Greed and It’s Relationship to Suffering

Paul — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:52:09 +0000

Craving – greed – runs alongside delusion as the causes of suffering. Anyone following the news lately has seen the destruction caused by greed. We’ve all heard how the unbridled greed of Wall Street has brought down the banking industry throughout the world. It’s not just Wall Street and the banking industry who can be considered greedy. All of us who have spent money to attain things just for the sake of having them, whether we could afford them or not, are complicit in this economic mess.

When we think of greed it conjures images of taking more and more and more than our share (i.e., what we deserve). There is more to greed and greediness than scooping money into a pile and diving into it. According to the Buddha, any kind of wanting is considered as greed. There is no line of demarkation that identifies one level of wanting as okay and harmless and another level as greed and destructive. It’s all the same. Wanting is wanting. And wanting leads to dissatisfaction. Sometimes dissatisfaction leads to hatred and destruction.

We are supposed to want things, though. It’s considered abnormal to be contented with what we have and easily satisfied with what we are given. We are supposed to strive, to acquire, to succeed. We are supposed to fulfill our desires. Being good consumers (i.e., greedy) makes us good citizens because we contribute to flow of money. It keeps things humming. And when things are humming nicely we are happy. Sort of, for a while, in a deluded sort of way.

Not being ambitious also is considered abnormal. Ambition – wanting to be something – is a form of greed and a cause of suffering. In keeping up with the election (and observing my feelings about it) I’ve noticed just how much unhappiness surrounds the campaigns because of the ambitions of the candidates. Both candidates are driven to win. They are doing their best to conquer the other. Regardless of who wins, there will much anger and despair throughout the country because we are so much identified with our party and attached to winning. To be sure, some of us won’t get what we want. Although it may seem as though the suffering will be limited to the side that doesn’t win, it certainly will extend to both sides and touch every one of us.

The challenge is to recognize truth of suffering for what it is. If wanting and attachment are involved in any way, suffering will follow.

When This Is, That Is » greed

Greed and It’s Relationship to Suffering