Greed . Anger . Ignorance

How to turn "Greed, Anger, Ignorance" into "Precepts, Deep Concentration, Wisdom"

Buddhism teaches Kruna (compassion), but it also focuses on Prajna (wisdom), which is inherent in everybody and it can only be manifested by eliminating ignorance by self-cultivation. By using prajna, one is able to turn "greed, anger, and ignorance" into "precepts, meditation, and wisdom".

"Greed, Anger, Ignorance" together are known as the Three Poisons. These are sources of all illusions and desires. These three poisons continuously pollute people's lives, and are obstacles of Enlightenment.

GREED

Greed is a DESIRE or lust; one tries to get hold of something and to get more and more of it. Greed is one of the causes of thefts, some people steal because they're greedy, and they are not satisfied with what they already have. There was a story about a very greedy man who loves candies. One day, his wife bought a jar and organized all his candies in the jar for him. However, when he put his hand in the jar to get candies, he could not pull his hand out again! No matter how hard he pulls, his hand is still stuck in the jar. The wife was so worried that she called the firemen to help break the jar open to free his hand. When the jar was broken, they found that the reason why his hand was stuck in the jar was because he grabbed a hand-full of candies and refused to let go, but the jar opening was too small for him to pull the candies out all at once. If he had taken one candy at a time, the firemen wouldn't have to break the jar open to free his hand. Desire, as Tanha, is considered as being one of the Three Daughters of Mara as well.

ANGER

Anger arises when there is rejection on one's wishes; one becomes displeased. It comes in many forms: HATRED, jealousy, abuse, and cruelty. Anger is basically caused by a false belief that the illusory self has loss control over something that is important. When I was in high school, I had a friend who doesn't know how to control his anger. Once he was angry because his teacher would not accept his homework that was handed in late. He was so angry that he started hitting everything in site (i.e., lockers, walls). And as he was walking and wasn't looking where he was going, he hit his hand right into the glass of the fire extinguisher unit and his hand started to bleed right away from the broken glass. From his behavior, we could learn that when we are angry, we are very vulnerable to dangers because we do not have a clear mind and we become very aggressive. However, in the end, we are the one who gets hurt, mentally or physically. The Meditation on the Three Contemplations Sutra states:

If anger rises and you desire
to harm another being
already you have harmed
yourself far more than him.
And that is why you must
often think on compassion;
for compassion keeps from rising
all thought of anger, evil, and pain.

The Buddha said that anger was one of the Five Hindrances, which are state of mind that make us difficult to learn dharma. Therefore, anger causes the loss of all goodness.

IGNORANCE

Ignorance or delusion is a wrong perception of the world. There is a parable from the Scripture of One Hundred Parables. The story is a about a woman who only has one son, but she wanted to have more sons. The woman's friend told her that she has a way to help the woman to pray for more sons but she needs to make a sacrifice. The woman was told that she needs to kill her only son as a sacrifice to get more sons. When the foolish woman was about to kill her only son, a wise man approached her and stopped her and told her how foolish she is giving what she has now to hope for something that might not happen. Some ignorant people do not realize that they're doing something harmful to others and to themselves, and furthermore hope to born to the heaven. These three poisons circle around our world, poisoning our souls, blinding us from seeing the true path to enlightenment. They are poisons that prevent us from leaving the cycle of birth and death. All the worries we get sprung from the three poisons. However, the three poisons can be arrested through "Precepts, Meditation, and Wisdom".

THE THREE PILLARS

Sila (Moral Conduct), Samadhi (Deep Concentration), Prajna (Wisdom), are known as the Three Pillars. They are the guidelines to our lives. When we practice the Three Pillars we'll be walking further away from the Three Poisons. Precept is the training in moral discipline; it prevents wrongdoing. Besides the Three Pillars there are the Five Precepts: no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no lying, and no intoxication. Deep Concentration is achieved through meditation including such methods as Shikantaza, Samadhi and Vipassana. It is the training of the mind. It eliminates the scattering characteristic of ordinary mind and allows it to look directly at itself. Wisdom is the training in clear perception. A verse from the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, Hui-neng, states:

If your mind is in balance,
What need is there to work at morality?
If your behavior is correct,
What use is meditation to you?
If you understand mercy,
Then you still naturally care for your parents.
If you understand faithful conduct,
Then all society will be in order.

Respect of others and ourselves is the key to balancing the mind. If you know how to respect ourselves, we would not be as anxious, therefore our mind would be balanced and practicing morality would be a natural process. We need to free ourselves from thinking that practicing morally is a stiff confinement. Morality is actually the key to our liberation. Deep concentration is from practicing meditation, however, meditation cannot be practiced well without morality. Once we have a balanced mind, and understand morality, our lives would be in accord with the deepest level of meditation. From deep concentration, we get wisdom. By meditation and wisdom, one cultivates one's mind, clearing the clouds of ignorance that is blocking the road to enlightenment. Therefore, it is very important for us to practice the "thee pillars" all the time in order to prevent ourselves from being "poisoned" by "Greed, Anger, and Ignorance".