There is an inherent limitation in the Buddhistic philosophy about letting go of material and immaterial possessions or desires in order to reach a state of happiness.
If the world was perfect, and every person was granted with abundance, there wouldn't remain the desire to move forward and our survival instincts would instantly shut down.
Lack was created by the higher power to direct individuals in seeking abundance for personal and universal expansion, and never to escape abundance in the first place.
Spiritual stillness, pure goodness was the beginning of existence, but the outcome of individuation is duality. Darkness will have as much importance as the light, and crimes will never cease to exist in this world because they serve a purpose far greater than an ordinary mind can comprehend, out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing.
Letting our desires go is not the ultimate answer for happiness, because what half If not all of the world needs is to run after them.
Why does a binge eater continue to eat? He continuously attempts to evade his shame. He apparently has an abundance of food, but If you ask a victim of overeating, he will tell you that in the vicious cycle of escaping shame, he never had the chance of truly enjoying the eating process. Hence, true abundance was never there. Hence, such an addictive pattern always continued in his life.
If our binge eater had taken one conscious decision to calm down, then eat because he WANTS to and not because his mental wiring is telling him to, he wouldn’t feel the compulsion again, he would find a cure. Such are the bounties and beauty of abundance, that If you satisfy your desires directly, they no longer remain compulsive and even destructive. And only after this experience, a room will open for making a self aware decision of letting go, letting go of everything, in order to expand further and regain the state of spiritual stillness.
People who have experienced continuous craving for sexual relief, people who get involved in aggression and practice twisted methodologies, are ironically starving for what they seek desperately. An entire ocean surrounds such individuals, but they can not consume a single drop!
Abundance, material or emotional, without exception equates with peace and harmony. It means that the *truely* rich people are at peace with their financial circumstances, that's why the abundance keeps flowing. And it's healthy.
But here's a catch: we often see people who seem to be making money but never obtain that satisfaction because of their greed, right?
Wrong! When a person trains himself enough to look past the illusions of apparent life, he will see that a person who appears to be well settled, and still runs after money, is not because of greed but because he does not have the money in its true sense. The little he does have, gets snatched away by his family or is used to maintain a noble image. No amount of wealth is being directed to his personal desires, to his grooming, mental and heartily expansion. So, the running continues endlessly. And it will never stop, until and only he experiences true financial abundance.
In short, a person who has never obtained monetary abundance should not be advised to stop running after money because it will never work. It is easy for a Prince to let go of the world and preach as such, because he has had the world in his hands. But you can never convince a beggar who wants to build a mansion, to find peace in his poverty. For a Prince, letting go may be the answer. But a beggar must run, and the world must help him run.