Greetings,

We're starting a new triangle this month. For the next three months we will be exploring what are commonly called "The Three Poisons" (greed, hatred and delusion). This triangle, like the two previous triangles (The Refuges and the Three Characteristics), reinforces itself and creates a strong bond. But, unlike the other two triangles, this triangle keeps us tied to a life of suffering. It's perfect that we are exploring these poisons in the third quarter, having learned how to find grounding in the Refuges and resilience from the Three Characteristics. We need the strength of these two triangles to explore deeply the destructive nature of the Three Poisons.

In the Buddha’s teachings – all action, or kamma, is in essence intention for the act itself. The actual thought, words or deeds are simply the manifestation of intention through one of the three doors of action — body, speech or mind. Intention is the ethical quality common to every act of consciousness, regardless of whether the act is done knowingly or unknowingly. There is a mental factor known as “roots” that precedes all action. These roots can be unwholesome (the Three Poisons) or wholesome. Action rooted in the Three Poisons of greed, hatred and delusion leads toward anguish, fear, anger, and despair. Wholesome actions are rooted in non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion and lead towards internal stillness, peace of mind and ultimate liberation.

A poison is something destructive or harmful. It is an object used to injure or kill. It is also used to exert a harmful influence and/or corruption, as with jealousy, envy, resistance, etc. We mostly think of poison as something that kills the body. But in Dhamma, we want to investigate a poison that slowly destroys the heart by creating more and more and more separation between us and life itself. The unfortunate challenge we face with exploring the Three Poisons is that we cannot tell that we are being poisoned. The way society lives creates a mistaken belief that if we just look after ourselves, our family, and our friends, we have a greater capacity to protect ourselves from the dangers of the world. This idea is reinforced by the constant barrage of dangerous situations like wars, rumors of wars, illness, violence, lies, judgments against others, the list is endless and its constant. It's no wonder that we want to hide away and shield ourselves as a means of protection.

The dilemma is that such protection is suffocating. It creates cynicism, apathy, isolation and individualism. It ends up harming everybody. We go through our lives constantly creating kamma of harm that will come back to harm us. Please note: we are not going to spend the next three months dwelling on learning how to take the onslaught, to suck it up, keep calm and carry on. What we want to do over the next three months is learn to feel the impact of the Three Poisons and learn to counter that impact with the Three Wholesome Roots. The more we learn to act out of the Three Wholesome Roots in a world that is overrun with the Three Poisons, the more wholesome kamma we generate and this same wholesome kamma comes back to us. We want to learn to cultivate a heart-mind that knows how to balance the mental influence of the Three Poisons with the discipline of present moment awareness.

This month we are going to talk about greed. This isn't about the sin of greediness or gluttony. It's not about whether you are stingy or generous. Greed as a poison is about exploring the underlying tension of wanting. We want to look at what we're willing to do to get what we want and see that everyone is doing the same thing. We like to believe that some people are bad because they will do anything to get what they want. Look at your own life, however, if you had the power/privilege to get what you want, would you not employ that power/priviledge? I'm a 65 year old Black woman living in America and I've rarely seen people who have power/privilege not use it. If you don't have any power, you have to tolerate and put with all kinds of inequality. We don't like to think of this wielding power/privilege as greed, but it is.

I see it in my own life. For example, I fly a lot and I like getting on the plane first. So, I will use whatever power/privilege to make that happen. There was a time when I didn't have as much power/privilege. I usually bought the cheapest tickets at the last minute and I had to wait until the last group was loaded. All that waiting created resentment and wanting (greed) to get on first. As soon as I learned that Southwest didn't have assigned seats and I could get on first I exerted my power/privilege as an old lady with bad knees to get on first. This is greed.

You might be tempted to think, well that's not harmful. I don't think it's harmful either, but the Three Poisons work slowly over the long haul. Which means that every little greed I get builds up. Now I'm an irritated fool if I end up on a flight where I can't get on first. Moreover, I want to be first at everything, I don't have the patience to stand in line for anything. This is what greed does. It seems simple enough when you get your way, but every time you get your way, you are building towards irritation, frustration, and aversion when the inevitable time comes when you won't get your way. As a practitioner, I have learned to expect this. I have practiced with greed while standing in line for a long time. So when I stand in line and I am getting irritated, I send mudita to all the people who are in front of me and metta for all the people for all those behind me. Gradually, I have learned to release myself from irritation, one "standing in line" moment at a time. I'm looking foward to hearing us share our simple moments of greed during the course of the month.

With a deep bow...

Tuere