Pursuit of money

Below are excerpts from the Associated Press article, "Deion Sanders Reflects on Troubled Past", published on Sep 27, 1998:

Dallas Cowboys cornerback Deion Sanders described how he attempted suicide last year when his marriage was crumbling, his father was dying and everything seemed to be falling apart.

"You're on the run, trying to reach out and hold on to something desperate," Sanders said in an interview broadcast on CBS. "The enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy. And he was trying to murder me, and I was about to let him do so. And there came that fatal attempt."

Sanders said he tried to kill himself about a year ago by driving his car off a cliff in Cincinnati, where he was playing baseball for the Reds. "I ran the car off the cliff, and it was like a 40 ... 30-foot drop. The car went down and hit and there wasn't a scratch on me or on the car."

"You try to fulfill your time and your needs," he said. "I was just empty. I tried cars, jewelry, clothes, women, money. ... Everything, nothing could fulfill me.

Pursuit of money, fame, power, etc. seems to possess so many people these days, but have we ever considered the example of those who have achieved that goal? Like Deion Sanders, many rich and famous people are forced to live in absolute misery even when they have all that money can buy. Sure, money is needed to maintain a certain standard of life but it doesn't appear to have the magic potion of happiness, peace, and love. We can live in big houses, have the best of cars, feel as if we are better and more successful than others, but what good is it, if we can't be happy? Understanding the source of misery, understanding our cravings, understanding our aversions, we slowly come to know that happiness doesn't lie in material possessions; instead it can sprout from our hearts in every action. This is the process of meditation.