Tuesday 1 November 2011

The Day of The Greed.


I don’t know if they said anything specifically about the Day of The Dead, but them Buddhists have pretty much got an answer to EVERYTHING ELSE!

Especially the Zen ones.

Just the other day one wrote to me and tried to explain what and why - what greed is and why it is an impediment to happiness.

“Any moving towards is greed, turning your head slightly because you want more warm sun on your face (greed).” They explained.

Except they hadn’t.

Explained.

That would, perhaps, constitute “moving towards” – something I realized no longer meant something to do with driving the car; without being very much clearer exactly WHAT it was.

Though it seemed that if I did too much of it may not be good, and if I had then I was guilty of greediness - and that would explain any unhappiness I might have been feeling of late.

And yet, since November is a month when the sun is fading and in which I feel pretty certain I want to do some moving towards – this is why I’ve labeled it, on this blog, as November's Overtures – I thought I had better make sure I was either greed free or greed glee.

So I went online and listened to this guy – I’m pretty sure he’s a Buddhist; either that or he is pretty greedy about orange.

I picked him because a woman I bumped into completely by chance mentioned him in a monologue when I asked her – “did you do your homework?”

Ok, that doest really count as chance I guess – I mean, if I had asked her to do some homework and then a week or so later I got to say; “did you do it” there must have been some sort of planning eh?

So it was random in that it isn’t me that does that planning ok?

Nor her.

It’s all down to Aline who is not a Buddhist.

Least I don’t think so.

She does have a weird Japanese style tattoo on her shoulder though, so she might be.

Thinking about it I did offer her a choice of chocolate or flowers - she had helped graciously sorted out some scheduling problems - she said, “save your money”.

Could that be considered as Buddhist?

She DOES know how little money I earn – so maybe not, but her attitude to chocolate, apparently, would make the guy in the video, I am assuming you followed the link, pretty happy.

I think.

Though in fact, his message maybe that he doesn’t need anything to make HIM happy.

I might.

But I shouldn’t be greedy!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

In my Buddhism - they say 'earthly desires are enlightenment'
In my not very aticulate quick before word explanation that means that often that strong force which accompanies a desire is an excellent energy for achieving and getting things done - taking action and providing you are chanting to bring out your buddhahood (best self) you will take action with compassion and wisdom. Like anger (not always useful) but at its best the anger against injustice a great force for change. Greed bring it on it makes me fight for more for everyone.

popps said...

Ah, grasshopper, you begin to make sense!

Anne Hodgson said...

Now that was deep.