Greed can be Good

I have been urged to blog again, this time by CX when I was performing SYC duty today. I had not been blogging much over the past few months. Mainly because the increased pace of life is getting to me. I am constantly feeling that I am being rushed from one point to another ceaselessly. Writing slowly took a back seat. I never lost the passion for writing though. But it is an activity that requires time which is somewhat a luxury nowadays. I try not to write meaningless things if I could help it. But meaningful post requires even more time to think out than mundane ones.

I should try though. Here’s a short one from my sharing at last month’s discussion meeting:

We know that all man-inflicted sufferings begin with the three poisons. The first poison is Greed. There isn’t a single mortal who is without greed. We can be greedy for many things, from money to fame, from glory to status, from attention to lust. And when we realized that the pursuit of these desires are not bringing us fulfillment, we naturally become angry. Anger is the second poison. Anger is the state of arrogance, where we blame everything and everyone else when things do not go in the way we want. But the arrogance prevents us from realizing that the problem and the solution is within ourselves. That lack of rationality is foolish. The third poison is Foolishness which is the inability to differentiate right from wrong. And blindly pursuing the wrong ideals brings us to the pursuit in the wrong desires. That will result in more Greed and the cycle continues.

Many religious teachings explained that we have to eradicate these poisons from our lives. If we can succeed, then our problems will vanish. But there is a problem. Without desires, then we will not even have life. This is impractical.

Nichiren Buddhism offered a simple practical solution though. The key to the teachings of Nichiren is that while the poisons are strong and debilitating, it is always possible to turn the poisons into medicines. That he meant is that it is not possible to totally eradicate poisons from our lives, but there is a way where we can use these Greed, Anger and Foolish in a positive way.

For example, if we have to be greedy, then let’s be greedy for good fortune and for enlightenment. If we have to be angry, then let’s be angry with injustice and corruption. And if we have to be foolish, then let us be foolishly gracious. That said, the key to actualizing these transformation from poison to medicine is not as straightforward as a shift in mindset. It is a painstaking effort to devote our lives for kosen-rufu. To constantly exerting every ounce of our energies into encouraging another human being to recognize the wisdom, courage and compassion we all possess and some realized as Buddha nature.