What my Buddhist uncle said about lottery winners

[jennifer_bloom]

My uncle says they did a scientific study of lottery winners in another country, they studied over 40 winners and out of those 40 who won the lottery, not one of them had a happy life, the only one who had a happy life after their lottery win was the one who gave all their winnings to charity.

When I was 24 I used to talk to a Jewish guy online about bible verses and after googling his name, I learned his house was bigger than the synagogue he lived close to. He was too lazy to work for a living but too embarrassed to let people know he was unemployed so he did nothing at all and was online for over 14 hours a day. He told me he was on antipsychotics to treat mental illness.

People think money or beauty or suitors or popularity or health will give them happiness but none of that matters, what truly brings happiness is God. The bible says those who chase gods of food or alcohol or drugs or beauty or reputation will increase in misery and be rejected by God’s people too.

Money and food and physical fitness might be necessary but that does not mean we should worship those things or base our lives on those things. What we should base our lives on is compassion and mercy and love and service and sacrifice, which is the only thing that brings true happiness.

[Leonharted]

Reminds me of what Heinlein wrote in his book, Starship Troopers:

"Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more. All the wealthy, unhappy people you've ever met take sleeping pills; Mobile Infantrymen don't need them. Give a cap trooper a bunk and time to sack out in it and he's as happy as a worm in an apple - asleep."

[purplepoppy]

Rich people don't lose sleep wondering where the next meal is coming from or if theyll have a roof over their heads next week. I suspect those lottery winners are the type who are determined to be miserable no matter what. The type who aren't happy unless their complaining about something

[Seangreen]

I somewhat agree. I don't know if you have to give your all your money away to charity to be happy but I think the real moral of the story here is is that money won't necessarily make you happy. Money is a representation of human labor that has been done it in order for that money to have been in existence somebody somewhere eventually had to originally work to create it metaphorically. So the more money you hold on to the more human the labor you've acquired I'm not sure if that makes sense but when I was more financially stable and didn't have to worry about money as much I sure was miserable and it seems like as soon as I threw it all away I was a lot happier and to me that doesn't make sense but that's how it played out

[ODC2112]

Most lottery winners change their lifestyles with lottery money. But the change is unregulated as they are unable to manage money independently. The effect is that they waste all the money quickly and come back poorer than before. In Italy they showed that 87% of people who win the lottery within 24 months of having cashed the prize go back to being poor.
Winning money, as it is not earned through sweat, is seen as less important. They are therefore used for riskier investments, for stupid purchases and wasting them in a blatant way. In short, the perception of risk completely skips.
To manage money you have to be trained to do so. those who do not return poor are the same ones who do not change their lifestyle and continue to lead the same life as before.

[CuddlyCarla]

Having grown up with money, I can say that having the coolest toys or living in a big house didn't make me feel happier than other kids. Most humans long for the things they didn't have and those are the things they chase after. I'm lucky I learned that lesson early on because I didn't build my life around having the most - he with the most toys still dies. I'm not a religious person so I can't claim happiness in god but whatever it is a person values or believes in can bring joy. For me, it's being around my family, having health, and friends. I have a lot of gratitude, and being able to stay aware of that and focus on it keeps me moving forward.

[Pasiton5]

Well I can only say that those unhappy ones don't know how to live it up, or live life to it's fullest, by being fortunate enough to be well off and allowed their lack of imagination to know how it what it is to live life to it's materialistic fullest, one must know how to balance their life with charity and indulgence's, not hard at all to do

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

Yes, people who worship money and things or win big lottery's never are happy
anyone who brags about living for free on government money but doesn't do
a thing but lives in a mansion really has major issues they are the people who
abuse the system

[ChiTown33]

Of course he did.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/HoMLl9WYqgY

Happiness is a matter of perception. It's a conscious choice regardless of your situation.

[zagor]

Yes, some very wealthy people are miserable, even those without health problems. Even more likely when they did nothing to earn it, whether by winning the lottery or inheritance.

[es20490446e]

What truly brings happiness is God.
Jesus said God is me.

[FýrdracaDócincel]

"What we should base our lives on is compassion and mercy and love and service and sacrifice, which is the only thing that brings true happiness."

Speaking from experience, this makes you fucking miserable.

[emperor90]

Those that win lottery are not always happy and they become horrible people

[slatyb]

I don't believe in God, my friends don't believe in God, and yet somehow they seem quite happy.

[grimreaper13]

The only people who win from the lottery are the people who sell the tickets and the lottery them selfs

[Anonymous]

I would be happy with $100,000,000.
But I admit, I could be just as happy making love in the sand on some island, lost to the world.