In Buddhism we talk about the three poisons.The three poisons are greed, hate and delusion. These are poisons in the sense that they can destroy, or at least make unhealthy, the spiritual life. A poison enters into a whole body and makes it malfunction.
So, what are the three poisons?
Greed is attachment, clinging, desiring, wanting things that are pleasing to the eye, pleasing to the ear, nice to touch, things we want, things that give us pleasure. When we just want these in an ordinary sort of way – when one is hungry, one wants to eat, when one is thirsty, one wants to drink – then there is no harm. This is natural enough. What the Buddha is talking about is when something of this kind becomes obsessive, becomes compulsive, becomes insistent. Then, instead of being something that serves one’s wellbeing, like eating food, when you’re hungry, it becomes something that dominates your existence, so you’re constantly looking for sweet things. It might be sweet in many different senses.
And then, of course, there is the opposite. We want to get rid of, not have, destroy the things that we find to be sour, repulsive, hateful, threatening. Fear plays a good part in this, because we know more acutely that these things damage and destroy us. When we consume too much of the good things, too much sugar say, this, of course, will also destroy us eventually, but the process is slow. Whereas, when somebody comes at us with a knife, we know the process could be pretty quick. So, when we have greed, we do not particularly notice the destruction that it is doing, but when we have hate, we have a very strong sense of destruction and we ourselves want to destroy.
And then, there is delusion or conceit. This is the building-up of a sense of self; and this is both the conceit of “I am” - “I am this, I am that” - and the conceit of “they are” – labelling others and putting them into some category which is then subject to greed and hate. Certain people we put on a pedestal and we worship them, certain people we cast down in our minds and despise them, eventually perhaps destroy them. They become the enemy or the sacrifice or the criminal.
Greed, hate and delusion – these are all contaminants in the spiritual life. But you know, if you were to drink only pure, distilled water all your life, well, your life would be very, very short. It would destroy you. If you were to breathe only pure oxygen, it would destroy you even quicker. Human beings are of the nature to thrive in a contaminated environment. When we live in the midst of purity alone, we can’t take it, our cells are quickly destroyed. So, there is a lesson here that we have to take to heart. Greed, hatred and delusion are great poisons, but all medicines are also poisons and without a little bit of poison we cannot thrive. This is the bombu-nature. This is the nature of the human being. Purity is too much. Greed, hate and delusion, well we avoid their worst forms, but the little things of life, that’s natural enough, and we should live a natural life, and, to celebrate this we say “Namo Amida Bu”, because Amida accepts us just as we are.
Namo Amida Bu
Thank you very much
Dharmavidya
David
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