Earthly Ambitions

["dato1848" <dato1848@...>]

Dear Friends,

I am now making the list of my negative traits as suggested by 
Bardon in his Chapter I of IIH. I have a question particularly about 
one issues: my "earthly" ambitions. In other words, I am quite a 
careeristic person. I am determined to succeed in whichever career I 
choose to pursue after graduating from University. And to be totally 
honest with myself, the main reasons of this is money. In fact, it's 
even naughtier: money, power, respect, sense of security and feeling 
of belonging to society (it is not easy to write these words, but it 
is so). I was not raised in a Christian family, and have never 
therefore considered money as bad or something that can hinder you 
spiritual growth. 

*Now is it in itself a negative trait?* If it is, then I am prepared 
to change it. At this point it seems very difficult, but I know that 
eventually with time and spiritual develpoment I will be able to 
overcome this obstacle. However, I feel that if I don't fully 
understand what exactly is wrong about it, overcoming this desire 
will be harder. 

I will add that I'm not totally materialistic. I don't believe that 
money only can bring you happiness, I will not hurt others to earn 
money and I do not judge people by their socio-economical status. 

I have always believed that money is neither bad nor good. The uses 
that people do of it can be. And if the person is determined to live 
a moral life then he will use the money to help others, and let's 
don't get realistic, if your motives are pure then there is so much 
you can do for the good of humanity if you have money. Nevertheless, 
something tells me that this ambition needs to be written down under 
the heading of negative traits. 

*In which ways do you think I could transfer this ambition into a 
positive trait?* I understand that this what we are supposed to do 
with our negative sides. 

I would love to hear your opinions.

Thanks,
David

PS
I am not talking about having enough money to be able to buy food 
and to ensure that you children get a decent education, I am rather 
talking about BIG MONEY :-)