#monkey-brain

“Money can’t buy happiness”. Everyone ‘knows’ this. We’re all brought up on it. When I was younger I don’t think I really believed it, thinking it’s what people tell themselves to feel better when they don’t have enough of it. That’s what I thought anyway.

The problem with the statement “Money can’t buy happiness” is that its misleading. Sure, money doesn’t make you happy. But money doesn’t you unhappy either.

I sit here writing this, and still I want more of it. I need more for my pension, the mortgage isn’t paid off, I want to go on that vacation.

When I say “I want more of it”, understanding the “I” is important. There’s the I that is my monkey-brain, and the I that is my soul. And it is certain that when I say I want more of it, that its my monkey-brain talking. And its driven by fear, greed, pride, and other such monkey-brain emotions.

It’s true that money provides a momentary respite for those monkey-brain emotions. It allows some temporary reduction in fear of not having enough pension, or a brief swelling in ego as a new car is bought, vacations are good too. But having more money does nothing but make me want more. It lets my monkey-brain think that if only I had a little more, all those fears would go, the greed would be satiated, the ego would feel great forever. It gives my monkey-brain more to think about. It drowns out my soul. Which is somewhat ironic, since it is my soul that has the deep joy, the true happiness. My soul has the happiness that my monkey-brain can’t even conceive.

Now I’m older I understand this. I know that happiness is found in the soul. That keeping the monkey-brain quiet is more important for happiness than money. And in that way, having less money, and not fueling the monkey-brain emotions associated with it, may actually enable greater happiness - which is a crazy thing to say in todays society. But it’s true.

As Democritus said:

Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.

The fact is that money is irrelevant to happiness. Its doesn’t feature at all in the happiness equation of life. It is a thing that facilitates human society, part of ‘the prison for your mind’. It is not the Tao, the universe has no use for it. Human society does though, so it will still feature in my life, just not in my happiness.