Seekers of the Spiritual Way
Is greed within us? Are we greedy by birth? My hypothesis is that greed is not innate. Greed is acquired. Ironically it is acquired through a process of observation, learning, analysis, and theorization! It arises out of rational processes. Therefore, science is a double-edged thing: it helps us understand and it also helps us to misuse our understanding. One reason for this mixed result is that science is not wholistic: in fact, it leaves out most of the aesthetics in the processes of living our lives.
On the contrary, as a seeker of spirituality I take a wholistic view of life. I am intrinsically removed from the tendency to acquire knowledge and then to misuse it. The tendency to misuse knowledge comes strictly from a non-wholistic and partial approach to life that lacks commitment and partitions the unitary whole into artificial and rather devilish partition of the whole into “us” versus “them”.
Is observation, learning, analysis, and theorization something that leads you to greed and subsequently to evil and selfishness? It obviously can because man does do evil and does become selfish. Then there are also Sufis, saints and prophets who are not evil and they do not act selfish.
Seekers of the Spiritual Way
As a seeker of spirituality, I am required to practice sharing in a sincerely committed way. Difficulty for the spiritual seeker enters at this stage. The monkey wrench comes in when I try to share! It comes in when I try to commit myself to share honestly and sincerely. Will I protect others from getting burned by the flame, knowing that the flame does burn? Will I actually burn others in the flame so that I do not have to compete with them? Will I honestly share my knowledge about ecstasy with others, after having enjoyed the ecstatic experience? Will I actually keep my knowledge as a secret, so others will not have it because I fear others will have it at my expense? Difficulties arise because of the spiritual requirement that I sincerely commit to the welfare of others as I commit to my own welfare. It is extremely trying to keep this commitment, because greed is around and tempting.
My hypothesis is this. Our natural inclination is to protect others from getting burnt. Our natural inclination is to share our knowledge about ecstasy with others. The behavior to the contrary is a learned behavior from the indoctrinations that we are subjected to. This indoctrination teaches us greed. The greed teaches us evil acts: so, contrary to our natural instincts, we decide to burn others; and contrary to our innate sharing instinct, we keep our experience of ecstasy a secret and refuse to share it. Underlying both, the evil and the selfishness, is just one thing and that is greed.