Search results for: "Greed"
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- Clear of Defilement… When things are clear, things are calm, learn to appreciate that, learn to develop it, so that when greed sneaks in or lust or anger or fear, you can recognize them before they become full-blown. You begin to see, “There’s something not quite right there. The mind that used to be so clear is beginning to get a little murky.” And try …
- Limitless Thoughts… The Buddha talks about greed, anger, and delusion as things that make a limit. Pamana-karana is the Pali term. As long as we allow greed, anger, and delusion to hold sway over our minds, we’re limiting ourselves. Then there’s a whole question of self identification: That too is a limit. The Buddha says that whatever you identify as your self, that …
- Of Essential Worth… When I first read the teachings about people going past greed, aversion, and delusion, it sounded like some sort of dried-out husk. Who would want to go in that direction? But there were a lot of good things in the Buddha’s teachings as well, so I was willing to put that question aside for the time being. But it always there in …
- The Four Noble Truths… Exactly where is this mental state wrong? Where is its appeal? In other words, how does it arise? How does it pass away? And what is the hook? For example, when greed comes: Why do you like greed? Why do you want to go along with it? What do you think you’re getting out of it? When anger comes: Why do you want …
- Grounded in the Breath… When the Buddha talks about the different stages of breath meditation, he talks about the steps dealing with the body, the steps dealing with feelings, the steps dealing with the mind, and then the steps dealing with putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. But in every case, he says, they’re all related to the breath. If you want to …
- Simple & Basic… And particularly you’ll find that when the defilements come on strong—the opinions that are bound up with greed, anger, and delusion, or passion, aversion, and delusion—they’ll have a tendency to push good things out of their way. And one of the first thing that gets stomped on is any state of stillness in the mind. We think it’s stupid …
- Ripples Go Far… What drove that TV show? There’s a lot of greed in the industry, and there’s somebody out there who wants you to believe something. Do you trust those people? You don’t even know them. The amount of greed that drives the media is scary. But then you look at your own mind, the amount of greed, aversion, and delusion that drives …
- Tranquility, Insight, & Concentration… For example, the body: “Keep focused on the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world.” That’s his description for how you get the mind into concentration. You focus on one topic, keep it in mind—that’s mindfulness; you’re alert to what you’re doing, and the results that you’re …
- Right Speech… The Buddha himself said that he would not tell the truth in areas where it would give rise to greed, anger, and delusion. That doesn’t mean he would lie, simply that he would avoid those topics. So you’ve got to figure out skillful ways of avoiding issues without letting the other person know you’re avoiding them. Suppose someone comes up and …
- Alone & Together… It’s so easy to say, as we read the texts, “That was okay back in those days, but we have modern problems they didn’t have back then.” Well, they had greed—we have greed. They had aversion—we have aversion. They had delusion—we have delusion. Some of the details may be different, but the basic patterns are all the same. As …
- Take Your Time… The phrase in the formula for right mindfulness, “putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world,” that’s one of the functions of evaluation. So if you find that that’s what you’ve got to do, do it. Even if it takes up the whole hour and you’re not with the breath all that much, still learning how to think …
- Switzerland Inside… So when you can think in these ways, the your greed and distress with reference to the world get a lot weaker. What you should be distressed about is if you don’t have these treasures inside, so work on those. And being greedy for these treasures is no problem. This is one area where the Buddha doesn’t call it greed, he calls …
- A Clear Agenda… putting aside greed and distress, or subduing greed and distress with reference to the world. That part of the formula means that you’ve got to put aside anything that gets in the way of your seeing things simply in terms of the four noble truths. That takes a lot of effort. Sometimes the effort requires a lot of ingenuity on your part; sometimes …
- Verified Confidence… The roots of unskillful action are greed, aversion, and delusion. One of the ways you overcome uncertainty about the Dhamma is to look in your mind to see that when you act on greed, anger, or delusion, what are the results? When you act on their opposite, what are the results? This is where you have to be honest and very observant to see …
- Bringing Daily Life into the Practice… Who’s flowing out? Your greed and your anger? Or your discernment? You want your discernment to be the strongest flow, so that when you look at things, you can take them apart and see where they might draw you into lust or anger or greed or fear. Then remind yourself: You don’t have to be drawn in that way. Again, have a …
- The Guarantee of Concentration… All the voices of greed, anger, and delusion can sneak in on the mind because there’s a background noise or there are background noises. The only way you get to see them when they’re still small, when they’re just getting started, is to make sure the inner background noise gets as quiet as possible. This is why concentration practice is so …
- Judging Your Meditation… So it’s not the fault of the meditation, say, that anger suddenly appears in your mind, or greed or lust or fear. You have to alert yourself to that issue. You have to be sensitive to this: Does it come from what you’re doing right now, or does it come from the past? This is why you have to meditate again and …
- Overcoming Fear… All we have are greed, aversion, delusion. Where’s the fear? The answer is that fear is not always unskillful. It depends on what you’re afraid of. The Buddha lists five kinds of losses you can be afraid of: loss of health, loss of wealth, loss of your relatives, loss of your virtue, loss of your right view. The first three hurt a …
- The Buddha’s Medicine… If you find that there are certain topics that, when you think about them, give rise to greed, anger, or delusion, you’ve got to give yourself an alternative place to go. Here again, the breath helps. And then you look to see the symptoms of the greed, anger and delusion in the body. Because sometimes those aggravate the problem. This is another area …
- Fear & Conviction… If it’s combined with greed or aversion or delusion, then it is unskillful. But the Buddha listed two kinds of fear that are actually helpful in the practice. One is simply the quality of heedfulness, *appamada, *realizing that your actions make a difference and you could very easily do something really unskillful, so you have to be careful. The second is a quality …
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