Lesson 1 - What exactly is money?

There is no idea that seems to be as misunderstood as the idea of "Money."On one hand we find many people engaged in a mad chase after money for money's sake. Then there are others who will tell you that money is the root of all evil, and severely criticize you for actively seeking it.
I am here to tell you that both groups are wrong. They are standing on opposite sides of the road and the truth found here as with many things lies in the middle of the road. The person who seeks money as a thing of value, worships it as a god is a fool, because he or she is mistaking a symbol for reality. likewise the person who decries the pursuit and desire for money as something foul or evil this person would make money a devil and is also foolish. the wise view is taken by one who sees money as a symbol of something else behind, and who is not deluded by mistaking the shadow for the substance either for evil or for good. wise thought makes money neither a god nor a devil, but sees it as a symbol of almost everything that he or she may obtain from the outside world and respects it as such. While avarice and greed are detestable and hurtful qualities of the mind, lack of proper desire for, and striving after money makes a person a creature devoid of all that makes life worth living.
When a sane person desires money he or she really desires the many things that money will purchase. Money is a symbol for nearly everything that is necessary for human well being and happiness. With it man can open the door to all sort of opportunities, and without it he can accomplish practically nothing. Money is the tool with which man can carve many beautiful things, and without the aid of which he is helpless. Here is an important point coming and i want everyone to get this. Money is but the concentrated essence of things desired, created, and established by society in it's present stage of development.
There have been times in which there was no money- there may be times coming in which the human race will have passed beyond the need of money as a symbol of exchange and posession but be this as it may the fact remains that now right here in the beginning of the 21st century there is nothing that is so necessary for man's well being and contentment as this much abused thing called money.
Remember this first , last and always that when i say man needs money, I mean that he needs the many things that money will purchase for him. And for anyone to decry the the desire for money is for him to deny the the desire for nearly all the good and desirable things in life. Here is a simple but powerfully true statement: Unless a person acquires money, then he shall not eat; nor be clothed; nor have shelter; nor books; nor music; nor anything else that makes life worth living for a thinking and feeling being. People who belittle the desire for money are generally those who have found themselves lacking in the qualities that tend to attract money; or else those who are in the possession of money that has been inherited or otherwise acquired without the labor, excitement or satisfaction of having been made by themselves.
with the first group it is a matter of "sour grapes"; with the second it is a case of financial indigestion which has left the person devoid of a normal appetite.
Money is still necessary in order that man may have the necessities of life, as well as a few luxeries. We cannot live on beautiful theories, but must have bread and butter, and potatoes, and sometimes a piece of cake or pie- and it takes money to get them. Money means freedom, independence, liberty, and the ability to do great good, as well as great evil. It means the opportunity to carry out great plans and fulfill great ideals. It means the filling in of those mental pictures that we have sketched out in our minds. It means the chance of materializing those airy "castles in Spain" that we have dwelt upon in moments of hopeful ecstasy. Yes , money is the wizard, able and willing to work wonders. It is indeed the genie who can and will do it's masters bidding.
I hold that in the present stage of evolution of man, money is to mankind what air, water , and sunshine and earth are to the plant- it is nourishment. and as in the plant, the desire for nourishment is a natural and worthy instinct, so is the desire for this financial nourishment in man a perfectly natural and worthy instinct- it is the working of the same natural law.