Aparigraha - non covetousness

Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Things; or as the Yama (ethical teaching) states, don't hoard or collect things that aren't needed immediately. Keep things simple, be satisfied with what comes your way, God (or Nature) will provide for you. This is not to say that you should not work to improve yourself, or work for a living; only that it is not necessary to continually amass more and more things beyond the basics - a roof over your head, simple clothing to cover your nakedness, enough nourishing food to fill your belly and keep you healthy. Then in your spare time, you can create nice paintings, sing, dance, write poetry, whatever. The simpler your life is, the more time you will have for fun.

The important things in life are to be happy, to find joy in being with your loved ones and in meeting new people and learning new things, perhaps sharing what you have learned with others. Such a life is remarkable stress-free.

There is psychological research that suggests that happiness and income have little to do with each other once a certain threshold has been reached - about $10,000 per capita, or $30,000 per family (median) according to author Gregg Easterbrook ("The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse", cited in The Washington Post on Tuesday, April 18, 2006).

Money won't make you happy. Things won't make you happy. A life well-lived, a life of integrity, a life of discipline that leads to true freedom from the slavery of sense-cravings will help you find the happiness that is already within you naturally.