Search results for: "Greed"

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  2. How to Save the World
     … The things you have to watch out for are greed, anger, and delusion. We were talking today about a person who was teaching that now that Buddhism has come to America, it should get rid of these teachings that look down on greed, anger, and delusion—as if somehow American greed, anger, and delusion were different or better than Asian greed, anger, and delusion … 
  3. Straightening Out the World
     … When anger forms, how does it form? What are its subterfuges? What are the stages it goes through before you’re aware of it? The same with greed and lust. These things have their stages. If you can’t see them as they’re forming, you’re usually aware of them only after they’ve come out in your thoughts and your words and … 
  4. The Uses of Fear
     … This feeling can become unskillful when it gets mixed up with greed, aversion, and delusion. But a clear-sighted sense of fear combined with confidence that there is a way out can actually get you on the path. This combination of fear and confidence is what translates into what the Buddha said is the root of all skillful behavior: heedfulness. You realize that there … 
  5. A Flammable Mind
     … The traditional definition of restraint of the senses is that you don’t focus on the details that would set you on fire, the details that—if you left your senses unguarded—would give rise to greed, aversion, or delusion. Again, it’s not the case that greed, aversion, and delusion are coming in from outside. The potential is always there in the mind … 
  6. Freedom through Restraint
    There’s a phrase in the sutta we chanted right now, *vineyya loke abhijjha domanassam: *subduing greed and distress with regard to the world. The word vineyya, “subduing,” there relates to Vinaya, which is the discipline. We’re disciplining the mind when we practice right mindfulness and on into right concentration. This is a part of concentration some people don’t like. There’s … 
  7. Dissolving Distress
     … You remain focused on the body in and of itself, ardent, alert, and mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. That covers two activities. Keeping focused on, say, the breath, in and of itself: That’s the first activity. Putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world: That’s the second. And then you apply three qualities to … 
  8. Games the Mind Plays
     … In addition to your natural wisdom, there’s your natural greed, your natural anger, natural fears, and natural delusion: things that can pull you off the path and into the thickets on either side. So don’t believe that just whatever comes up in your quiet mind is something that can be trusted. You have to question it. Then you have to keep in … 
  9. Training Your Moods
     … Why do you focus on those details? Aren’t there other details you could focus on? As you ask these questions, you get more and more sensitive to the fact that, say, greed doesn’t come simply because you’re sitting around doing nothing, perfectly innocent, and then something excites your greed from outside. Often the greed starts inside, and then you go out … 
  10. Feel-Good Religion
     … Keep track of the body, for example, in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. That whole phrase is the establishing of mindfulness. As for your frame of reference, the “in and of itself,” means focusing simply on the sensation of having a body, or feelings, etc., right here right now. The primary example … 
  11. Great Expectations
     … When greed, aversion, and delusion arise, the Buddha would call them defilements. Modern psychology calls them us. There’s a big break right there. When greed comes up, when lust comes up, it’s not necessarily something we have to identify with. When anger comes up, we don’t have to identify with it. And in not expressing it, in learning restraint around these … 
  12. Food, Shelter & Work
     … So any little disturbance is potentially greed, aversion, delusion, fear, or jealousy. Sometimes it’s not much in and of itself, this little stirring in the mind. But there’s some other part of the mind that wants some action, wants a little greed, wants a little aversion, and takes whatever excuse it can get to go in that direction. You want to catch … 
  13. Subduing Greed & Distress
     … This is called subduing greed and distress with reference to the world. You need to do this because you really, totally, want to be here. And you want to be totally in this frame of reference. We’re creating a new state of becoming here. There’s going to be a new world here and a new you in this world who doesn’t … 
  14. Therapy for the Mind
     … When greed, aversion, and delusion go through the mind, they leave their traces in the body: tightness here, tension there, blockage here. And because the body is so uncomfortable, it’s very easy to go running back to the greed, aversion, and delusion again. You don’t like being in the present moment, so you create worlds in the mind, little becomings. It’s … 
  15. The Heart to Keep Going
     … But what keeps the soldier going is that firm determination—a firm desire not to be fooled by greed, aversion, or delusion ever again. That’s your motivation. That’s you right now. And the more you can make that “you” identify with all the thoughts that cluster around that identity, the easier it’ll be to let go of the other identities that … 
  16. Right Fear
     … Otherwise, you gauge the situation, and whenever fear does come up in the mind, you have to ask yourself, “Where’s the unskillful part of this fear? Is greed involved? Attachment to certain things—are you afraid you’re going to lose them? Where does aversion come in?—aversion to other people, other things you find fearsome.” As for the greed, it can include … 
  17. Putting out the Flame
     … Anything that would pull you back to the world, any greed, any distress around the world—greed for what you’d like out of the world, distress out of what’s happening in the world—the Buddha says you put that aside. As long as you’re thinking in terms of the world, then there’s going to be an identity that forms in … 
  18. The Carrot & the Stick
     … The stick here is reminding yourself what happens to you when you allow greed, anger, and delusion to take over the mind. Just look at the crazy things that people do. You can look at the newspapers; you can look at people you’ve known. People do really destructive things to themselves simply because they allow greed to get a toehold in their minds … 
  19. The Value of Concentration
     … It’s the greed, anger, and delusion that come out of the mind looking for those things: Those are going to burn your seed. So you have to be careful. Whatever is going to come out of your mind could destroy this little seed of concentration, this little seed of stillness. You’ve got to be very careful to keep the mind in check … 
  20. An Island above the Flood
     … You stay focused on the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. That formula right there tells you how you deal with the different floods. By staying focused on the body in and of itself, you’re placing a fence around where you’re going to place your attention. Outside of the … 
  21. One Thing Clear Through
     … And you can think of the whole practice — all the way through the abandoning of greed, anger, and delusion — as an act of generosity, an act of goodwill. The less greed, anger, and delusion you have, the better off not only you are, but also everybody else. Think of all the suffering you’ve inflicted not only on yourself but also on other people … 
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