A couple of months ago, I was telling a story to a group of children of European origin. A fiver-year-old girl asked me, ‘What’s greed?’ I replied, ‘Well, good question. Greed is when you want more than you need.’ But, indeed, what exactly is greed? All of us have some understanding of it. But there is something much deeper than what we already know. Without a teacher of profound wisdom, we will never be able to find the deeper meaning.

Listen to my teacher’s original lecture in Chinese: 1) Greed is the source of all afflictions, 2) Practise the Three Types of Giving.

Listen to my podcast: Coming soon…

In one of his lectures, my revered teacher gave us a detailed analysis of greed when he was explaining the Six Perfections 六度 (Six Paramitas). He said that the path to enlightenment 菩薩道 is to benefit oneself, benefit others, and become a Buddha. This is the Path of Greatness 大道.

The first of the Six Perfections is giving. The purpose of giving is to eradicate the fundamental affliction 根本煩惱, which is greed. Some of you might ask, ‘Oh, what is affliction?’. Affliction means a cause of pain or harm. We have countless afflictions, that is, we have countless causes of pain or harm. The key here is ‘we have’ but not other people. This means that our afflictions are all generated by ourselves. Generally speaking, there are three types of afflictions and they are greed, anger, and ignorance. These three types of afflictions encompass all sorts of afflictions.

If we look deeper at greed, anger, and ignorance, the root of them all is greed. So, greed is the villain of all our afflictions. You might ask ‘Why?’ Well, when a person is greedy for something, if they can get it, they do not get angry; but if they cannot get it, when there is something stopping them from getting what they want, their anger arises, followed by ignorance and foolishness. I observed this bad habit in children as young as 1.5 years old when I taught at a nursery in London for a year. It is even more noticeable in some of the 3-year-old children. And if teachers, parents, and adults around children do not help children learn to regulate and extinguish their greed and anger, children will suffer more when they grow older.

That’s why greed is the root cause of all afflictions. It’s like a doctor treating an illness. What they do first is to find the root cause of the illness. Greed is the root cause, the most severe root cause. When it is uprooted, that is, when we get rid of it, other illnesses will be all cured. Greed is an illness that takes our life 要命的病. There is so much chaos and so many disasters in the world of today, they are in fact the consequences of greed. All Buddhas use the method ‘giving’ to cure this life-taking illness, that is, greed.

Without practising prudence, human beings can easily become slaves of greed unnoticed. So how do we get rid of greed and become the masters of our desires? Sakyamuni Buddha and all other Buddhas taught us to practise three types of giving. And the three types of giving result in wealth, intelligence and wisdom, and a healthy long life. So what are the three types of giving? They are 1) giving of wealth, 2) giving of teachings, 3) giving of fearlessness.

What is the purpose of practising giving? The purpose is to ‘free oneself from stinginess and greed’. Stinginess and greed are the most severe affliction out of all afflictions. Stinginess is meanness. Being unwilling to give others what we have is stingy. Hoping to get what we do not have is greed. Human beings are greedy with no ending, being greedy for fame, for money and for profit, etc.

In this world, what people are greedy for is the five desires and the seven emotions. The first desires are desires for wealth, for someone good-looking, for fame, for food, and for sleep. The seven emotions are joy, anger, sadness, delight, likes, dislikes, and desire. Human greed has reached a very severe level and caused much physical and mental harm to oneself and other people and creatures. As a result, the planet on which we are living has also been infected with sever disasters because human thoughts have a huge impact on their physical surroundings.     

In Mahayana sutras Buddhas taught us that greed causes water-related disasters, e.g., river floods and the rise of sea level. What is the cause? The cause is the stinginess and greed of human beings living on this planet. The cause is there and the consequence it has brought us is terrible. Anger causes fire-related disasters, e.g., eruption of volcanos and global warming. Ignorance of sages’ teachings brings us wind-related disasters. Arrogance brings us earthquakes. Doubts on sages’ teachings, on good teachings and on the karmic law of cause and effect bring us landslides and land subsidence. Today, we often hear news about landslides and land subsidence everywhere. These are the results of doubts.

You see, it is just terrible. All these disasters are not natural disasters. They are man-made. They are Nature’s responses to our bad thoughts, bad speech, and bad acts. Nature is the most beautiful. Nature is the healthiest. It is us human beings who have destroyed the natural ecosystem of the Earth and brought forth disasters. The same principle applies to our bodies. These disasters are also reflected in the organs of our bodies, causing illnesses, pain, and even unnatural death. That’s why the first thing that Buddhas taught us is to practise giving.

Wishing whoever reads this post good mental and physical health, peace, harmony, auspiciousness, happiness, long life and infinite wisdom. Thank you.

DEDICATION

The effort and gains of explaining, transmitting and listening to Buddhas’ teachings are dedicated to:

the entire Universe and all beings of all dimensions and all existences. May they all listen to Buddhas’ teachings, awaken to the truth of the Universe, be mindful of the name ‘Amituofo’ (Amitabha Buddha),

aspire to go to the Pure Land, and become Buddhas. (Read the above three times)

I pray to Buddhas and bodhisattvas for unconditionally solving all man-made and natural disasters around the globe.

For all of those who died in man-made wars and natural disasters across the world,

and for all of those who are related to me in all kinds of ways in this life and previous lives, may they listen to Buddhas’ teachings. May they awaken to the truth of the Universe, aspire to unearth their innate and most sincere, pure, equal and awakened mind, be single-mindedly mindful of Amituofo, aspire to go to the Pure Land so as to see Amituofo and listen to his teachings, removing all their delusions and unveiling their innate wisdom, gaining the real peace and happiness, instantly escaping from the cycle of birth and death, speedily becoming Buddhas, and helping all beings (in the entire Universe) like all other Buddhas.

The effort and gains are dedicated to the leaders of all countries on the Earth. May all countries be prosperous. May all disasters be solved. May the world enjoy eternal peace. I use the effort and gains to return the help from the enlightenment of Buddhas, by the correctness of Buddhas’ teachings, from the purity of sangha, from all beings, from my parents (in this life and previous lives), and from my country(ies). I also use the effort and gains to help alleviate the suffering of those who are already in and will be reborn into the animal realm, the ghost realm and hells as the result of their bad thoughts, speech and deeds. For anyone who sees and hears me chanting or being mindful of Amituofo and doing other good deeds, may they aspire to unearth their most sincere, pure, equal and awakened mind so as to go to the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, together with me, at the end of our present lives.