It’s a pity that when we talk about wealth, we almost exclusively think about money and material possessions. Yet this is only one way of being wealthy.

     We have two sides to our being: the body, and the mental or spiritual—the outer and the inner. And both must be cared for. If we neglect the body and do not feed it, it will die; if we neglect the spirit, it will dry up.

     In a materialistic society, the emphasis is on external wealth, and the result is that we are out of balance with ourselves. One Master said: "What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul?"

     Looking on worldly wealth as a liability and a burden, the same Master said: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven", and exhorted people to sell their possessions and give their money to the poor. The poor would then be poor no longer; who then, would they pass the burdens to?

     In itself—like a knife on the table—material wealth can do nothing; it depends upon how it is used. Without it, how would it be possible to help the starving in Africa, for example? Such use of material wealth is a manifestation of spiritual wealth.

Worse than being poor is to think you are poor, for then you have condemned yourself to poverty. A person who knows of the Way must consider himself rich, for was not the Buddha the richest man in the world, without a single cent? A person of few wants and needs is rich, while one of many desires is poor.

There are many ways to be rich,

and many ways to be poor,

not just in terms of money.