen-Rich

Don't complain about the ruts in the road.
The ruts are the road.
— Zen Saying

You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments, or publicity.
— Dr. O. A. Battista

He who enjoys good health is rich, though he knows it not.
— Italian proverb

To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
— Chuang-tzu

Enlightenment doesn't care how you get there.
— from The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas

There was no way out of my boring job;
Zen there was!
I read Career Success WITHOUT a Real Job.
— Author Unknown

 Being rich is having money. Being wealthy is having time.
— Stephen Swid

If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.
— Henry Ford

Preoccupation with money is the great test of small natures, but only a small test of great ones.
— Sébastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort (1741-94), French writer, wit. Maxims and Considerations, vol. 1, no. 164 (1796; tr. 1926).

If you want to know how rich you really are, find out what would be left of you tomorrow if you should lose every dollar you own tonight.
— William J. H. Boetcker

I would not exchange my leisure hours for all the wealth in the world.
— Comte de Mirabeau

Make no mistake, my friend, it takes more than money to make men rich.
— A. P. Gouthey

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
— Thoreau

When you are sailing in the direction you want to go, any wind is the right wind.
— Author Unknown

Imagine that you are in control of your life.
Now, the question is:
Why do you have to imagine this?
— from Look Ma; Life's Easy an inspirational parable by Ernie Zelinski

I have the greatest of riches: That of not desiring them.
— Eleonora Duse
 
Those who have easy, cheerful attitudes tend to be happier than those with less pleasant temperaments regardless of money, 'making it', or success.
— Joyce Brothers

Money is what you make it. Depending upon who you are — and your state of mind — money can be anything you want it to be. Money can be: The root of all evil; Or that which answers all things; Or something that burns a hole in your pocket; Or a means to freedom; Or an interesting concept; Or even a stupid concept. Whatever value you place on money, you must take responsibility for it. If money is evil to you, you created it being evil. If money is a problem to you, you created it being a problem. If money is joy to you, you created this concept. Take responsibility for your concepts. And be clear that these are just concepts. Nothing more and nothing less.
— from the book Career Success WITHOUT a Real Job

Wealth after all is a relative thing since he that has little and wants less is richer than he that has much and wants more.
— C. C. Colton

All states of consciousness [ including being rich ] are available right now.
— from The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas

What did you think it was that needed to be loved?
— from The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas

When you learn to love hell, you will be in heaven.
— from The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas

Whatever you are doing, love yourself for doing it.
— from The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas

Paradise is within reach and even the Lazy Man can find it.
— from The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas

So little time, so little to do.
— Oscar Levant

The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
— Robert M. Pirsig 

The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.
— Shunryu Suzuki

I've always wondered if there was a god. And now I know there is — and it's me.
— Homer Simpson 

The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly deceived.
— Oscar Wilde

How nice it is to do nothing all day and then rest afterward.
— Spanish proverb

Real wealth equals ideas plus energy.
— Buckminster Fuller

Money appears to be easier to come by than happiness. There aren't too many happy neurotics, but there are many rich ones.
— from Money Madness by Herb Goldberg and Robert T. Lewis

He is very rich and he is very poor. Money cannot buy him creative fulfillment.
— Julia Cameron

If your Riches are yours, why don't you take them with you to t'other world?
— Benjamin Franklin
  

The Money Cafe is brought to you by Ernie J. Zelinski, an innovator and content creator of best-selling books, creative free e-books, and websites.

Ernie Zelinski is the author of the international bestsellers How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free (over 125,000 copies sold and published in 8 foreign languages) and The Joy of Not Working (over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages).

THE MONEY CAFÉ COPYRIGHT © 2011 by Ernie J. Zelinski
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