Pure motivation can be applied to whatever activity you perform, regardless if it is related to Dharma. Slowly we start this practice and with experience, the pure motivation would come easily. We have to change our bad habits which are due to ignorance. Through countless lifetimes, we have accumulated much negative karma, we must have the patience to slowly change ourselves. It will not be easy, but with time, we can make the change.
For lay people, especially businessmen, it is very difficult to have pure motivation when working. They feel that they have to tell lies or their business will not be so good. But you can still try to do business with a good motivation. How to do so? For example, before starting on a deal, think that whatever profit I get, I will donate 40% to charity and for the rest, I will keep for myself and my family. If you do this, then it is ok. It may even make your business more successful as you had kind intentions before starting out on the deals. Even if you can’t give 40%, even 5% is good, as long as you have thought of benefitting others, and not just only yourself.
We have to try to think for others, not just ourselves. If you think for others, you will become very relaxed in your mind. If you only think for yourself, gradually you will develop stress and feel more pressure. So try to think of benefitting others. Even though you can’t benefit masses, if there is just only one person in front of you who needs help and you have given assistance with pure motivation, it would make you happy and your mind relaxed.
Wealth, good facilities, infrastructure and material goods, these give us good health and comfort, but not true permanent happiness. That is why you can observe that there are rich people who are very stressed. Poor people may have to live in discomfort, but they may not be unhappy if they are contented and do not harbor selfish thoughts. Material wealth may cause one more suffering due to the grasping and attachment one has for it.
Past Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and great masters took refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, they did not take refuge in material wealth! Material wealth only gives you temporary happiness. We all need material wealth to survive, but we should not put in extra effort just to gain material wealth. Take for example a diamond ring, we wipe it and make it shiny, we carry it around with us, tell it that we love it very much and show it off proudly to others, but the diamond ring cannot reciprocate our love or do anything for us, it may even make us feel uncomfortable having to wear it on our finger. So it only makes us look stupid that we spend so much time and attention on an object that cannot love or care. That is what attachment does to us.