Greed ☁️ dark
In As It Was Said (Itivuttaka)
The Buddha describes the abandoning of greed as a security for non-returning.
Greed, aversion, and illusion are internal impurities that act as one's internal enemies. Though they obscure clarity and injure one from within, most people fail to recognize their true nature.
The Buddha teaches that one could be far from him despite being physically close, and one could be near to him despite being physically far. When one sees the Dhamma, one sees the Buddha.
In Middle Length Discourses (Majjhima Nikāya)
The Buddha illustrates that his true inheritance is the Dhamma, not material possessions. Venerable Sāriputta clarifies the practice of seclusion by listing numerous harmful qualities to abandon and the Middle Way that leads to abandoning of them, to clear vision, wisdom, tranquility, to full awakening.
The Buddha uses the simile of a defiled cloth to explain how the mind can be similarly defiled by various impurities, and how it can be purified by abandoning them. And it is through this very practice that one arrives at unshakeable faith in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha. The Buddha also addresses a brahmin in verses who believes in purification by bathing in river.
In Linked Discourses (Saṃyutta Nikāya)
The Buddha uses the simile of a turtle struck by a harpoon to illustrate how attachments to acquisitions, respect, and popularity can lead to misfortune and hinder spiritual progress.
The Buddha explains how acquisitions, respect, and popularity are harsh, bitter, and severe, obstructing the attainment of the unsurpassed safety from bondage, using a simile of an old jackal with mange.
The Buddha explains how acquisitions, respect, and popularity are harsh, bitter, and severe, obstructing the attainment of the unsurpassed safety from bondage, using a simile of turbulent winds high in the sky.
The Buddha uses different similes to explain how acquisitions, respect, and popularity are harsh, bitter, and severe, obstructing the attainment of the unsurpassed safety from bondage.
It may be that a woman, even when alone with a man, may not remain occupying his mind, but acquisitions, respect, and popularity might.
It may be that a beauty queen, even when alone with a man, may not remain occupying his mind, but acquisitions, respect, and popularity might.
A laywoman should wish for her son to become like the foremost lay disciples Citta and Hatthaka, and if he goes forth, wish that acquisitions, respect, and popularity not come upon him while he is still a trainee.
A laywoman should wish for her daughter to become like the foremost female lay disciples Khujjuttarā and Nandamātā, and if she goes forth, may acquisitions, respect, and popularity not come upon her while she is still a trainee.
The Buddha explains how understanding the gratification, drawback, and escape in regard to acquisitions, respect, and popularity leads to personal experience and attainment of the goal of asceticism or brahminhood in this very life.