Considering the language that this post is made in, most readers should be familiar with the Temptation of Christ. During this ordeal, the Devil tempts Jesus by trying to get him to do things like turn stones into bread in order to satiate his hunger, to throw himself off a precipice and force angels to come to his rescue. Lastly, and most interestingly for the purpose of this article, he tempts Jesus by taking him to a very high place and showing him all the kingdoms of the world, saying that only if he will come to worship Satan that he will be given all of this – presumably to rule over them as a king. Now, I take a more metaphorical view of the whole scenario, since there is no peak high enough to see all the kingdoms of the world – it being, of course, round.

There’s a similar temptation in the story of the Buddha. When he sat down under the Bodhi tree and made his vow not to rise from this spot until he had obtained enlightenment, Maara came to tempt him. In most accounts he uses the typical undoing of males on their quest for religiosity – lust, by showing him his three sexy daughters. In certain accounts, however, he also offers the Buddha the wealth and power, even going so far as to offer him a seat on the world’s throne as a universal monarch. The Buddha, of course, rejects this offer and continues on the middle path until he is enlightened.

What are we to make of these stories? Are we not on a daily basis tempted by the pleasures of wealth and fame? For instance, many people have the goal of driving a fancy vehicle, but why? Well, first of all it’s fun to drive, but there is also an element of fame in this as well – you want the car so that people will see your status as someone who can afford such a car, and so by purchasing the car you can enjoy a measure of fame. So wealth can buy a degree of fame, and it can also can buy a certain degree of power over others.

The main trick in circumventing this endless cycle of “one-upping the Joneses” in a quest for ever greater material wealth is to stop caring about what others think of you. Instead of making payments on that expensive vehicle, you can instead take the bus, and save a great deal of money. Usually when I go to the mall it is not on a quest to buy the latest widget that will provide me happiness, but to laugh at the products that people ostensibly buy in order to try and achieve happiness.

As Arthur Schopenhauer solemnly said: “Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.” However, if you drink the water that the Buddha and Jesus have prescribed for us, you “will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

For how to achieve this goal of not caring about what others think of you, I highly recommend that you read the Stoic philosophers – especially Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. For an excellent summation of the Stoic view of life, I recommend A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy.