The Mind is Greedy

 

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The Mind is Greedy

The average mind is nothing but greedy, it symbolises greed because it keeps wanting more and more. It never seems to be satisfied. So, unless the mind disappears greed keeps hanging around in one form or another. If you look at it in another way, it is nothing but the constant fear of the emptiness of the mind – it is an effort to somehow stuff the emptiness. It can be stuffed with food, relationships, love affairs and the mind can move away from materialistic stuff and become spiritual. But it remains the same – the greed is greed. One can be greedy for money and power, or one can be greedy for meditation – it is all the same.

One can be greedy for power or for paradise – it is all the same. In fact, the greed for paradise is far more subtle. The ego of the meditator – “I am into spirituality, my spiritual experiences, my guru,” and so on – I, my, mine! A spiritual seeker can easily pretend that he/she is not greedy – but deep down the desire for liberation, the desire for spiritual experiences is nothing but subtle manifestations of greed. One needs to be really careful.

This greed arises in the mind – greed itself is not the problem – the mind is. Worldly greed is gross, it can be seen; spiritual greed is subtle, it is hidden and not visible. It is far more deceptive and dangerous. Greed is just a symptom, not the cause. Working on the symptom won’t give the desired result – the cause is hidden somewhere else, and we will be fighting the symptom.

So, never fight with any symptom; always look for the cause. The work has to be done where the cause is. And the cause is one and symptoms are many; then the problem is remarkably simple. There is no need to fight with the greed, anger, sex, etc. They are all symptoms of an empty mind which is constantly hankering to fill itself because the emptiness creates fear. It is frightening that one is empty, that one is nothing. Although that nothingness is our nature, we don’t accept it; we go on rejecting It.

Start accepting emptiness and you will be surprised: just by that acceptance, the strength of the symptoms will become extremely weak. They will start disappearing; they will start dying on their own accord. First, accept emptiness; second, start rejoicing in it. And then the third experience will be there – that emptiness is your nature; there is no way to fill it. There is no need to fill it because it is you!