Yellowbeard wrote
Quote
So (greed)is a human instinct we need to keep in check within ourselves.
Exactly. A certain appetite for resources was needed in order to survive during harsher times in human history.
But it isnt an instinct to be eradicated, its something for which the real remedy is neither
indulgence, or total suppression, but insight.
*Do I really need this?
* If I know I do not really need this and am still craving it anyway, where is this craving coming from?
*Is the craving rooted in my feeling guilty, bored, frightened, inferior to others, lonesome or discontented?
Finally---are these root feelings (or complexes) of guilt, fear, boredom, inferiority, loneliness, discontent--rooted in my personal history?
Or to some extent are these feelings being inflamed and massaged by triggers in my environment--including triggers designed by marketing types who want to trick me into buying their stuff?
Note: I went to a movie theatre and was revolted by the violently coloured carpet, flashing lights and gaudy displays all around the concessions stand.
Two other people with quiet tastes like mine later told me they could not stand to go into that same theatre, saying they too disliked the sensory bombardment.
A third informant revealed that there is something known as 'casino architecture' that is designed to bombard people with particular kinds of sensory triggers geared to inflaming restlessness, greed and that greatly increase the likelihood they will buy stuff.
Well, some forms of fake spirituality may be the equivalent of 'casino architecture'.
Anything that turns G-d or meditation or (fill in the blank) into your personal ATM is casino architecture in the form of an idea complex.
THese days we call it The Secret or Plastic Shamanism, or Law of Attraction, but stuff of that kind has been around for ages, as have the shell games, and street con tricks
that exploit the human instinct of accumulate more before winter arrives.