Wealth And The Golden Middle Path

Asceticism was experimented with and rejected by the Buddha before he attained enlightenment.

Buddha preached contentment (santutthi) and limited desires (appicchata).However, contentment and paucity of wishes must be accompanied by effort and diligence, not by complacency and idleness.

Poverty (dadiddiya) is never praised or encouraged by the Buddha. “For householders in this world, poverty is suffering” “Woeful in the world is poverty and debt.”Many passages in the Buddhist scriptures exhort lay people to seek and amass wealth in rightful ways. Among the good results of good kamma, one is to be wealthy.The possession of wealth by certain people is often praised and encouraged in the Pali Canon, indicating that wealth is something to be sought after. Among the Buddha’s lay disciples, the better known, the most helpful, and the most often praised were in large part wealthy persons, such as Anathapindika. Read more of this post