The Emptiness of Greed

By Oleg Moskvine

Greed is a deep emptiness inside that you need to fill with something. And you have only two ways to fill this emptiness.

The first way… You may try to fill this emptiness with anything, no matter of what. You start collecting something... This collecting may take any direction. Somebody is collecting money. Somebody is collecting cars. Somebody is collecting houses. Somebody is collecting yachts. Stuffing food, when you are NOT really hungry… Purchasing things that will never be used… There are so many ways to fill this emptiness. There are so many directions to search for this fulfillment. Unfortunately such fulfillment brings just temporary satisfaction because ego wants more and more but the inside emptiness remains the same. And you will live with a constant greed that CANNOT be filled at all.

Finally you may even try to repress greed, "I should not be greedy". You may start moving to the other opposite to renounce the mundane world and to run into the Himalayas. But don’t you see that this movement is just like a movement of the pendulum of a clock? The pendulum moves to the right, then it moves to the left, then again it moves to the right, then again it moves to the left. It moves from one pole to the other pole, then again from one pole to the other one... This renunciation is just another trick of your ego. Now you become greedy for “non-greed”. Now you become greedy for spiritual objects. But you are NOT really changed. You remain the same in this pendulum play.

You should deeply understand that you cannot get rid of greed directly. I would like to ask you instead, “How to get rid of darkness?” The only way to get rid of darkness is to bring in some light, right? Greed does not exist by itself, on its own. Greed is just the absence of awareness. You do not need to do anything with greed. You just have to deeply realize this emptiness that you are trying to fill, and ask the only significant questions, "The whole life is so abundant and full, but why am I empty? Probably I have lost something essential in my life… How to move from this vicious circle?"

Well done! At the moment you ask the essential question of HOW to move from this circle, you start looking in the right direction. You start not intellectualizing about the reasons of greed, about the misery of being greedy, but start searching for the ways of moving from it.

So, the second way is to fill your emptiness with the whole, when you are filled with the whole existence, with all the rivers flowing to the ocean, with all the blossoming trees, with all the clouds waltzing in the sky, with all the suns and moons. And once you are filled with this blissfulness, then you have nothing to do with greed. The inner emptiness is filled with fullness and with this fulfillment all greed disappears on its own.

So be practical and existential to move inside to find life in silence, inner peace and abundance. Move inside to become in tune with the whole existence. Dive inside to become so full of light and so full of joy and contentment.