A triumph over covetousness to one who despises money ... (schmch. Cyprian of Carthage, 64, 322).
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Covetousness is more easily overcome not by the one who rotates in the midst of the world, but by the one who dwells in the mountains; the first is easily defeated by him, and the one who is defeated by greed must be ranked among the idolaters (see:). The latter, if he has money... will gladly give everything away, while the former will not only leave them unattended, but offend no less than strangers... (St. John Chrysostom, 44, 110-111).
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The disease of arrogance is inseparable from covetousness, and the more one collects wealth, the more this disease intensifies (St. John Chrysostom, 49, 51).
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Whoever desires the Kingdom of Heaven laughs at covetousness (St. John Chrysostom, 50, 98).
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Where there is money, there is a chance for enmity and countless strife; likewise, the mouth of covetousness is filled with resentment, vanity, excessive pride, curses and flattery (St. John Chrysostom, 50, 887).
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We will not mourn for the one who has already died, but we will mourn for the predator, the greedy, the greedy, the insatiable. Why weep for the dead, to whom it is no longer possible to do any good? Let us weep for those for whom change is still possible (St. John Chrysostom, 52, 714).
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The eyes of a covetous person do not rest until they steal everything from others, because they look not like a human, but like a beast (St. John Chrysostom, 53, 90).
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The demon is at enmity against a person, and not against demons like him, and a greedy person tries in every possible way to harm both his neighbor and his family, not being ashamed of nature itself (St. John Chrysostom, 53, 91).
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Covetousness is corruption - and such corruption is more terrible than all types of corruption: it leads to idolatry (St. John Chrysostom, 54, 217).
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Have you made a fortune at the expense of someone? What you have acquired will be spent, but greed will remain with you (St. John Chrysostom, 54, 217).
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There is no one so insensitive as a greedy man; he is the enemy of the universe; he is annoyed that (other) people exist; he wants the desert to be everywhere and that he alone possesses everything, and he thinks of many similar things (St. John Chrysostom, 54, 306).
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Whoever takes money from another and plunges him into poverty, he puts himself to death; He exhausts another in this world with poverty, but prepares for himself eternal punishment (St. John Chrysostom, 54, 747).
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Is it not worse, tell me, than anyone possessed by a fever, devoted to the passion of selfishness or voluptuousness? Is he not more impure than any such, committing and allowing all that is shameful? What can be more disgusting than a greedy person?.. He servilely before those whom he does not follow, and is impudent where he does not follow, and never keeps himself even: often to vicious, unintentional people, debauchees who are much worse and more insignificant than him, he pleases and flatters, while others, noble and completely virtuous people, he insults and offends (St. John Chrysostom, 55, 140).
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Pure thoughts, when they do not deliver money, are not allowed, but dirty and truly animal-like thoughts are kept because of money and shamelessly assimilate them, thus destroying the beauty of their soul (St. John Chrysostom, 55, 141).
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Covetousness is a kind of old leaven, and wherever it enters, whatever house it enters, it makes it unclean; and even if you gain a little from unrighteousness, it leaves all your possessions. That is why often a little done badly deprives a lot that is well put together. But why, you will say, when there are many who enrich themselves by greed, do they not endure the same punishment? They will certainly endure... if now they escape punishment, then fear all the more then, because they are observed for greater punishment (St. John Chrysostom, 55, 591-592).
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What could be more unfortunate than a greedy man? In addition to the fact that he destroys his soul, he exhausts his body with countless worries and is deprived of pleasures, and pleasures, and honor, and all glory ... (St. John Chrysostom, 55, 594).
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The greedy, having by nature a meek disposition, contrary to nature, forcibly bring themselves to atrocities. And their mouths are the mouths of beasts, or even those more cruel, because they utter words that emit poison worse than their teeth, and cause death. If anyone examines the soul of such people, then he will call them not only beasts, but also demons, because they are filled with extreme cruelty and enmity towards their colleague (St. John Chrysostom, 55, 597).
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When we, commanded to give others our own, steal what is not theirs, what hope of salvation remains for us? (St. John Chrysostom, 55, 598).
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If he is bound by the bonds of the passion of covetousness, without a doubt, he cannot achieve the purification of his vices ... (St. John Cassian, 56, 90).
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A terrible and insatiable attachment to greed, like a formidable and vindictive tormentor, stands by, giving them cruel and merciless orders and turning them into beasts, thus leading to the grave. So, if many men who have achieved respect have renounced wealth and did not enter into an alliance with it, as with an enemy and opponent of virtue, and if this very illness of self-interest turned out to be the main cause of evils, and those who have acquired wealth do not become insurmountable and elusive, but on the contrary , turned out to be easily overcome by everyone, not only during life, but also after death, then stop giving yourself up to the prey of this serious illness and raise a vitija against us (St. Isidore Pelusiot, 60, 416-417).
Greed is the desire to obtain some kind of personal benefit by means unfavorable to others. A selfish person thinks only about his own benefit and does not think about the consequences. Passion for acquisition, for profit makes him unscrupulous in means. Of course, there is nothing wrong with the fact that a person wants to get something important for himself. The intention is good. But is this a good way?
It turns out that if a person receives a benefit, while others suffer, then this is self-interest. Greed carries a program of destruction of other worlds. After all, you want to solve your problems at the expense of the suffering of others. In a greedy, excessive desire to satisfy some desire, the intentions of others are forgotten. In response, the deformation of your information and energy structures begins, since at a subtle level we are all one. The psyche and eyes are exposed to dangerous effects.
The simplest example of selfish behavior is when you wish bad luck or even death to another person, or a whole group of people, or a state in order to get some kind of material benefit.
Death wish to a relative in order to receive an inheritance.
Wishing ruin to your business competitor.
Marriage of convenience.
Wishing death or illness to an applicant for a vacant position.
Covetousness is manifested in a passion for money or material values and is always combined with hypocrisy. In order to benefit, a selfish person can insincerely show care, attention, assure of his love, but at the same time experience completely different emotions.
Greed has the same positive intentions as greed. A miserly person is excessively, greedily frugal and avoids spending. He wants to have prosperity in life, but stinginess prevents him from being truly reasonable and careful about things.
To get rid of covetousness, stinginess and greed, start using the principle of abundance.
The universe is abundant
This is very important to understand and feel. If you want to get something for yourself in this world, then you just need to want it, want it very much. I call it this way - you need to form the right intention and eliminate possible obstacles within yourself for its implementation. In other words, it is necessary to open up to this world, to the forces of the Universe and receive everything in full. Start your life from the principle of the abundance of the universe. Then you will get what you need, and the other person will get what he needs.
Everything is much simpler than you think. Nothing new needs to be learned. After all, each of us already receives from life, from God, everything that he wants. That is, he receives according to his faith, according to his thoughts, actions and deeds. The Universe, God, this world is very fair and harmonious. But if you're not happy with what you're getting or want more, then just change your settings.
I have been using this mod for a long time. If I need to get something, then I definitely get it. For me, there are no competitors and rivals in my work. There are allies. And those people come to me who I can help.
Learn to respect other worlds. And remember that the world of another person, even your loved one, is already a different world. Treat everything in this world very carefully. The universe is abundant - it is, and use everything that it gives, carefully and gently. Remember that you are part of this Reality, God. But other people, objects and things are the same particle. We are all united by the whole. That is, on a subtle subconscious level, we are all equal, each of us is equal to everything else in this world.
Learn to give and take. There is a law: "What you give is what you get." It is very important that there is harmony and balance between what you receive and what you give.
I really like one Zen koan. I can't help but include it in my book.
Mokusen Hiki lived in a temple in Tamba Province. One of his adherents complained about the stinginess of his wife.
Mokusen visited his adherent's wife and showed her his clenched fist.
"What do you mean by that?" asked the surprised woman.
“Suppose my hand is clenched into a fist all the time. What do you call it? Mokusen asked.
"Mutilation," the woman replied.
Then he opened his hand and asked again:
“Now suppose that my hand is always in this position. What is it then?
“Another form of mutilation,” the wife said.
“If you understand this well,” Mokusen finished, “you are a good wife.”
And he left.
After his visit, the wife began to help her husband both in savings and in spending.
Learn to be generous. Not wasteful, but generous.
Idries Shah's Tales of the Dervishes has a wonderful story about generosity.
One Persian king decided to become generous. He gathered the most eminent architects in Iran and ordered them to build a palace in a wide open area so that it would house a huge golden pantry with forty windows.
Some time later, such a palace was built. The king ordered that the treasury located in it be filled with gold coins, and all the wagons from all over the country were collected to the capital to fill the palace with gold coins.
When the work was finished, the heralds announced the royal decree: “Listen everyone! By the will of the king of kings, the fountain of generosity, a palace with forty windows was built. From this day on, His Majesty will himself distribute gold through the windows to all those in need. It is not surprising that countless crowds of people flowed to the palace. Day after day, the king appeared in one of the forty windows and presented each petitioner with a gold coin.
While distributing alms, the king drew attention to one dervish who every day went to the window, received his gold coin and left.
At first, the monarch decided that the dervish was taking gold for some poor man who was not able to come for alms himself. Then, seeing him again, he thought, "Perhaps he follows the dervish principle of secret generosity and bestows gold on others." And so every day, seeing the dervish, he came up with some excuse for him. But when the dervish came on the fortieth day, the king's patience came to an end. Seizing him by the hand, the monarch shouted in terrible anger:
- You ungrateful bastard! You have never once bowed to me, not even uttered a single word of thanks. For once, a smile lit up your face.
Are you saving this money or giving it on interest?
You only dishonor the high reputation of the patched robe.
As soon as the king fell silent, the dervish took out of his sleeve forty gold coins, which he received in forty days, and, throwing them on the ground, said:
“Know, O king of Iran, that generosity is truly generosity only when the one who manifests it observes three conditions.
The first condition is to give without thinking about your generosity.
The second condition is to be patient.
And the third is not to have suspicions in your soul.
But this king never became truly generous. Generosity for him was associated with his own ideas about "generosity", and he aspired to it only because he wanted to become famous among people.
Rivalry without the basic qualities that underpin this rivalry leads to nothing. Generosity cannot be developed in a person until the other virtues are also developed. Valery Sinelnikov Love your disease.
Covetousness takes away from people the most cherished feelings - love for the fatherland, family love, love for virtue and purity.
The great evil is covetousness. A self-interested person can be neither truthful, nor principled, nor courageous, nor faithful to his duty. From an early age, learn to live selflessly.
Self-interest rarely brings success
It is better to choose punishment than vile self-interest: for the first will upset you once, and the second forever.
Choose friends wisely, when self-interest hides itself in the guise of friendship - it only digs a hole for you.
Self-interest as a personality trait is a tendency to idealize benefits, to use others for one's own purposes.
In the "Jade Rosary" the hero B. Akunin says that the causes of any crime are "either ast, or yst, or there is, or awn", that is, there must be passion, self-interest, revenge or danger. And he is certainly right, because the motive for many murders, robberies, thefts, deceit, violence and deceit is precisely self-interest. This personality trait gives rise to inhumanity, cruelty, hardening of the heart, envy, treachery and prudence.
The material world in which we live is a world of greed, in which most people consume others, communicate with other people only because something can be obtained from them for themselves. In greed, the basic law of the material world is realized. A greedy person, in principle, cannot find real happiness. His share is an illusion of happiness.
The essence of this quality is manifested in the enslavement of the will and the irresistible desire to extract the maximum profit, benefits, advantages, dividends and benefits from everything. The emphasis is on some future benefits: to get approval, a promotion, in a word, to extract some kind of material or other benefit. In other words, greed is by its nature purposeful, active and enterprising. Like a hungry dog looking for a bone, greed seeks out in everything an opportunity to profit. Thirst for profit, profit for greed and god and king. It gives it superfluous meaning and importance. Everything else fades into the background, becomes secondary or of little importance.
For people living under the influence of passion or ignorance, greed is quite acceptable, in their understanding, a quality of personality. Greed is a thinking, elite, enterprising greed. Many positive personality traits in conjunction with greed flourish and are realized in achieving their goals, successful business, creative work and scientific discoveries. At the same time, such a negative side of greed as harm to other people is leveled. The entrepreneur or scientist begins to accumulate their achievements and successes. Greed gives this hoarding power of intention, firmness of spirit and perseverance. It drives them on: “We need to get ahead of the competition. We'll be late, we'll be second. Let's miss the benefit. You have to hold on." The Australian coat of arms features a kangaroo as a symbol of progress. This animal cannot jump backward, only forward. The gaze of greed is always directed to the future. Therefore, out of a sense of justice, an honorable inscription should be made on the coat of arms of greed: "Forward to the future."
Many of our actions are selfish. We work for a paycheck. Subbotnik is selfless work. Let us recall the lines of V. Mayakovsky: “Work is difficult, work is tiring. No pennies for her. But we're working like we're making the greatest epic." If we do something for others, without expecting approval, honors and benefits, then our actions are selfless. A mother fed her baby or cooked dinner for her husband simply out of love, without expecting approval or any compensation. Greed defiles and destroys interpersonal relationships. As soon as self-interest reigns in the family, a gradual discord of relations sets in. Each exploits the other, you to me - I to you, but first you must give me, and then I, if I do not forget.
For the material world, there is nothing unnatural in ordinary human self-interest. A man meets a woman, someone gets a job. There is self-interest in all this, and this is normal for the world of passion. Another thing is when a person does not disdain any means to get promoted - he sits up, slanders and substitutes competitors, that is, he is mean. All his unseemly actions are dictated by a thirst for benefits that he will derive from a new position. There is nothing wrong with wanting to advance in your career. But when excessive importance is attached to self-interest, when other people suffer from it, when it is loved (covetousness), then we are dealing with a destructive passion. If we remove the letter “s” from the word “covetousness”, we will get the essence of this concept - to seize the trough and never tear ourselves away from it.
Greed covers both income and expenditure transactions, that is, it extends to accumulation and consumption. On the minus, you can also benefit. For example, a collector bought the entire thousandth edition of stamps, burned it, leaving one single stamp. Other collectors are harmed - they will never be able to collect a complete collection of stamps on this subject. At the same time, a self-interested person, owning a unique stamp, can receive a cash equivalent for it, much higher than the cost of the entire circulation. Or such an example. The landowner has harvested grain and, despite the famine, is waiting for prices to rise. Greed is not interested in the suffering of people, the main thing for him is to get super profits.
Greed is always an action or inaction aimed at obtaining a benefit. Wishing a relative to die in order to receive an inheritance is not greed, because there are no specific actions to hasten the death. A joke on the subject. A mother-in-law dies in the family and suddenly says: “Look, a fly is crawling on the ceiling.” To which the son-in-law affectionately remarks: “Mom, don’t be distracted, please!” The desire of a son-in-law is only a desire and that's it. Another thing is when the son-in-law holds his mother-in-law over the balcony of the thirteenth floor and says: “Another would have shot or strangled you in my place, but I just let you go.” This is profit in its purest form.
Covetousness is a thirst to have, to acquire goods under the guise of usefulness, in order to say about them: mine. Under the influence of vanity, greed becomes magnificent, from pride and lust for power - resourceful, from madness - stingy. It is always restless and anxious; it will not take a step without profit. Every gesture, word or thought of greed should bring tribute. It, like King Midas, desired that everything it touched turn into gold. But greed is not stupid, like Midas. When Dionysus left, Midas decided to check how his desire for gold was being fulfilled. He raced across the palace, touching everything he passed. If he plucks a green branch from an oak, the branch turns into gold in his hands. He plucks ears of corn in the field - they become golden, and golden grains in them. He picks an apple - the apple turns into gold, as if it were from the gardens of the Hesperides. When he washed his hands in a roadside spring, the water dripped from them in golden drops. Everything Midas touched immediately turned to gold. Turning everything into profit is the blue dream of insane self-interest - greed.
Between greed and greed, the difference is only in the degree of mastery of the personality. Greed is insane greed. It aims to get as much as possible, only pathology, manic passion is added to this. Avarice differs from greed and covetousness in the way it achieves results. She dreams of spending nothing at all. The motto of stinginess is to own, but not to use. Avarice goes mad in its own way—not from hoarding, like greed, but from not consuming. Greed, like greed, covers both sides of life - both accumulation and consumption, that's why it is greed. The idealization of possession or consumption is the essence of this concept. In contrast to greed, greed is often aimless, primitive, petty, stubborn, unenterprising and stupid.
Greed is not given to analyze possible scenarios for the actions of rivals and competitors, to calculate the course of events several steps ahead. Greed, like a child who has his toy taken away, says: “I won’t give it to you. It is mine". Greed, because of its stupidity, conservatism and pettiness, will miss the profit where greed calculates it with a multi-way combination. If greed is aimed at extracting personal benefit to the detriment of others, then greed, because of its worthlessness and recklessness, usually harms itself. When greed is behind the closed doors of MMM, its employees say: “Our customers are stupid and greedy. The stupid ones because they gave us the money, and the greedy ones because they want it back.”
Covetousness implies the greedy desire to get some object or person and own it for as long as possible. A greedy person seeks to subordinate everything to his interests - time and space, goods and money, movable and immovable property, in a word, seeks to get rich. If his actions are dictated by the convulsive desire of the owner to preserve his property by any means, then it is legitimate to talk about stinginess.
We find a classic example of greed in Molière's comedy The Miser. For the disgusting Harpagon, the contents of the wallet matter more than the happiness of his own children. Indeed, for stingy people, the whole meaning of existence is concentrated in their property. Often, stinginess is joined by a fear of robbery that grows to the size of mania. Therefore, it makes sense to consider the metamorphoses of stinginess as a special path for the development of passion, like the metamorphoses of jealousy and envy. In this case, the pathology indicates the possible consequences of an exaggerated dependence on material goods. The individual tries to "invest" money capital in self-esteem. If a person suffers from low self-esteem, then material goods turn out to be an unshakable value for him. As soon as he loses a valuable thing, he understands that he has lost everything. In a psychological context, this is explained by the fact that the individual is not inclined to give himself as a subject a satisfactory assessment, therefore his self-esteem directly depends on the amount of capital, and in the event of the loss of the latter, the only value disappears, the only factor of his psychological balance. The property symbolizes true values: the feelings of confidence, security and safety that the mother originally inspired in the individual.
In the event that the child lacked such feelings, then in the future he will strive to compensate for it. For example, not having achieved mutual love from others, a person will try to compensate for this feeling in the imagination, stimulating fantasies with theatrical performances, films and television programs.
Psychoanalysis of such people indicates that their development has stopped. They experience a pronounced psychological dependence on things, which, in full accordance with our definition of passion, takes them a lot of time and energy. A person who passionately "makes" money, collects jewelry, precious stones, coins or works of ancient art and receives disproportionate satisfaction from searching, collecting, owning and storing things, lives off other senses. This one-sided and irresistible passion costs not only other feelings, but also interpersonal relationships, since relationships imply the ability to give, which people who only want to receive lack. The desire to get a person and own him excludes the possibility of entering into a normal relationship with him. Relationships cannot be acquired and turned into private property. A characteristic feature of the relationship is the ability to perceive the counterpart as it is, and the rejection of the desire to own and dispose of it.
If a person feels that he is being used as an object that can be acquired and then confidently owned by the acquisition, he will try to avoid such a relationship. Nevertheless, the motive of possessiveness is quite common. The psychological development of many people is suspended at a stage which, within the framework of psychoanalysis, is described by the unpopular term "anal." The basis of the sense of ownership is the primary desire of the child not to part with his own excrement, which in his eyes is equivalent to real treasures. Giving them away is a big loss for a child, and keeping them means making a profit. This pattern is especially pronounced if the child suffers from a lack of tenderness on the part of the main participant in the relationship. In this situation, the object, which is a derivative of the child himself, is valued extremely highly, which would be excluded if those around him were more caring and attentive to the child.
However, care also encourages development only on the condition that it is devoid of selfishness. If parents take care of the child as their property, which should be kept as the apple of their eye, then there can be no question of any encouragement of development. Within the framework of psychoanalysis, there are concepts of "expropriative" love, "possessive" (egocentric) attitude. Such an attitude harms the maturing child's ego, can slow down the development of the child and sows seeds from which psychosis can later sprout. Love should be unobtrusive, tender enough, but not exaggeratedly gentle. Intrusive, expropriative love lays the foundation for neurosis and psychosis, as well as indifference and heartlessness. Parental love is a feeling that needs to be learned.
The desire to achieve life goals is characteristic of any person, but often it turns into a real self-interest. Surprisingly, even psychologists sometimes consider it useful for the development of a person climbing up the career ladder.
What is self-interest?
Depending on what kind of science the concept is interpreted, it acquires new facets. If we abstract from the initially negative connotation, self-interest is not only a negative phenomenon. It can be revealed in one of the following aspects:
- The desire for profit and self-interest. Sociology, as a field of knowledge about the processes in society, does not approve of such a passionate desire, placed above moral values.
- Inability or unwillingness to do good just like that, without material reward. Self-interest is closely related to a decrease in the need for moral satisfaction from approval and verbal gratitude.
- The motive for committing a crime is theft, murder, fraud.
Self-interest - psychology
Science, which reveals the mechanisms of the work of human consciousness, calls self-interest the highest form, because at least once in a lifetime every person experiences such impulses. A self-serving person is a person who regularly falls prey to his base desires to earn more and quickly. Psychology cannot fight prudence, but this science can give a person motivation to suppress it in his character.
How to understand selfish goals?
Criminal law and psychology are two branches of science that know the answer to the question of how to recognize selfish goals. The reasons for distinguishing them help specialists to carry out their work. Relationships between people are not always honest, just as a selfish motive can be a reason for a conversation with a psychologist or prison punishment. To understand whether a person was selfish during a particular act, three factors will help:
- his personal attitude to the event;
- motives that pushed him to act;
- relationship with the object.
How to recognize profit?
Intuition and life experience will help to feel the prudence of an interlocutor or relative. A selfish person, although he is forced to communicate with those thanks to whom he would like to achieve something, but since he does not feel any pleasure from this contact, he will make mistakes:
- sudden mood swings;
- unwillingness to make tactile contact;
- an excess of compliments and outright flattery.
Profit in marriage
The more difficult the life situation, the more actively a person seeks to correct it as soon as possible. Marriage to a wealthy or powerful partner is one of the easy ways to gain financial freedom, albeit at the expense of your own feelings. A self-serving person can be both a man and a woman, but the fair sex is more often accused of prudence when creating a family. It is expected that in such a marriage the two main problems will be:
- Joint leisure. When spouses are tied only by money, they will not be able to come to terms with musical preferences, hobbies and views on each other's life.
- sexual relations. Selfish intent will not make partners experience passion and satisfaction in bed.
Self-interest in Orthodoxy
The Christian religion calls the sin of the love of money one of the most common and. Priests believe that society is poisoned by the culture of consumption, so the people who enter it do not see that they are driven by the cult of money and their own importance. Greed hinders the salvation of the soul, therefore Orthodoxy advises to fight it in the following ways:
- ascetic lifestyle. Modesty in dress, food and entertainment will not only save money, but also pacify the excess of passion caused by them.
- Formation of true value orientations in children. So that children are not as unhappy as their parents, who instilled in them a love of success and wealth, they need to be reoriented towards respect and mercy.
- Conversations with ministers of religion. Communication with a priest and like-minded people in faith will give a feeling of unity and support.