No.278 - Of Greed, Hatred and Delusion.

Of Greed, Hatred and Delusion.

If you go to a Buddhist temple you may chance to see a pictorial poster similar to the one on this blog. The pictures in the poster may look puzzling even gruesome to the uninitiated but there is a deep and meaningful purpose to it. This is the Bhavachakra or Wheel of Life.

In the center of the wheel of life you will see three animals.

A cockerel, a poisonous snake and a pig. Look closely and you will see they are biting each other’s tails.

The trait of each these animals is used to depict greed, hatred and delusion. In Sanskrit terms it is called lobha, dosa and moha respectively. The Buddha point to these three poisons in our heart as the source of our sufferings as in the Second Noble Truth.

A cockerel has an insatiable desire for sex, between meals its other interest is chasing or luring the hens for that purpose. So it is used to depict greed.

The bite from a poisonous angry snake can even kill an elephant.

It is not so much of the bite but rather the intention to kill when provoked. A person can be so hateful that he wishes his enemy dead with a single blow. So the poisonous snake depicts hatred.

A pig likes to wallow in mud like no other animals, so to a pig; its ‘the muddier the merrier’. It has a deluded sense of joy.

The use of these three animals in the middle of the Wheel of Life is not to berate them but to help practitioners to remember that these three traits, is also ever present in humans.

Greed and hatred in its coarse form is easy to see.

Delusion is the state of mind you are stuck in the midst of, whether hatred or greed, without seeing the situation you are in. In the Sutras the Buddha likened it to a magician - the mind tricked by its own illusion seeing the unreal as real .If you tell a drunkard that he is drunk he will very likely reply that he is not. A person overcome by his own anger will destroy and even kill only to regret his actions later.

Just as a fly maggot living in a bucket of excrement consider its surrounding haven so a person trap in its own greed and hatred become one with the emotions created.

In big cities the Chinese wedding banquet is a seven or eight course sumptuous dinner especially in Malaysia. In my teenage days I attended some of these banquets with my parents, hard liquor was free flowing then. There were no enforced rules against drunk driving as breathe analyzer was not even invented yet. I used to see how many of these dinners end up nasty with fights and drunkards refusing to go home end up vomiting all over the place after binge drinking..

You can see they started off in the loba(greed)state, going into dosa state and the intoxicated mind make the drunkard cloud their senses(they speak loudly when intoxicated even challenging another peron to a fight ) making them impossible to get out of that moha(deluded) state. So now you see why the three animals are depicted biting each other’s tails. When you tell  drunk that he is drunk he will most propbably says he is not. When you tell someone he is angry in the middle of anargument that person will tell you he is not angry despite raising his voice.

You say now that you have no greed, hatred and delusion especially when the conditions for it to arise is not there yet. So where are the seeds of my anger hidden when the conditions for it to ripen is not there?

Understanding Greed, Hatred and Delusion.

When we react emotionally to phenomenon we impress in our memory the events of the moment because for every action has an equal reaction.. These memories become our stored experiences. We recognize things when our senses come into contact with phenomenon then feeling arises due to our link with our stored experiences which also become our memories.

For example when a child, for the first time, comes into contact with fire he feels the pain and he remembers the fire through seeing and feeling. He also remembers the danger of fire and this memory will remain with him for the rest of his life. In a person’s life time may accumulate these experiences as part of life preservation, to protect the ‘self’ so these experiences become our survival instinct.

Nothing wrong with that, but what happens when the survival instinct grow to a monstrous ego that gives little consideration to the sufferings of other beings? From just survival instinct to an ego that grasp at anything it could reach as in what the cartoon character Daffy duck would say, ‘It’s mine, mine all mine’. Fear, anger, hatred belong to the dislike category. Fear of losing can also turn into greed likewise greed can also cause anger and hatred. Blind by hatred and the thirst for revenge can lead to war between countries.

When we see a person, recognition of that person draws from our past feeling of likes and dislikes experiences in an instant. So feeling comes first before you can even think about it.

We then label the person accordingly to our likes or dislikes. Maybe the person is a friend or someone we had quarreled before. We may not like a certain person who has a bad temper. So whenever he comes into our mind we remember him as a bad tempered person but he may have changed. He could have seen the error of his ways and changed for the better but our perception of that person didn’t change.

Please remember that our stored experiences are illusions they belong to the past. The feelings of sadness and happiness at that time and moment the incident happened is not the same as what is in our memory now no matter how real it may seem. Most of the time, we are just recycling those emotions.

This is also why we must always be in control of our emotions and our reaction when coming into contact with external and internal phenomenon. We are responsible of our feeling and emotion, nobody can make us angry if we choose not to. Now do you know where the seed of your anger lies when the condition for it to arise is not there.

Of the three poisons perhaps the easiest to deal with is hatred.

It dilates your pupil; quicken your blood flow especially to your head. You feel energetic and sometimes explosive with physical violence. It is the ego in a show of force.

Of course you may say I don’t hate anyone. Or I don’t have hatred but what is the seed of hatred? When you dislike someone, that dislike is your seed of hatred. When the conditions are ripe then hatred arises. In the mean time you may not wish the person you dislike to be killed with a single blow but in your mind you do not want to think of that person, you try to make the person disappears from your mind and life.

Most often we regret our quarrels only afterwards well at least we are out of the delusive state rather getting stuck with still being angry and doing a lot of damages which may burn all bridges between two people.

The antidote for hatred, the Buddha points out is loving kindness or metta (Pali). In Vajarana practice The Eight Verses of Transforming the Mind is a good antidote.

Here are just a few links of some of the numerous metta sites found in the internet;-

http://info.med.yale.edu/psych/3s/metta.html

http://www.mettainstitute.org/mettameditation.html

http://www.wildmind.org/metta/introduction/what-metta-isnt

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/buddharakkhita/wheel365.htm

Here’s a link to the 8 verses of transforming the mind’;- http://autonomoushealingzone.tribe.net/thread/b0a4caa3-a2c3-411c-8356-2d40ef0e5af5

Start by spending a few minutes each day reciting the Metta Sutra.

In the beginning, practicing loving kindness may seem hypocritical especially towards someone you dislike but as time goes, together with real situation practice, loving kindness will lodge in your heart and your wish will become sincere.

When you feel anger arise in you, immediately apply loving kindness especially towards the person who may be scolding you. Of course you are advice to recite it in silence in your heart.

Overtime anger will cease in you. If at anytime a thought of someone you dislike arises then apply metta towards that person.

As for greed, it comes in many forms and is more difficult to recognize, that is, we are most of the time easily deluded into this state not wanting to be deprived of enjoying the pleasure.

At the extreme end is addiction to sex, intoxicant, pleasure, form can be a big problem.

Taking the five percepts for lay Buddhist is a good way to prevent oneself from falling into the extremes. People often take these percepts in front of a Buddha statue and presided by a monk to give them strength to practice.

Keeping the percepts develops awareness and keep us awaken from these deluded states.

One of the five percepts for lay Buddhist is to abstain from sexual misconduct which also including adultery. (If only Tiger Woods had taken the five percepts). Unlike the same percept for monks which is to abstain from sex totally.

Unless one is ready to embark on serious practice otherwise the five percepts for a lay Buddhist will do.

For those who had caught in addiction the first thing to do is to realize the folly of the present situation.Then make a simple wish to overcome the destructive addiction. The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step and so to become a Fully Enlightened Buddha starts with a wish.

Once that wish has been made then remember to persevere in one's effort or steps one may embark to overcome greed, hatred and delusion.

Good start is to find equilibrium and space to focus and balance mind/body. To have some control of our destiny. Practicing mindfulness of breath meditation(Anapanasati meditation) is a good start.

In the Four Foundation of Minfulness , mindfulness of mental  sates help to deal with these subconscious states.

 There will always be people who will succeed and those who will fail but failure does not mean it will be the end of your effort - just pick yourself up and start again.

For those with a quick temper and short fused, pause fore a moment when you feel you are to boil like counting your breath or start reciting a simple mantra like ‘May you be well and happy.’ Keep your mind in the present moment by practicing mindfulness.

Finally the Eight Fold Noble Path has all the ingredients to overcome and prevent one from falling into the three poisons.