Dalai Lama On The Recession: See, Money Can't Buy You Love
Is the recession making you sad? Then go hug a friend because your money doesn't care and can't make you happy, the Dalai Lama reminded us yesterday. The exiled Tibetan leader said that if nothing else, the economic crisis is doing an excellent job showing people the limit of money.
"Therefore, this crisis is good because it reminds people who only want to see money grow and grow that there are limitations. It's unrealistic to always expect grow, grow, grow, grow," the 74-year-old spiritual leader said at a news conference at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The head of Tibet's exiled government, who delivered two public lectures that sold out within two hours, blamed the worldwide financial crisis on "too much greed, and lies and hypocrisy."
The Dalai Lama's prescription for peace of mind and happiness includes connecting with friends and family, and balancing the chase for material wealth with something more fulfilling; a healthy dose of meditation, perhaps?
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How true. A good economic smack down can really make you wake up and face reality. It also can tell you who your real friends are.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy votes.
money can't buy happiness but it can alieviate some stress ( like the stress of my upcoming furlough)
@Coles_Law: True story. I'm not sure if the recession is reminding people that money isn't everything or reenforcing the idea that money is necessary to be happy. Personally I used to take a Dalai Lama-esque stance on money, but now all I can think about is much happier I'd be if I were rich.
e head of Tibet's exiled government, who delivered two public lectures that sold out within two hours..
Sold Out? So he charged money for them? But I thought you can't depend on money to grow and grow....
I can buy tons of stuff that makes me happy. People are really terrible at spending money, I guess. A misanthrope like myself loves physical goods!
Anyone who says money can't buy happiness doesn't have enough of it.
@Robobot: Thing is, most people don't end up happier when they're rich, and you probably wouldn't either. It's a useful peg to hang the worries and unhappiness on, but it doesn't seem to be the real cause (absent grinding kids-are-starving poverty, of course). Just as it tends to be blamed as a cause of divorce, when in fact people with money problems don't divorce at a higher rate than those without.
@Canino: Money's a lovely thing, but it really doesn't seem to correlate to happiness. That doesn't mean people don't enjoy spending money, it's just that having a ton of it doesn't relieve you of the likelihood of being unhappy.
Hey Lama, how about a little something for the effort, you know?
And he says, There won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.
So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.
@ecwis: It certainly can. However, if you're faced with overdue bills or losing your house, chances are you aren't happy. The best way to phrase it is "Money is a necessary but not sufficient condition for happiness", but that just lacks the ring "Can't buy me love" has.
Mr. Lama no amount of money can get your butt back to Tibet, either.
Yes, money is useless. Feel free to send yours to me.
What was the net take for the two lectures and where did the money go? Money can't buy happiness but it can put you in a really good bargaining position.
And I'd be willing to bet the Lama was not staying in a Motel 6 during this tour.
The tickets were given away on a first-come-first-serve basis to UCSB students. Any remaining tickets were given away to community members. Not surprisingly, there were no left over tickets.
This might seem like a hokey tale but I'm sharing it because it is on topic. My mother in law taught in Alaska amongst the Inuit, she described them as the poorest of the poor. One day during a class she was talking about poor children in China and the children immediatly wanted to do something for these poor children. Mom was surprised at how they rushed to gather up spare change and any money they could to donate to these poor children in China. They didn't see themselves as poor; they had all the necessities they felt they needed from life.
So perhaps how much money you actually need to be happy is a very relative and arbitrary amount. You can make your happiness out of the money you have, depending on your mindview. Hokey, yes, but true.
"too much greed, and lies and hypocrisy."
Well, at least the Dalai Lama is speaking about the things he knows best.
Money can't buy happiness, but it sure can make misery more fun.
This is true.
I am also saddened that the message is lost on so many.
@madanthony: He raises large bank for some of the most impoverished people on the planet.
Get off your high horse.
@Barrister76: A lawyer, of all people, admonishing the Dalai Lama on maters moral financial, and on ethical lodging standards.
Tee hee. Funny guy.
What area of law do you practice, and who are the typical clients you serve, out of curiosity?
:p
It's unrealistic to always expect grow, grow, grow, grow.Sounds like what Thomas Malthus is famous for. I wonder if the Dalai Lama believes that the human race will never be devastated by the depletion of natural resources. (I'm not trying to be snarky, I truly don't know what he thinks about this issue.)
Part of the reason people here are so money obsessed is because without a minimal amount of it your living in the street, old, sick and without medical care. We do a lousy job of establishing a basic safety net for the country as a whole so people have so much more to lose here compared to somewhere that has a decent social structure.
Then there is the rampant greed based social constructs that have grown in the last ten years. Granite countertops, $1000 handbags, Hummer H2s and 3000 square foot homes are not necessities or even a normal type of life. Yet we allowed those things to creep into our views of not just success but some sort of basic standard of living.
money doesn't buy happiness, but if you didn't have to worry about how you're going to pay your next month's rent and electricity bills, you'll def be happier and less stressed.
@Trai_Dep: I practiced corporate finance (securities law) and tax. Now, I'm in-house to a company where I'm a part owner. I used to represent large corporations and do pro bono in my spare time. Trying to balance the scales.
Money is not a necessary key to happiness.. Inner peace is what brings happiness.. and money has nothing to do with that.. It's all in your head.. Many who live a subsistence lifestyle enjoy a great deal more happiness than those of us in the west who are defined by our consumption (consumption driven happiness only leads to greater despair).
@Trai_Dep: And has taken some very shady money from the US government. He also had some of his people training in military camps. How very peaceful.
Further, have you LOOKED at the system of government that he seeks to enact if returned to power? Not exactly the happy utopia that his greeting-card philosophies imply.
He's right, though, on a fundamental level. It's good to hear reminders like this.
As a former coworker often said, money can't buy you love, but it can buy you some good lovin'.
He's right, but there's another layer to this issue: It's not simply whether more vs. less money makes you unhappy, but how unhappy social inequality will make you. Statistically, countries with a higher degree of socioeconomic equality, regardless of GNP, are healthier and happier.
More money can't make an individual happier. But in an economically unequal society (like, oh, I dont know.. the United States, let's say), less money and the inability to live up to social expectations produces more stress, which in turn makes people more likely to be physically unhealthy and die much earlier than comparable populations in socioeconomically more equal societies.
It's not simply a question of getting care when you're sick, but your likelihood of getting sick in the first place.
Money can't make you happy, but greater income equality sure can.
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oh nooo! soshalizum!
@Barrister76: OK, fair enough.
Place a corporate tax attorney representing multinationals on one scale and a Tibetan monk, or even the Dalai Lama, on the other.
Post a poll asking who was the likelier of the two to have helped humanity more.
Do you think the results would be hard to predict? Do you think the results would be, on the large, invalid?
A head of a global church and the leader of an exiled government can't very well stay at a Motel 6. Especially one that's earned the enmity from all levels of the People's Republic of China. The books that his foundation has are open and demonstrate the sincerity of its mission.
C'mon - you're better than that, right?
@Hyman Decent: I would say that it is both natural and moral for humans to consume and deplete resources of all kinds. Using less resources than we need to seek true happiness and build one for others isn't warranted. It's incumbent on us to seek some form of actualization, which requires that we live, we eat, drink, clothe, create and breed. Constraining this path isn't ethical or needed.
Likewise, consuming more than we need, depleting resources for shallow purposes, or doing so in a harmful way - a way that destroys rather than creates - is immoral and unwarranted.
We'd want to strive between those two extremes, conscious of ourselves, our loved ones, strangers and the environment from which we draw upon. Also, that we're conscious of the legacy we have, and the responsibilities to pass this on to those yet unborn.
Malthusian limits shouldn't be reached if we use our wisdom, intellect and power to follow this middle path.
I'd never speak for what the Dalai Lama, but he's well-read and thoughtful, and I'm hopeful that he'd agree with a small part of what I just said.
It certainly wasn't Ticketmaster doing the selling, otherwise they would have sold out
1 second after becoming available and then they would have directed you to tickets now, then they would have quadrupled the price, then they would have charged you a convenience fee for printing them yourself.
I'm done, thanks.
@SMSDHubbard: Ah, nice to see you're relying (and siding with) what comes from the mouths of the tyrants of Tiananmen Square.
Well played, sir!
@Trai_Dep: Tongue very deeply in cheek when mocking the Dalai Lama, but I've read Elmer Gantry too many times to place 100% faith in any religious figure. That said, I know that I was directly responsible for providing affordable housing for over 10,000 families. I feel pretty good about that. Would I rate myself the same as the Dalai Lama, or Ghandi or King? Not a chance, but my wife and children like me.
Money does not create happiness. There are happy people who have nothing, and plenty of miserable millionaires.
That being said, if I'm going to be miserable anyway, I'd rather be miserable and rich than be miserable and broke.
@Trai_Dep: In a fistfight between drunken assholes, you don't have to cheer one on. You can choose to walk away.
I know it's really SUPER trendy to love the Tibetans, but much like crocs, that doesn't make it right.
Money can't buy happiness, but a lack of money will certainly bring a fair amount of worry with it. Talk about no-win...