Search results for: "Greed"
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- Effective Self-Discipline… We see horrendous people give in to their anger, give in to their greed, give in to their fears, and they end up doing things that they regret for the rest of their lives. That’s simply because they had no control over their minds. They often knew that what they were about to do was going to have bad consequences, but they went …
- Distractive Thoughts… Especially if it’s an obvious defilement, like greed, anger, delusion, or lust: If you thought about it for a while, you’d develop ruts in the mind that would be hard to get out of. Like driving through snow: You suddenly find yourself falling into some ruts, and the ruts take you right into the back of a parked car. So think about …
- Equanimity Isn’t Everything… You’ve got to learn how to keep these perceptions in mind to help wean yourself away from the defilements of lust, anger, or greed. To bring the mind into concentration requires perceptions as well. You need to have a certain perception of the breath, a certain perception of the body to get into concentration and stay there. At the very least, you need …
- Interdependence & Death… Even if you’re not consciously thinking about contemplation of death, the fact that you’re trying to get the mind settled with the breath, using the proper perceptions, the proper ways of talking to yourself, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world, putting aside any reference to who you think you are, and just looking at the problem of suffering …
- Proving the Teachings… When you get all wound up in greed, lust, anger, delusion, or fear, sometimes that mental state leads to uncomfortable breathing. Sometimes it’s the uncomfortable breathing that creates a bad mental state. When you notice that, then you can start exerting more control over your mind simply by the way you breathe. This gives you a back door into getting some measure of …
- Body Contemplation Is Compassionate… The really compassionate thing is learning how to overcome your greed, your aversion, your delusion, your lust—all the defilements. Realize that they’re the enemy. The people you tend to focus on as exciting your lust are just excuses. The origination of lust comes from within. And it’s combined with all kinds of other things. There’s pride sometimes. There’s resentment …
- Strong Through Admirable Friendship… Some magazines should be called Greed, others should be called Anger or Delusion, Sloth and Torpor, Doubt. All the hindrances, all the unskillful mind states: There’s a magazine for them, and websites for them, and apps. When we spend so much time with our cell phones, our screens, those become the people we associate with, so you have to be very careful about …
- Overwhelmed by Freedom… But there are many other narratives for anger just as there are many narratives for greed. So there are lots of these things you’ve got to learn how to work through. Just because you see through anger once, don’t get discouraged when you find anger returning in another guise. Keep reminding yourself that this is a long- term project. There are lots …
- Judicious vs. Judgmental… That way your choice is based on knowledge, not on greed, aversion, or delusion. This is why the Buddha, in his analysis of the four truths, said that our task with the regard to the first truth — the truth of suffering or stress — is to comprehend it. All too often we treat pain in the same way we treat anything we don’t like …
- Virtue Contains the Practice… So even though there are lots of skills that the Buddha recommends for holding to the precepts—learning how to say No to our greed, No to our anger, No to our delusion—we apply those teachings in only a half-hearted way. Then we say that the Buddha’s recommendations are not working, so we go and give in to the temptation. But …
- Friends with the Breath… Working with the breath in and of itself, as the Buddha says, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world—in other words, any thoughts that would get you entangled in any sense of “world” outside: Just put them aside. If they come up, try to let them go. Don’t let them interfere right here. Because what you’re working on …
- Four Bases of Success… When greed comes, what incites it? Can you see it at the very beginning? Because it’s at the very beginning that you can deal with it most quickly and easily. If it gets entrenched, then it’s harder to uproot. So learn how to watch the mind when it’s still, learn how to watch for the little stirrings that would turn into …
- Motivation… This is a wonderful Dhamma we’ve got here, taught by someone totally free from greed, aversion, and delusion. It’s timeless. That points to the positive aspect of the practice. Then the third governing principle is the world. This is the unusual one. The Buddha says that there are people in the world who can read minds. How would you feel if they …
- Pissing on Palaces… When you see other people who, through their greed and heedlessness, have destroyed their wealth, destroyed their status, destroyed the company they work for, you can take it as a warning signal: That’s a Dhamma lesson right there. When you see someone who’s found peace of mind: There’s a Dhamma lesson right there, too. The important thing is to detach yourself …
- Step Back & Watch… Which of our different sets of colored glasses have we been wearing? The greed glasses? The ill will glasses? The drowsiness glasses? Restless and anxiety, uncertainty, all these are different glasses that we can wear at any one time: They distort our vision, and then, starting from distorted visions, we act in distorted ways, and end up suffering because of the distortion. The Canon …
- Take Time to Evaluate Your Life… What does it mean to keep track of something, keep track of the body in and of itself, keep track of the feelings in and of themselves, mind, mental qualities? As for the rest of the formula—“ardent, alert, mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world”: That doesn’t get explained at all. People think that because nothing is said …
- Getting Back on Your Feet… When you’re looking, why are you looking? What’s the motivation? Greed? Aversion? delusion? Okay, don’t look in that way. Don’t let those members of the committee be the ones who take over your eyes. Also look at the impact that whatever it is you’re looking at has on the mind. Here again, if you see that it tends to …
- Capable… You keep focused on the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. So you stay with the breath. That’s part of the body and it’s already there. What’s going to make a difference is developing those three qualities of mindfulness, alertness, and ardency. Mindfulness is the ability to keep …
- Not Crushed by the World… So, you want to make sure that wisdom is looking, discernment is looking, not your greed, aversion and delusion. You have to see the way you engage with your senses as a cause-and-effect process. What you’re looking for, what you’re listening for, will have an impact on the mind. So be very careful about how you go about these things …
- The Triple Training… So thoughts that don’t deal with settling the mind down and putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world, you put them aside. Also, the fact that you’re following the precepts means you have to be very attentive to your intentions, because that’s what makes the difference between breaking a precept and not breaking it. Only when you break …
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