Fear and Greed
Relationship between Fear and Greed.
Why do you worship in the first place? Why do you offer flowers, food to the statues? Why do you renounce .a thousand worldly ways.? – because of greed and fear. Either it is fear or it is greed, or maybe it is both, because greed and fear are not different – two aspects of the same coin. Greed is fear hidden, fear is greed hidden.
And not only are worldly people greedy, the so-called otherworldly are also as greedy or maybe they are even more greedy. Their greed is such that it cannot be satisfied by this world. Their greed is such that they desire heavenly pleasures: only paradise can satisfy them, this world is not enough. And that’s what your so-called saints go on teaching to you. They say, “Why are you wasting your time in momentary pleasures? Follow us! We will show you the way to find pleasures which will last forever.”
But this is pure greed. The worldly man seems to be less greedy because he is satisfied with the momentary, and the otherworldly is so greedy that he wants something permanent which lasts forever. The worldly is greedy, the otherworldly is greedy.
Priests are very greedy people, monks are very greedy people.
People live through greed or through fear. A few people are afraid of hell, hence they are worshipping; and a few people are greedy for heaven, hence they are worshipping.
