What principle of Dhamma shall we follow to be millionaires over lives?

Answer
by Venerable Dhattajeevo Bhikku 

Oh, you want to be an over-life millionaire? Well… you have to look at these points.

First, somebody who is already rich in this life wants to be rich again in his next lives. This is the first kind of people.

The other kinds of people are the poor one who doesn’t want to be poor again in his next lives. Though he cannot be rich in this life, he still hopes that he will gain wealth in his next lives. There are 2 points, Ms. Teacher.

1. Rich people who want to be rich again in their next lives.

2. Poor people who hope for the richness in their next lives.

Yet the conclusion is both of them want to be rich in their future. To be a rich person no matter in this or next lives, it’s up to the simple principles I already mentioned.

1. Perseverance and hard work are required.

2. Also, merit is important for their provisions.

What shall we do next? If we are now already rich, it means we have these 2 things.

1. Diligence that causes us to work hard.

2. Merit from our previous lives, but we don’t know if it’s all gone or not.

About the poor ones, we know that they didn’t make much merit in their previous lives, that’s why their present lives are difficult. Knowing that, no matter if we are rich in this present life or not, we have to start over it and make more merit in this life, so that we will have merit prepared for the next lives.

How can we accumulate merit in this life? The lord Buddha gave us these 4 principles.

First, we have to adjust our understanding. About what? About the law of Kamma. We have to understand well about it for it can make us clearly understand about goodness-badness, merit-demerit, good deed-bad deed and right-wrong thing since this life. Having a right view since this life will cause us to understand well about merit and demerit in our next lives starting from our first birth and then we will perceive what’s going on.

To say easily, we will start understanding about merit-demerit and Kamma since we are just born, that causes us to have faith in the law of Kamma and would like to desist committing bad things and perform good deeds, also to have faith in quitting bad things and performing merit only. Fully adjusting our understanding about the law of Kamma will bring us new merit since this life. This is the first point.

 Second, we have to pay attention in keeping precepts well. How well? Better than keeping our lives. If we can really do it, we don’t have to talk about the merit we will get since it’s countless. Think about how graceful the character of a person who doesn’t perform any bad things. If we can do it, we will get countless merit and when we reincarnate, we will get a strong body with good personality. To say easily, we will get good corporeality since we are first born. It’s a treasure.

            3. From now, you need to pay attention in donation and donate as much as you can. Pay full attention in your career with all capability you have, and it doesn’t matter if you have a surplus of money or not, you need to keep some for donation. Why? To get rid of the stinginess and the narrow mind you have, it will make our mind as broad as an ocean. Due to the concentration in donation, we will be broad-minded and this broad mind will come with us in the future lives too because we are used to unlimited giving. When we reincarnate with a mind broader than an ocean, the treasure of the whole land is ready to come to our ocean mind.

Fourth, you need to organize your time real well, Ms. Teacher. Often go to temples. You have seen many things in the world and have a lot of material technological knowledge. You don’t need to increase this kind of knowledge anymore. Instead of that, you need to increase mental technology from Buddhism; i.e. listening to sermons and meditation. They are the ways to increase wisdom and purify our bodies and minds. If our minds are crystal clear since this life, in our next lives we will be born with these crystal-clear minds and nothing can blind us; therefore, while progressing, we will see the way to gain wealth from whatever we see, no matter if it’s a thing or a situation.

Therefore, Ms. Teacher, to be over-life rich requires these 4 things.

1. Learn well about the law of Kamma.

2. Paying full attention in keeping precepts.

3. Concentrating in donation

4. Meditating until our minds are crystal-clear.

Being rich with this internal wealth since this life, in our future lives we will definitely be rich with both internal and external wealth. This is the way to gain over-life richness, Ms. Teacher.