Why Do People Want And Strive For More?

[Alex K]

I have a job and a home. I know if I would be fired, I'd find something else. 

I don't want anything. Why anyone wants anything more for them?

I mean predominantly common things like a flat for themselves, kids, respect, booming career, money, foreign vacation trips - why do they want it? And why don't I want it?

Are they afraid of being poor? Afraid of being called loosers? Maybe their parents forced success chasing into their young minds? Maybe they are greedy viruses? Maybe they are afraid of mental degradation? Maybe they have flawed view of the world - like needy or some pet world view?

What is it and why do I not want anything like that? Should I want anything? Do I need to? Should I want to want? Maybe everyone is just pretending to want?

Is this all a rocket science or some blind spot on me?

[Prabhaker]

12 minutes ago, Alex K said:

Maybe they are greedy viruses?

Man feels meaningless, empty, hollow within, and wants to fill it, stuff it. The effort to fill it somehow is greed. That effort is bound to fail for the simple reason because whatsoever you accumulate remains on the outside; it cannot reach within you. And the problem is within and the solution you are seeking is without.

For example, you are feeling meaningless inside you and you are trying to fill it by money. It is a stupid effort, unconscious effort, not seeing a simple point: that money can be gathered, accumulated, but it will pile up around you. You can have mountains of money around you… there have been people with mountains of money.

Greed is the unintelligent man’s effort to make his life meaningful. But remember my emphasis: unintelligent man’s effort. No quantitative change can really transform your life. You can have millions of dollars or trillions of dollars; it is not going to change. It is only looking in the direction of quantity.

What you really need is a qualitative transformation of your being. You need your life to become full of light. You need some inner richness; outer richness is not going to help. In fact, it will make you more aware of your inner poverty by contrast. And if you have one million dollars and nothing has happened, how can you hope that by having two million dollars it is going to happen? If one million dollars have not given you anything, two million dollars are not going to give you anything. If one million dollars have given you something of inner joy, of inner splendor, then of course two million dollars will make it twice; it will become more. But people never think about it. They go on rushing almost unconsciously, asking the same again and again, more and more.

Greed means a desire for more without seeing the total futility of it. If less is not giving you anything, then it is not going to happen by having more of the same.

Greed is unacquaintance with oneself. Greed is because you have never looked within yourself, and you feel empty and you go on making all kinds of efforts to fill that emptiness. It cannot be filled. Experience it and you will be surprised: that emptiness looks only empty from the outside; when you go inside it, it is a fullness of its own kind. It is not empty at all; it is vast, it is infinite. It has a tremendous beauty of silence, purity. And then you will not look at it as emptiness in a negative sense; you will start feeling a positive well-being in it. It is spaciousness, not emptiness. It is roominess, not emptiness.

[Alex K]

@Prabhaker Thanks for this reminding very much! I believe it is the proper time for me to start diving deep into that now.

 

Edited March 6, 2017 by Alex K
adding

[egoeimai]

16 minutes ago, Prabhaker said:

Man feels meaningless, empty, hollow within, and wants to fill it, stuff it. The effort to fill it somehow is greed. That effort is bound to fail for the simple reason because whatsoever you accumulate remains on the outside; it cannot reach within you. And the problem is within and the solution you are seeking is without.

For example, you are feeling meaningless inside you and you are trying to fill it by money. It is a stupid effort, unconscious effort, not seeing a simple point: that money can be gathered, accumulated, but it will pile up around you. You can have mountains of money around you… there have been people with mountains of money.

Greed is the unintelligent man’s effort to make his life meaningful. But remember my emphasis: unintelligent man’s effort. No quantitative change can really transform your life. You can have millions of dollars or trillions of dollars; it is not going to change. It is only looking in the direction of quantity.

What you really need is a qualitative transformation of your being. You need your life to become full of light. You need some inner richness; outer richness is not going to help. In fact, it will make you more aware of your inner poverty by contrast. And if you have one million dollars and nothing has happened, how can you hope that by having two million dollars it is going to happen? If one million dollars have not given you anything, two million dollars are not going to give you anything. If one million dollars have given you something of inner joy, of inner splendor, then of course two million dollars will make it twice; it will become more. But people never think about it. They go on rushing almost unconsciously, asking the same again and again, more and more.

Greed means a desire for more without seeing the total futility of it. If less is not giving you anything, then it is not going to happen by having more of the same.

Greed is unacquaintance with oneself. Greed is because you have never looked within yourself, and you feel empty and you go on making all kinds of efforts to fill that emptiness. It cannot be filled. Experience it and you will be surprised: that emptiness looks only empty from the outside; when you go inside it, it is a fullness of its own kind. It is not empty at all; it is vast, it is infinite. It has a tremendous beauty of silence, purity. And then you will not look at it as emptiness in a negative sense; you will start feeling a positive well-being in it. It is spaciousness, not emptiness. It is roominess, not emptiness.

Wow this is freaking awesome!  Thank you!!!! It made me feel powerful ! 

[Extreme Z7]

People want more for themselves because we all secretly seek becoming infinite and accumulation is just a phenomenon of that. The problem is is that ego, by definition, is severely limited and so it must continue to acquire in order to run away from the fact that it is infinitely far away from being infinite.

[Nahm]

@Alex K Some people just aren't satisfied with repetition. Myself, I like delegating, public speaking & singing, no issues with excercise, health, meditation, etc. But I do, however, HATE, turing lights on and off. Meant with some homour. 

Edited March 6, 2017 by Nahm