The Scope of Greed

The scope of greed (covetousness) is very broad: all dharmas within the desire realm, whatever one is fond of, are greed. Those literary masters skilled in poetry and verse, and painters who wield their brushes with effortless flair, almost all go off to the ghost realm to enjoy themselves, because those things all belong to greed—let alone other aspects of it. Romantic love and passion are even more certainly greed, making it impossible to escape rebirth in the ghost realm. Those who often paint horses, painting them with striking lifelikeness, are reborn into a horse's womb after death; those who often write ghost stories, writing them with great vividness, are reborn as ghosts after death. Whatever one's mind frequently dwells on, after death one goes to keep company with that very thing. When a painter paints horses with total concentration, the mind resonates with horses, and in the next life he will be reborn as a horse; those who often write novels about ghosts and spirits pour their minds into ghosts and spirits, resonating with them, and after death they will become ghosts. Now, when we recollect the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti), our minds resonate with the Buddha, and we will be born at the Buddha's side. When the mind resonates with the wholesome, one will be reborn in a wholesome destiny; when the mind resonates with the unwholesome, one will be reborn in an unwholesome destiny.