Maddie

Well at least now a couple things have me confused and that is usually a good sign.

I do indeed want a metaphysical slant :-)

Well if anything has gotten my attention with out me quite understanding it, it is this I think.

Side hustle? parenting I guess after working full time.

Ok I think I might be starting to see your point, but not quite sure, but maybe. Perhaps elaborate a bit more on this? Well for one my car is almost paid off, and two it's hard putting kids on a bike.

I agree, and I was, but I had to choose between my savings account or homelessness. I like where your heart is, but I live in Texas and things are far and I have kids, so that does not really work either.

This is one of the things the baffles me. I am an acupuncturist as some of you are aware. I have had many people call me their personal "miracle worker". My aim here isn't to brag or be conceited but I've had many cases of people with incurable conditions come to me and I helped them. I don't care about the money. I do acupuncture because I love doing it and I love helping people. It is honestly my passion, but never quite having enough for the basics does get old. And when I say basics, I more or less live like a monk, or as much like one as I can.

No when things go well I think "sweet here we are" lol

Oh for sure this is a real concern. What I have typically noticed when asking advice about the subject of money are two extremes. The first can be called "New Age silliness" which is just that. It clearly does not work. The second is what I call "common sense" which I am already doing and aware of. What I am looking for is hard to find and very rare, but thought I'd try. What I am looking for is basically what a Buddha would say about it. I want to know the karma, and how to deal with the karma, because basically at the end of the day it all comes down to karma. This is why one person may say what the secret of their success was in a seminar, or a book or what not, but when other people go out and apply the same technique it does not work out the same. What is the difference? Karma. Being smart is important and does matter, but you can be as wise with money as an economist, as frugal with money as a monk and if you don't have the karma its still going to be rough. This is not just academic for me. There are a few other areas of my life, major areas that in the past I focused hard on changing the karma for and those areas changed. I realize it is going to be the same with money as well. One may ask if I realize this why I am even asking a question at all. For two reasons. The first reason is there is the slim possibility that someone out there has a Buddha perspective on this and can offer the type of advice I seek. The second reason is that this is an important and valid topic that often gets over looked from the dhamma point of view and I felt like it was important to consider from this perspective.

One thing is for sure, it makes money for the one selling it at least lol.

I'm not only responding to you but clearing a few more general assumptions in general with out getting to specific and personal. I actually have very few wants. I live in a simple but comfortable small apartment, drive a clean and reliable economy car, have enough to eat, and live in a safe area all of which I am grateful for. On the other hand while I have a skill and work long and hard I've noticed that no matter where I live, or what I do, I always never have enough. I don't spend lavishly at all, but just to survive I am going further into debt and this is just to buy food and necessities. If I make more, then suddenly more unexpected bills materialize to bring me back to the not making quite enough balance. I have for various reasons beyond my control several large expenses that are beyond my means to keep up with. I assume this is my karma as I have with similar situations in the past that were the same no matter where I was nor what I did. In the past I focused on different aspects of karma and I saw these areas of my life gradually improve but now I am at a place in my life where money is the issue. I just feel in general that if I ever do ask advice about money I am told the usual advice that I already know and do. I live simply, I have very little and am content with such. What I am dealing with now is not greed, but survival. I was hoping someone had been down this route and knew of the behind the scenes doings of these things.

Guess we should clear up some assumptions.... I already tend to have a pretty good attitude of gratitude, and am told this by others I interact with. I do often and frequently donate to the less fortunate. I wasn't referring to you about either new age silliness nor your age. I was trying to be vague about who I was referring to as to not offend any one specifically while at the same time expressing some of my frustration regarding the topic.

New Age silliness was the other end of the spectrum I was worried about lol

I think one reason I was reluctant to begin this topic is because for what ever reason one can ask for advice about many other topics and it is taken seriously but mysteriously when one asks for advice about money it brings a whole different attitude set to the surface, typically of annoyance, and assumptions about the persons financial state. If anyone has any interesting and useful metaphysical insights I'd love to hear them, but if I just wanted cynical boomer quips I have plenty of sources to get that from around me locally.

When I see a problem I try to solve a problem.

The problem increasingly seems to be that hard work doesn't necessarily get one a fair wage.

I almost and should have typed proto-hinduism but yes not what we know as Hinduism today. I think another false argument today between Hinduism and Buddhism is the atman vs anatman debate but I don't think that was originally what the Buddha was saying.

Yes. My original point was that I don't think the "Hinduism" portrayed in the Buddhist suttas is actual Hinduism.

All I'll say at this point is that I was a history major for my undergrad degree and I have never ever heard of any evidence for this sort of history in India or anywhere else that goes back this far in this manner.

The reason this statement got my attention is because lately I have the feeling from my studies of Buddhism and the suttas that what I learned of the Vedic tradition might be somewhat of a straw man Vedic tradition. To me the Brahmin priests coming to the Buddha to learn how to preform their own religion better seems a bit ridiculous and also probably propaganda. So with that being said I think a basic summary of the Vedic tradition that I read in the Buddhist suttas mostly involves preforming sacrifices and reciting mantras correctly. Again this seems a bit simplistic I think, so what I want to know is what actually was the Vedic path to liberation?

Why not get this puppy back on track.... A few days ago someone had made the claim to be enlightened and this thread was created to discuss how one can know if someone is truly enlightened or not and if so how this can be known.

Lots of delusion happened! I seriously think one of the posters yesterday was either taking something or had stopped taking something they needed to be taking.

Is something in the water today? Lol

https://www.activeherb.com/wendan/

You feeling ok today there buddy? Do you need to take some medicine or something?