The Glorious Avenue of Almsgiving:
From Poverty to Millionaire
Mingfang Zhang
President of Guangdong Guangji Charitable Foundation
Chapter one - Strategy
From Poor to Rich Method: Almsgiving
Leaderette: Most humans hold a dream of mapping out strategies, riding on the crest of success and giving full play to their ambition. No one wants to be in obscurity over a lifetime. Yet to succeed, we must use methods, and methods come from the teacher. Now, let us settle ourselves down, and listen to Ming Yi Lay Buddhist to explain to us the ways to success.
The Origin of Wealth
I often believe that it is rather difficult for a person to lose money who is among the most business literate; and it would be utopias to make a fortune for those having no "Paths". The Business Paths I will talk about are not the courses charging you 2000 yuan named like Business Administration Course, Success Course or Competition Course, etc. I will tell you a way that goes far beyond these.
First, if one's head is stuffed only with the idea of making money, s/he will certainly be poor for his whole life. This is because, with purely money in your mind, you show up as a short-sighted person with no business ethics at all. We often say, a doctor must have medical ethics, hereby I think business ethics should be encouraged to businessman as well. A person with no virtues benefits himself/herself at the expense of others, thus his/her making piles will be only momentary. Is anybody once cheated by you willing to work with you again? Not everyone is foolish in this world.
Well, if we want to make a fortune or to be successful, we must firstly create conditions. Let's think in this way, if the conditions we create are leading us to be rich, will we be rich then? Absolutely will. Unfortunately, most people nowadays are blind, creating conditions leading to poverty, and are inclined to hate and complain under this bad result: the God is not fair. Actually, the so-called God is you. Only you can control your own destiny; no one else can.
Correct Values
Correct values are crucial for fortune and happiness. Unfortunately, we find the modern society contains only a very disordered value system. Generally we can see two obvious types of value systems: the western value system and the traditional Chinese value system. It is a pity that most Chinese people have forgotten our traditional virtues of the Chinese nation.
What is the orientation of western values? It's materialism. One is happy when having material possessions. But we must notice that the extreme of this kind of desire will catalyze us to behave like brutes, and change the society back to primitive communes under no civilization guidance. What is civilization? It is ritual constraints. In other words, the liberation of materialism inside the western value system is, in fact, pushing the human to the barbarity of the primitive society.
This might sound a bit frightening. Let's take an example. What would give an indulgence to a late western superstar, very wealthy, with whatever has he tried and whatever has he enjoyed, by the end of his life? Drugs. Many giant arts performing stars take drugs. When they finally felt drugs are not enough for them, abnormal behaviors will then arise: faggotry. After men like men for a period of time, they felt bored again. They turn the targets to children, becoming beasts. Such values will drive people to join in competition, fight and ultimately, the war. The world war may destroy the earth.
Therefore, realizing that this value system is terrible is our first step.
Charity and Almsgiving
As a matter of fact, it is easy to get wealth and happiness. But how can we get it? I want to share with you today an almsgiving method: from poor to rich. First of all, I would like to teach you to do charity. Charity contains a lot of levels. Generally, the first layer is to donate money, the second layer is to output one's strength, and the third is to devote one's own wisdom.
Why do we have to donate money, to give and to do charity? Why not just spend the money for one's own hand? Why not leave the good things for ourselves? This is because almsgiving and philanthropic work can eliminate the diseases of our body, which is the thing we often say – "Accumulate good karmic conditions to eliminate karmic obstructions". With no blessings, can our life be happy? Absolutely not. If we do not have the good karmic conditions, or blessing, there will be no influential people coming around but villains bothering us instead. Then getting rich will become impossible. On the bad occasion where villains are everywhere, your employees will be disobedient, your company will be heavily in debt and your body will get worse in health: don't even think about getting rich, you may wonder if you are getting crazy!
Some people have asked me how they can give since they have no money. It is not important to have money or not, in accordance to the fact that charity and alms are not necessarily the money. In Buddhism, there is a thing called "invisible wealth almsgiving"; and we call the money "visible wealth". Then what is "invisible wealth almsgiving"? To praise others is charity; and to volunteer is to give. When we appreciate, care for and help others, we will be blessed. Everything goes well on blessed people.
Donation is not always good donation, however. There is an old saying that "when offering the wicked, benefits to them becomes damages to self; just like feeding the beasts, one gets hurt instead". We must select the right targets and the right way to donate: never give money to wicked people. There was a saying worth pondering from a chairman of a local political consultative conference, where I once gave a lecture on the closing ceremony, "once they get rich, modern people do not contribute to the world as people did in old days anymore; they indeed contribute sometimes, but to the gangland." It often occurs to the rich people that they were thrown into prison once they support the gang, and left their wives and children wandering. What a tragedy.
People, therefore, who are able to read this article today, are all blessed indeed. A big reward is waiting for you provided that you are really willing to mend your ways.
The value of a Good Karma
A good karma brings good luck. Everyone hopes that Lady Luck smiles on them, and meets with honored people wherever they go. How can we make acquaintance with the honored? By increasing our good karmic affinity.
With a constant charitable and almsgiving heart, a businessman will not only encounter more honored people, but also have his personal character well-developed. His/Her products will be on good sale –this happens just like the theory of quantum mechanics that magnetic vibrations will change the magnetic field. The products will naturally sell well when their magnetic field is improved. Thus an all-year-round serendipity leads to every success!
Let me take an example. We tend to find a master if we need a doctor. What is a master? It's not just being skillful. A real master excels in virtue. A noble-hearted doctor prescribes a medicine, even just a tetracycline, and it will work wonders right away; a noble-hearted person pours us a cup of tea, and it will make us healthy. This is because their body crystal is the very perfection!
Somebody asked me, what is the scientific basis of your “superstitious” saying? Indeed there is one. I would suggest you to search related information on the internet about a book named "Water Knows", written by Dr. Emoto Masaru, a Japanese scientist. Water is unemotional, but it turns into beautiful hexagonal crystals when you show love and gratitude to it; and it spreads out into ugly shapes at the moment you send evil signal to it, e.g., you think that “I hate you”. Water accounts for more than 70% of a human’s body. If the crystalline structure of the water in the body and all the cells are changed for the better, how can the diseases possibly still exist? A disease in heart should still go for psychological treatment. Similarly, emotions can affect the body. A person's honor level goes higher if his heart becomes more favorable.
Just imagine the different feelings between handshaking with a beggar and with a national leader!
Be Your Own Master
We all catch bad habits, especially greed. We seem not able to decide by our own even if we want to be good. We leave no means untried when doing business, always finding ways to screw the workers and trick others out of profits. We even dream that there will be someone who give us the products and supply totally free labors, exaggeratedly, they'd better not eat or drink at all. This is called greed. It's quite dangerous with a greedy heart in business or work.
Hatred is even worse. If we blame and roar to the employees and colleagues everyday, we will find nothing left on us but heart disease, vascular disease, cerebral embolism, stroke...
Those who think lifetime is still long do not actually understand or even know that probably the next moment, we would not be above ground. Think about this: we meet together today, study, dine and work together; but in a few years later, we look around only to find everything changes. There might be somebody passed away already. It might be you or me. Nobody knows. Things are so variable, then why do we still hold attachment to self?
Several decades later, we return to the current company buildings only to find that the today's ordinary life has become a vague memory. People are gone; rooms have turned into old decays. We would sign over that scene, walking on crutches: I was once struggling in here!
Everything changes. If we can often think in this way, we will cherish our family, colleagues and friends. All contradictions will disappear in a flash. The true significance of almsgiving, charity, volunteer is actually putting down the things in our heart. If the inner conflicts are dropped, one will grow noble-hearted, then what to worry about getting rich?
Healthy Mindset, Create Value
When we are still young, we need to create value; and a healthy mental attitude is a must. What healthy attitudes can make our life valuable?
First, do not concern for the world's mistakes. Those who do not fuss over other's faults are greatly blessed. The further you forgive, the more you are blessed. If you can pardon two villains, you are two villains' leader; if you pardon ten, then you are the ten villians' leader; if you forgive the shortcomings of the workers of an entire factory, you are the whole factory's leader; and if you forgive the whole nation, you will be cherished and remembered forever. Therefore, a tolerant person will experience a spell of good luck no matter s/he works for others or carries on business on his/her own.
Just leave every single contratiempo alone: employees did things heartlessly and unmorally, colleagues injured you out of jealousy, your husband treated you in way of domestic violence, your children answered you back rudely...Just ignore these, and learn to open your mind to include all the things around. Do not look, listen, talk or do anything that is not consistent with propriety. Only in this way, you will obtain great blessings; and you are not far from fortune.
Charity Reward Maximization
Our material wealth is limited after all. As we are inclined to maximize the investment profits, we want to find the charity with the highest return rate to do, too. This is truly wise.
The Buddhist scriptures give the almsgiving a comparison to farming. As only in the fertile land would we obtain a bumper harvest, the seeds sowed in a more fertile land would gain more. In addition, if the seeds were cultivated by a good farmer instead of ourselves, the fruits would naturally be different; and we would gain much more blessedness.
The Buddha said in the "Sutra in Forty-Two Sections", that "it is better to feed a good man than one hundred bad men. It is better to feed one who observes the Five Precepts of the Buddha than to feed one thousand good men."
This means the same with an old saying:" It's much easier to cultivate blessings in the place of Three Jewels, as one piece of almsgiving would get reward of ten thousand pieces".
A person will enhance his/her blessings if willing to do charity. Along with the enhancement of your level, your surrounding environment will not be the same anymore, with your companions being no longer lowness or wicked ones. Simply put, your life's value is improved; your world is changed as well. Thus we no longer need to change the parents, change the son or cha
Ways to Do Good
There are a variety of ways to do charity. For example, Boss Huang jinshen here today provides us a lecture venue, giving chances to more people to learn. He is changing our fate to the better, and then his own children will be blessed with intelligence and wisdom, and get ept in exams. In Buddhism, giving others wisdom and enlightenment is called Dharma Almsgiving.
Many people say, “Surely it's good to do alms, charity and be a good person, but I don't have much money after all”. I should put it this way: a billionaire who donates 100,000 yuan is no better than a beggar giving 1 yuan. This is in point of how big your heart is. The beggar might have given out a half of his whole possessions–2 yuan. If the billionaire donates half of his wealth, his blessings could also be tremendous and fate-changing.
There is a simpler way to do good I want to tell you: you may bring with you the good books on Buddhism and dispatch them out, such as those books simply teaching people karmas stories, or the video discs that give lectures.
Volunteer in temples is also a good way to do good things.
This dharma saved me when I was most depressed in my life. I donated all my money to make CDs and sent them to people; and I caught a bus with little cents on me to do volunteer work in Yunmen Monastery. There I had the chance to know my master Dayuan Buddhist, who changed my destiny. Although I had previously learned Daoist magic, Fengshui, numerology and layout, these were not rewarded as fast as dharma almsgiving. As long as we have a strong will in our heart to do good things, we will get a smooth life. An honored heart calls forth a good luck.
Today, with the strong support from the boss Huang and other local government leaders in Jiangkou Town, the year of 2011 will go very smoothly, because the people here have obtained a habit of goodness.
Blessings Cultivated by Heart
The Buddhist scriptures divided blessed heart into three kinds: Respect heart, Compassion heart and Gratitude heart. Respect heart aims for the elders and the honored, the Buddha, saints, and monks. The monk and the Acharya give us Dharmakaya while parents give birth to our human body. These four are put in Respect heart.
What is Compassion heart? To provide relief to those invalid people cultivates compassion in heart. Act accordingly to express our compassion and sympathy, and render assistance and help to the impoverished people.
Gratitude heart requires us to be aware, feel grateful and pay a debt of gratitude to parents and teachers. Those with gratitude heart will never get disease in liver; those who appreciate and feel thankful to their spouses will be relieved from kidney disease. The three sorts of gratitude said above (to be aware, feel grateful and pay a debt of gratitude) heal every disease in our life, with no need to take any medicine.
What's to be thankful for? Our parents are still living in good health, and we have wife or husband! To thank everyone beside you! You may ask, can I complain anything? Fine. But I should remind you, those words of complain are poisonous! You will become a viper, and your life will be like an animal. As soon as you are thankful, your surroundings will change. First, your appearance will look nicer, and your internal organs of the body (heart, liver, lungs，spleen, and kidneys) will transform to good. Then, your relatives and friends will change as well, then your social relationships, business, wealth. Your accounts number would change from one zero to seven zero, that would be 10 million, perhaps.
Three sorts of gratitude work together will eliminate all diseases. Thus the very essence of cultivation Blessings is gratitude.
Virtue that Goes against Status will Call for Sufferings
People wonder why so many wicked people enjoy a fame and luxury living with large houses and flashy cars. We need to see what is following them.
I have a friend who committed all sorts of evil things: dissipating his life in frequenting brothels, gambling and drinking. One day he borrowed some money from the bank and bought a minibus for transportation. Who would have expected that the minibus ran into an accident, leaving him owe a mountain of debts. This was because he had no blessings at all!
Another friend of mine bet his bottle coin to join a partnership in business with others. They bought a 5 tons van to transport in the construction site, which, later unexpectedly rolled down a slope in the rain. The van was destroyed, and my friend died in that accident. I tried to persuade them in the past that do not indulge their lives in pleasure nor think about which nightclubs are fun, but he wouldn’t listen a word.
We should keep in mind to use the money we have earned to do good deeds so as to reward to the society. Only in this way can we make more and more money. Otherwise, the money will lose anyway, and even the lives will possibly lose one day. So we say: "hold the world with virtue".
Some people disdain, “I don't want good virtue, money is all what makes me happy." Then I should tell you, it's not the case you say. Two months ago, I started a fundraising for a poor primary school. Many elderly people scant themselves in food and clothes to donate five yuan or ten yuan. The labor contractor, however, wanted to make some money through this, not corruption though: in this charity project, if he quotes 90% of the price on market, he might be well and blessed; yet he quoted 120% of it, things went wrong. He was deaf to my advice, only to dream that he would make a great fortune after that. A sad nemesis followed him: his son died in a car accident later. Was he happy with that money? Would 300,000 yuan he finally earned buy him any happiness?
We must immediately do good deeds right now! Otherwise, it would be too late to cry over the sufferings!
Misfortune Never Comes Alone
Even knowing that the mood determines the luck, certain people still won't listen and let themselves go with emotions.
Early in the morning, one goes to the garage to pick up his car and finds a car blocking his. He gets extremely angry. He kicks at that car and grumbles, "Woe worth the day! Got such bad luck this early!" Then on the road, he sees a car coming in the wrong direction right into him but blasted the horn continuously. His anger filled the sky, badly wanting that driver to be killed in a car accident. His anger is wrought up to a high pitch when he arrives in the company. This man looks like one of the hell living creatures.
Can he be blessed? Impossible. When people like him go to the bank and wait in the queue, it will be the time to close the service when they are in turn; when people like him go back home after a day's work and try to cook something, they will find the gas has given out and have to eat instant noodles. Who gives them a day's bad luck? Themselves.
I had a friend who engaged in explosion work. One day he got up in the morning and brushed his teeth, when suddenly, "bang", the toothbrush broke. In those years many toothbrushes are counterfeit and shoddy products. He anxiously thought, "Over, over! Today I am over!" Isn't he cursing himself? He still could not stop murmuring "I'm gonna die!" later that day when he was working exploding the explosives. As he expected, the explosives accidentally blew, and he died.
Some superstitious people also could not accept the situation when a cup is smashed in happy occasions like in the weddings. They would shout out, "broken, broken, the marriage is gonna broken!" If they keep thinking in this way for the next two years, will the divorce really happen? It will, because their minds misgive them about their wives who gradually become an offence to the eyes. They see their wives as a real eyesore. How can this marriage not break?
This is what we often say: "bad or good things come from nowhere, but from oneself".
Turn of Fortune
Fortune will turn the tables when we know to accumulate blessings, know gratitude, karmas, and know to take heed in dealing with matters. Please remember: the mood determines the luck, emotions determine the fate, and characters determine the life. It's not the heaven or god who determines our life, but our own characters. We often say, "Man will conquer nature". The nature is actually our mind. The god is actually our own heart. It's our own mind and heart who determine our destiny.
A bad mood brings bad luck. Numerous people are always complaining not being blessed with good luck and good fortune. What do they moan about when back home? "What a loser/shrew I have married!" A word of complain calls for poverty. There is a saying in "the Enlightenment Sutra": "poverty comes from resentment, and it calls for bad affinity; by Bodhisattva-almsgiving, to treat equally to the bad and good men; no resent to the old bad things nor the bad men". That is to say, blames brings poverty and bad affinity.
How can we increase good affinity and get rid of poverty? Alms-giving. Don't get involved in the wickedness around us, and don't hate the wicked anymore. The reason is that with a constant resent in heart, one accumulates toxin in his/her body. The liver produces hepatotoxin which would slowly flow into the stomach, then the kidneys. The dark circles under the eyes, which many people have, originated from lack of water in the kidneys. Then these people began to have bad luck: their complaining has asked for poverty. So if you want to be poor, just complain every day and no one can save you.
Be happy if we don't want to be poor. Just think that there are so many people outside who are leading a vagrant life: no living places, no food. We should feel thankful for our comfortable life. Gratitude turns our luck, as our mood determines our luck. Everything goes well as long as we are happy. And happy is actually the so-called luck.
All is Well if We Are Well
The fact that we don't do business well, or even get cheated or stricken by others, is actually attributed to our bad mood. Why? We get low in mood merely because we were blamed for a little while. In fact, it's not necessary to take someone else's mistake to punish ourselves.
Just permit your wife to scold you, and permit your husband hit you, while at the same time feel thankful to him that he is still alive – How can he hit you again if he was dead? Would you rather be a widow? So don't take happiness as granted, since there are so many people's spouse die of cancer in the twinkling of an eye; and there would be no more chances for them to be scolded or hit any more.
Scores of people are superstitious, thinking that they would become lucky right away after burning some joss sticks in the temples. It's actually not the most essential thing to burn the incense. The key thing to do is to respect. One thousand sticks of incense would be useless if we don't respect people. On the contrary, the god still blesses us if we show great respect to others, even if we never present bouquets or burn the incense.
What is respect? No concern about other's mistakes. Suppose a man who always feels proud of himself drives a car on the road, and he blasts the horn to a person riding a bicycle in front of him. He loftily thinks the bicyclist is in his way. I should say that this driver will not be lucky for long. Probably he will lose what he has now and get back to a cycle-day soon: all because he looks down upon others.
How can we obtain blessings when we are driving? (Remember if we co-work with a blessed man in business, we will easily get rich).
When a blessed man drives a car and sees a grandfather walking by, he will stop to let him go first. When he sees a wage earner who knows very little about traffic rules riding a bicycle unruly, he will not get angry, but tolerate this bicyclist. Such blessed men will get rich soon, from driving a van to a microbus, then from a microbus to a car, from a car to Mercedes. Yes, it's this simple: their heart is smooth, and all will be smooth.
This is another kind of burning incense: heart incense.
Lasting by Leading a Quiet Life
"This is a way of life a man of virtue: to cultivate his character by keeping a peaceful mind, and nourish his morality by a frugal living. Only freedom from vanity can show one’s lofty goal of life; and only peace of mind can help him to achieve something really lasting." said by Zhuge Liang in "An Admonition to My Son". This is a true saying, which we must adhere to, if we want to succeed.
Why are modern people in shattered health? It's due to the overwhelming information which disrupts people's mind and gives them no way to quiet down. No quiet down, no peace; no peace, no wisdom and thinking energy. When there is no energy to maintain their body mechanism, they have black face and white lips. These people will not go smooth in business because they don't even look friendly. Even a dog will bark at this person who has no noble temperament at all.
It's actually very simple:" blessings lie in peace and noble lies in quiet".
A man with full vital essence and energy is cultivated, even if s/he is unlettered. A high scholar degree doe not represent being cultivated or having good taste. A person with a good taste does not have to be highly educated.
I often hear someone criticize the college students, "you are just uncultivated!" The students would argue– if they are not modest, “I have a university degree, you dare say I am uncultivated!" Then do you know what is cultivated? Taoism. It could teach us to be good at observing the changes of everything, to master he world, to map out strategies and to gain a decisive victory.
How can we really be insightful? Let peace in heart. Never lose temper. Especially women. A woman will lose blessings the moment she gets angry. Relieved from fury for a whole year, she will have her blessings ten times increased. Briefly to say, peace brings blessings.
Many women go to do the facial in the beauty parlor, or even have some sort of cosmetic surgery. As a matter of fact, our appearance can be beautified by attitude adjustment. In addition to what I said above, we shall also cultivate endurance. It would be a good chance to obtain blessings when people bully us or scold us. Think it in this way: normally, we obtain blessings by donating or volunteering to do hard work, now, we may just need to give patience to others who scold us, and we gain blessings! What a good thing! Keep Mudita[1]. Mudita in heart beautifies our looks. With an imposing look on us, who would not work with us?
A man with bad tempers has no blessing. What will he have? Accidents and disasters. His magnetic field is gray and inspires the worst cosmic particles. Scientists have proved that the earth is a world of energy. Our emotions will call for the particles of the same properties.
Then many questioned me, “I don't want to get angry anyway! What should I do?" First, disperse stagnated liver and promote bile flow. It's difficult to get angry again once the stagnated liver is dispersed. Long Dan Xie Gan Pill is a good choice.
Second, recuperate the kidneys; it will help to nourish Yin. Insufficiency of kidney essence would bring middle-aged people delusion, discrimination and over-absorption of mind. Good medicine to nourish yin for lowering fire in body can be liuwei dihuang pill or zhibai dihuang pill. If Lung-qi is inadequate, people lose boldness and courage. Thus everything does not go well on them.
If a person often feels bitter or dry in mouth, and hard to fall asleep, he has extreme low Yang-qi, without which people have problem of insomnia. Or they feel sleepy at 3-4 p.m. He has no blessings already. I know may people feel sleepy at day but be in high spirits at night, living at a thief's timetable. I should say these people have almost no blessings left, with two results waiting for them: a serious illness, e.g. cancers; or go bankruptcy or get divorce. Anyway, no single good thing will happen on them, but the bad things will.
You think you can be a CEO while never adjusting your negative emotions? With your bad temper and your zero spirits? ICU (Intensive Care Unit) may be there for you! You will only last in correct direction by leading a quiet life. Peace is happiness.
[1] Mudita means the joy in heart.
Transcend the Environment, Master Yourself
Changes of environment are easy to let us down. It is said that the weather in Wall Street has an effect on the stock market.
In the prairie, all the year round, we will never find a woman wearing tank-tops. Nor will we find a siren in mountain life. Where do we live, however? Boisterous cities, where people wear very few in public could easily be found. All of the exposed girl's cloth on her may be no more than the cloth of my trousers. They wear bare midriffs, etc. The girls look in advertisement and TVs are even wider of the mark.
On this occasion, how would we create our own wonderful life? First, we should concentrate on how to do business well, but not search our mind to feed the others table delicacies, to take them to karaoke or nightclubs before we want to gain extra advantages from them by using these unfair means.
Second, to succeed in business or in working for others, we must also be good at sizing the partners up. We should make sure that they are honest and kind, obedient and modest. These partners would make you fortunes.
Third, we often hear people say, enlightenment asks for liberation. Liberation gives us carefree, and this comfortable heart brings good luck and good fortune. But what is liberation? It's not complicated at all. Just do your business, make your money as you want. Do no feel yourself any pain when you lose money in business. Let the body fall ill as it is supposed to, and take medicines as you should do.
Let it be. Some people are too superstitious to avoid medicine treatment when they get sick and are too lofty to get involved in business. They believe that liberation means being free from the living of earning bread. Actually, it is not bad to make money, only if the money we make is used to help more people. What if we are not able to earn one cent? Also just let go. The money will still disappear anyway. Let everything goes. Liberate our body and heart, and everything will be fine.