Greed the Existential Neurosis

Is it possible to realize the origin of what it means to live essentially to acquire?  The overpowering urge to acquire and then to worship the ideal of that which is acquired.  Whether that be money, property, the spiritual, or the psychological.  We are consumed with the need to own and to be identified with that which we own.  Somehow we believe that we are incomplete if we do not have what is beyond the basic necessities of life.  That our self worth is greatly diminished by our lack of successfully acquiring as much as possible.  We lack the responsibility that inevitably follows with the accumulation of wealth and power.  And so we live with a false sense of superiority and intellect.

But what is it that drives us to seek the accumulation of our desires? This need for more of everything. One could point to the obvious. Our overwhelming fear of insecurity. A fear that is so ingrained that we do not realize it as the hidden motivation for almost everything that we do and feel.  To get in touch with our base fear is not an easy or desired experience.  Its a very dark place that cuts through our illusion of control and continuity.

One needs to experience the despair of ones own superficiality.  To look with a mind that is not excusing or justifying.  To realize the true poverty of a mind that is consumed with acquisition and status.  We do not realize that the desire for more is coupled with and is part of its opposite the neurosis of a meaningless existence.  They are one in the same, for one does not exist without the other.

To realize this actually in the absolute moment is freedom.  Freedom that is not an escape but an experiencing from moment to moment of the truth of a mind that has been enslaved by its desires.
Understanding this is the beginning of detachment.  Of letting go of the a psychological bondage that causes so much pain and suffering in the world.  To be attached to that which we consider "ours" is the violence of a mind that seeks its own extinction.

Finding Fault

We are always looking toward the other person.  We try to understand the other through comparison, by finding fault.  Our ability to compare is the natural outcome of the self absorbed.  We are all basically second hand people.  Our identity or selfness is the result of an ideal image. That image is the culmination of our exposure to outside influences. The influences of our rather limited existence.  The fact is we seldom understand our own motivations, the obvious ones as well as the hidden ones. Understanding the self created is an almost impossible task. Introspection that is not a result of our conditioned minds is very difficult and requires one give up all psychological attachments.  To be empty is to be without an identity.  It is to find the true integrated moment of existence.  An existence while physically individualistic is realized as intimately connected.   Connection that is experiencing in a moment of complete psychological anonymity.

You cannot will your self to be what you are not.  No practice will change who you actually are.  But you may see through the self created to a level of understanding that negates the self of motivation, greed, and jealousy.  What you must understand is that you cannot change the imprint of a conditioned mind.  Your mind remains what it is.  But you can understand it completely and that understanding is the beginning of a mind that negates its conditioning and in so doing opens the door to a different level of existence.  One that does not think in terms of its self.  It no longer measures according to an ideal self. In fact there is no longer a self that measures.  There is only the moment and a mind that allows that moment to be what it is.  Seeing the true reality of the moment changes everything.  The mind is very quiet. It understands not through comparison but through the unconditioned vulnerability of a mind that has compassion for all existence.

   

Division and Labels

When we think of the "human condition" we think of a world that is a slave to its own devices.  We divide ourselves into categories so that we think we understand.  We label groups of people according to their economic status, their religion, their politics etc. And within each of these groups we further divide according to "our" definition of what is right and wrong, good and bad, righteous and evil.  So we establish a great wall of prejudice and indifference.  Our words become the labels of justification and tyranny.  And we live in a world of illusion, a world that we have created.  A world of ideology rather than reality.

Looking and actually seeing a world of reality requires that you discard your labels so that you can see through your own prejudice.  It requires you to discard your position so that there is no opposition. Most people will not be able to do this because they have so much invested in what they believe.  If you have ideals that you support and believe in then you are lost.  You will continue down a path of rigid idealism that has no room for the reality of what is.  You will always be looking for and demanding the continuity of your own conditioned mind.  A mind that is without compassion or understanding.

If you can stop labeling people then you can start understanding.  A mind that is clouded with the misrepresentation of what actually is can never see the truth of the moment.  In the moment there are no labels.  There are only people, not numbers or statistics.  Your words mean nothing because they are the emptiness of death and destruction.  They carry nothing except the empty illusions of what was.  Is it not time to breakaway from the past to forge a new intelligence that see's through the prejudice of the past.  Change, your change is in the moment.  Look and see the reality of what is without a mind that is clouded with the angst of what should be.

The actual reality is this...there are only people all else is the made up illusion of those who live in it.
When you realize and free yourself, then you understand.  And for the first time you don't think in terms of labels.  Compassion that is without a cause is ones reality.