Money & Capital · Career & Wealth

What is money?

Money is merely a tool for realizing a way of living. What is a way of living?

Understand who I am, where I go, why, and how: goals, purpose, and belonging. I do not need money, but employees do; I do not need money, but charity does.

Everything serves me; its use serves only all beings!

Find the savor and enter “serving me”; find intention and enter “only for all beings.”

What I want is not money. I find earning it and watching it slowly increase interesting. Every morning going to the office, I feel I am going to church, to paint murals! To deliver more people!

Those who once treated money as dirt are gods revered and worshiped today.

If worshiping the God of Wealth made you rich, would the God of Wealth not be a corrupt official?

Shen Wansan treated money as dirt, saving country and people, winning their hearts and being honored as a God of Wealth.

Guan Yu refused a hundred taels of gold, valuing affection and loyalty, and public sentiment honored him as the Martial God of Wealth.

During national crisis and hunger, selling a measure of rice heaped to a point—no merchant without a heap—won people’s livelihoods and honor as a God of Wealth.

Every God of Wealth was once someone who transcended money and pleaded for all beings.

Worshiping the God of Wealth is worshiping transcendence, compassion, nobility, and spiritual attainment.

The secret behind worshiping the God of Wealth is not asking to become rich:

Revere noble people;

Repent your own vulgarity;

Pray to transcend the mundane.

Transcend the stench of money and attract copper and gold.

Transcend the mundane and become extraordinary; become extraordinary and rise above; rise above and lead; lead and be revered.

How can vulgar rouge and powder cultivate nobility?

How can someone reeking of money become great?

Deep: deep thought; deep thought creates things

Great: great relinquishment; great relinquishment gathers things

True: true love; true love wins things over

Abundant: abundant virtue; abundant virtue bears things

Broad: broad giving; broad giving sustains things

*Note:*

Deep thought: profound thinking, solving growth problems

Great relinquishment: giving people a sense of security

True love: the world’s greatest force is true love

Abundant virtue: being able to bear this undertaking; a fleeting bloom means you cannot bear it

Broad giving: only continual reserves

A bitter fate comes from what one brings upon oneself, unrelated to the outside world

A smooth fate comes from what cultivation attracts, unrelated to luck

Watching a number keep growing, it is easy to regard it as our wealth. Yet whether we can withdraw it, when, and at what cost often remain unanswered. Sometimes we own a realized result; sometimes only a possibility awaiting realization. Put these together, and our sense of security can exceed our actual room to maneuver.

When calculating returns, I think we should distinguish what we have received, what we still hold, and what requires additional conditions to realize. This makes results less impressive, but tells us where we stand. Expectations can inform our consideration of the future; today’s expenses still require resources we can actually command today.

This also explains why an apparently promising asset may not suit being someone’s entire compensation. A person taking responsibility in a role also needs certainty in daily life. Tying their income to a project’s fluctuations should be a choice made with full understanding, not merely on the strength of a picture of a better future.

I want to retain a simple follow-up question: setting aside all valuations and expectations for now, what can I actually arrange today? This question will not judge every opportunity for me, but can remind me to keep what I already have separate from what I hope to have.

Profit shows an activity has generated income, but cannot alone show whom it has benefited. One person’s gains may arise from shared creation, unequal information or position, or leaving others consequences they are unwilling to bear. Looking only at final numbers easily mixes these differences together.

I have emphasized altruism when discussing cooperation and also discussed how returns arise in markets. Putting these statements together invites a question to myself: when profit opportunities appear, will I still ask whether those affected understand the process, have sufficient choice, and have been told the costs honestly?

A well-intentioned goal cannot automatically explain every means of profit. A useful practice has not thereby answered whether it is fair. Especially when I hold more information and influence, judgment must go beyond what my side gains, to why the other person participates and how much room they have to refuse.

I want to examine altruism through these concrete questions. It can allow reasonable returns, but must also accommodate scrutiny of how profits are made. If a principle holds only in speeches and disappears in the face of interests, the distance between principle and choice is precisely what still needs cultivation.

Money is a tool for realizing a way of living; capital is a mechanism for allocating resources and shouldering responsibility.

Look first at cash flow, intended uses, and capacity to bear risk, then discuss scale and speed.