A person struggling with what appears to be an insuperable financial problem worries and frets, cannot sleep, and finds that food has no appeal. Failing health makes it difficult to work. The sudden advent of religious faith changes the person’s attitude toward life overnight. Realizing that one can do no more than one’s best, the person ceases to worry. As anxiety vanishes, the person is once again able to sleep and eat properly. Soon, healthy again, the person is able to attack work with new vigor. The person’s fortunes improve, the apparently insuperable problem fades into insignificance, and before long the person is better off than ever before.

This kind of thing has happened often in the past and will continue to happen. Undeniably, a spiritual awakening can lead to improved health and even to business success. Though perhaps not its highest goal, physical and financial recovery is a frequent side effect of religious faith. Materialist critics of religion as an opiate ignore its positive effects as a subjective stimulant to objective health and prosperity. In addition, while bringing inner peace and a change of mind, religion insists that instead of resting content with an improved state of private affairs, human beings do all within their power to reform the social evils that lead to misery and strife and try to rid the world of both natural and human-caused disasters. It goes without saying that this is a prime consideration in the Buddhist law of dependent origination.
Basic Buddhist Concepts