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nightmarish picture of hell. And he would have preached the uselessness of money.
Look: the Zen master does not say anything about the uselessness of money. In fact, instead he says, 'Leave a little for me; in the morning I will need it.'
Money has a purpose. One need not be obsessed, this way or that, for or against. Money is utilitarian. You need not be only living FOR money, and you need not be against money. It is just utilitarian. That's why my attitude towards money is: Money has to be used. It is very very instrumental.
In the world of religion, money is condemned very much -- the religious people are very much afraid of money. That fear is nothing but the greed standing on its head. It is the same greed which has now become afraid.
If you go to Acharya Vinoba Bhave with money in your hand he will close his eyes. He closes his eyes, he will not look at the money. So much fear of money? Why should you close the eyes? And he goes on saying that money is dirt -- but he never closes his eyes when he looks at dirt. This is very illogical. In fact, if money is dirt he should have to keep his eyes closed twenty-four hours, because dirt is everywhere. Money is dirt? Then why be so afraid of dirt? What is the fear?
Zen has a totally different and a very fundamental approach. The master does not say that money is dirt and you should not be looking for other people's money. What does it have to do with people? Money is nobody's. So to say to somebody, 'You are a thief,' is to believe in private property. Is to believe that somebody can have it rightly and somebody can have it wrongly, somebody has the RIGHT to own it and somebody has no right.
Stealing is condemned because of the capitalist mind in the world; it is part of the capitalist mind. The capitalist mind says money belongs to somebody -- there is a right owner, and nobody should take it away.
But Zen says nothing belongs to anybody, nobody is the right owner. How can you own this world? You come into this world empty-handed, you go out of it empty-handed -- you cannot own it. Nobody owns it; we use it. And we are all together here to use it. That is the message:
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