use our intelligence with all of our emotions, not just the negative ones.
And yet even with hatred there is a positive. When I invited sex
and drug addicts to live in my house to cure them of their problem, I
hated their addiction. I hated what it did to them and how it ruined
their lives. A wise teacher can use their hatred of their students' faults
to correct them and help them. Insecure or depressed students may not
at first see this advice as constructive, thinking to themselves, "My
teacher hates me." But eventually they will see that the teacher, if the
teacher has used his intelligence, was trying to help them.Greed
I have always been a man of appetite and enthusiasm. In my youth I
was often hungry, but on one glorious occasion I entered and won a
jalebi eating competition. Jalebis are a rich, heavily sugared batter, deep
fried inghee (clarified butter). I ate seventy-six jalebis. While I can still
stand on my head for twenty minutes, I don't think I could still eat sev
enty-six jalebis. Appetite for life is wonderful-for scents, for sights,
for taste, and for color and human experience. Yo u just have to learn
to control it. Quality is more important than quantity. Take in the
essence of life as you would smell the fragrance of a flower, delicately
and deeply, with sensitivity and appreciation.
If appetite is a gift, and greed a sin, then waste is a crime. We waste
our food, our energy, our time, our lives. We seek power from the ac
cumulation of surplus; we are greedy for more than our fair share. In
a finite world, we search for infinite satiation. Will more money than
we can spend in a lifetime prolong that life? Can we eat a larder full of
food when we are dead? The villain is the ego. He has read the law of
intensification, which says that more is better, and we shall see more
of his tricks in the next chapter. Our planet groans under the burden
of this greed.
The ways in which our greed are destructive in our world art• t•asy
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