Search results for: "Greed"
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- In the Light of Karma… But all too often we abdicate that power to somebody else, to greed, aversion, delusion, the voices in the mind that want to just go over old stories: “This person did this to me, that person did this to me, that wasn’t right, that wasn’t right.” We can carry these things for years. Sometimes we’re not even conscious that we’re …
- Borrowed Wealth… There’s a goodness that you share with people around you, added to the fact that you need to feed on them less and less, and you’re subjecting them less and less to your greed, aversion and delusion. But there’s also goodness for beings you can’t see. Ajaan Funn one time was talking about how beings filled space the same way …
- Toward Release… The other activity the Buddha calls “putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world”: All your thoughts about what you want out of the world or your past disappointments with the world—put those aside. The problem is that we’re very quick at picking them up again. Even though a lot of those issues are not right here right now, we …
- Cleaning up Your Personal Environment… So why are you sending your attention out to look? Why are you sending it out to listen? Sometimes we’re looking for something to excite our lust or greed or anger. You have to be very careful about that. Again, think of your state of mind when you meditate. If you’re cluttering it up with all these defilements in the course of …
- A Network of Goodness… The less greed, anger, and delusion you have roaming around in your mind, the less they’re going to go out and bite other people. Part of the Buddha’s genius was iin realizing that happiness can be found in such a way that the fact that you make yourself happy increases the happiness of others. So, when we think of the goodness that …
- A Full Range of Archery Skills… to recognize when something’s going wrong, to recognize when something’s going right, and not to give in to your greed, aversion, or delusion. That way, you can develop that third skill, which is to pierce great masses. This the Buddha says, corresponds to piercing ignorance, where you really see how you’re causing unnecessary suffering. You see that the problem lies inside …
- A Sense of Direction… The best way to deal with that is to realize, well, the roots of unskillful behavior are greed, anger, and delusion. And particularly delusion: The mind doesn’t even know itself. So ask yourself, well, what does it know? Bring everything back to basics. Focus everything right here. Is the breath coming in? Do you know that? Well, yes. Is it going out? Do …
- The Real World… And the desire to do a lot is not called greed. It’s called initiative. It’s one of the virtues of finding happiness in this life. And in showing initiative in things like generosity, virtue, and meditation, you guarantee happiness in future lives. That goodness can even take you beyond lives—present, past, and future. That’s when it gets really good. We …
- A Rare Gift… But if you straighten out your mind, it means that you’re not subjecting other people to your greed, anger, and delusion. If you straighten out your mind, and have a greater sense of ease, well-being—you’re not constantly piling all sorts of extra stress and suffering on top of yourself—then you’re in a better position to be helpful, to …
- Getting Out of Karmic Debt… When you start looking for ways in which you can undercut your lust, undercut your greed, undercut your aversion, undercut your fear, jealousy, all these things, try to see that as a game, as a sport. That’s what will carry you through. So even though you recognize your debts, it doesn’t mean you have to be grim about them. In fact, grimness …
- The Hall of Mirrors… This is why an important part of the meditation is that phrase in the description of right mindfulness: “putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world.” In other words, you’re not playing with the monkey out there. You’re not trying to steal berries from the birds. You’re trying to understand this process of what it means to look into …
- Strength of Conviction: 1… Does this person have the sort of greed, aversion, or delusion that would get him or her to claim to know something he or she didn’t know? And if they do, well, you know they’re not people of integrity. The second test: Would this person try to get someone else to do something that was not in that person’s long-term …
- More than Ordinary Heedfulness… You see something nice, and the normal reaction is greed. Well, it may be the normal reaction, but it’s not the best. It’s not the best that we’re capable of. The Buddha’s actually pointing out that the mind doesn’t have to stay on the “normal” human level. We meditate so that we can transform it. But how many people …
- Balanced Breathing… A little tiny bit of greed, a little tiny bit of irritation, if you’re not careful, can take root and grow. A little bit of sloppiness in the way you’re focusing, a little bit of sloppiness in the way keep with your object: That can take root and grow as well. So find a way to be meticulous without being tense in …
- The Cost of Happiness… He talked about how, after his awakening, he surveyed the world with the eye of a Buddha and he saw everyone on fire with greed, anger, delusion; passion, aversion, and delusion. And what were the people doing? They were searching for happiness. Yet the way they were searching for happiness was setting them on fire. This is why, in his very first sermon, this …
- Living Forward, Understanding Backward… to strengthen the skillful intentions in the mind, the intentions that are not wound up in greed, aversion, or delusion. Greed and aversion are fairly easy to see. Delusion is hard—because after all, when you’re deluded, you don’t know you’re deluded. You don’t really know the truth. The only way around that is to keep your past mistakes in …
- The Easy Way Out… the arrow of suffering, greed, aversion, delusion. We all want to find a way to take the arrow out. Some of us, of course, don’t realize that the arrow is there. We feel the pain but we think that it’s coming from something else. We grow up when we really realize that, okay, the arrow is here, and that we’re the …
- Doubt vs. Discernment… Mindfulness is trying to keep in mind that you’re trying to stay with one topic—say, the body in and of itself—and you’re putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. The commentary, when explaining those three qualities, identifies sampajañña—which I translate as alertness—as the wisdom quality. It defines it as seeing things in terms of the …
- Happiness – Yours & Others’… And when you train the mind to bring some control over its greed, aversion, and delusion, these things don’t go prowling around and biting the neighbors. So in your own pursuit of happiness, you’re helping others. It’s good to remember that when the meditation seems like a lonely process. Even though you get advice from others, it’s something you have …
- Truths That Are Noble… Right mindfulness tells you to give up greed and distress with reference to the world. For a lot of us, that’s a huge part of our lives, especially now that news is available all the time. We have to overcome our fear of missing out and realize that what the news is telling us is that the big issues in the world are …
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