A spiritual perspective of greed requires belief in something greater than our material existence and the identification of our selves as merely bodies with personalities. It necessitates belief in something transcendent with which we ultimately reconcile our thoughts and behaviors. If we claim to believe in God or some higher power as over 95% of Americans do, then we must live our lives in relationship to our God or else our "belief" is hollow and meaningless - untested by lived experience. We are obliged to come to terms with our own finite nature and our relationship to this God or sacred purpose.

At the same time, we are social beings confronted with the fact that while many of us do as we please without concern for others, we cannot do so without affecting them. No matter how we isolate ourselves or ignore the plight of others, we still live in a societal and global web of relationships.

In this context, greed is a fascinating topic since it is a social action claiming more for one's self than is needed and often at the expense of others. Whether apportioning pieces of mother's apple pie or the world's crude oil reserves, the division of finite resources has consequential impact on all. How resources are distributed within a society is a function of its hierarchies and the society's inclination toward internal competition or cooperation. This sets the moral tone of a society. Once individuals separate from one another by engaging in increasingly competitive, manipulative, and self-serving relationships, morality is eroded.

Currently we are socially programmed to believe that more is better which perpetuates the illusion that one who has more is more valuable than one who has less. We are taught that our self worth is contingent upon external standards of competition and material accumulation. This consumes us in an insatiable quest for status driven by ever escalating desires. What one "needs" is no longer simply a matter of survival, but an expression of one's ego as it seeks to distinguish itself from others striving to acquire the label "successful." The urge to "measure up" propels us into a repetitive cycle of greed, seeking a satisfaction and fulfillment which is unachievable through material gain. This drama is rooted in a consciousness of lack. As it snares us in greed's grip, it also blinds us to the need to build community around a higher purpose than mere self-interest.

According to psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, within the normal course of human development one evolves morally past the egocentricity of childhood into broader social perspectives, acquiring increasing sensitivity to the needs of others. However, his model assumes a social environment that encourages this process of moral development. Looking at American society today, it is apparent that many powerful societal forces including individualism, materialism, competition, capitalism, and the monetary measurement of success combine to stimulate our greed which in turn inhibits or moral maturation. While there is nothing inherently wrong with material success and pleasures, when an entire society places too much emphasis on them, it pays the opportunity cost of inclining its members toward moral and spiritual bankruptcy. Consumed by conscious and unconscious perceptions of lack, individuals and society as a whole turn their focus outward to patterns of unfulfilled desires rather than inward to the process of awakening awareness of the transcendental purpose of our lives.

In Tibetan Buddhism, there are three concepts of evil: greed which involves pulling things toward the self; anger which is pushing things away from the self; and ignorance which is the result. Similarly, the fundamental principle of Taoism is the existence of "the Way" or "Tao" a natural order or oneness in the universe from which nothing can be separated. Taoism teaches that one lives successfully only by surrendering to and cooperating with this implicit order. This does not suggest passivity, but rather an active disengagement from illusions of desire. One learns that to desire anything other than that which is, or to manipulate events or relationships to achieve personally desired outcomes is to violate this natural order.

Spiritually, greed is an expression of impatience and a judgment against God as having failed or forgotten to adequately care for us. When we misinterpret a perceived lack as evidence that God has abandoned or failed us, there is a temptation to align ourselves with something more tangible, material, and seemingly controllable. Material greed is one of the fundamental ways through which this desire for self-will expresses itself. Doubting the existence or benevolence of God, we seek to live independently of God's will as the guiding principle of life. Feeling out of control, we attempt to usurp command and play God. This ultimate rebellion against authority is fundamentally a crisis of faith.

While the Ten Commandments primarily identify forbidden actions, greed and the other Seven Deadly Sins and their counterparts in non-Christian traditions are about wrongful desires that are "off course" - that is, out of alignment with God or goodness or the Tao of life. By embracing these states of consciousness we create separation from others and from God.

The teachings of Buddha were largely directed at freeing people from addictions and desires. The essential dilemma of human life, as Buddha presented it, is that people get caught in time craving and desiring such transient things as beauty, youth, money, power, and the illusion of independence. When we become fixated upon these, we demand and pursue their fulfillment. This kind of attachment causes suffering because, in essence, we are attempting to make time stand still in order to gain a sense of power and control over our world.

In Christian teachings, greed is one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse appearing in the second of John's seven visions which sequentially present the steps involved in the establishment of the Oneness of the Christ Consciousness and True Selfhood. In the second vision, the consciousness is cleared and lifted by overcoming false types of thinking. The establishment of right thinking occurs through a reversal from an outward to an inward pursuit of happiness.

Through the perplexing design of life, we come to know light only through the presence of darkness. And greed's opportunity is not through its fulfillment, but rather in recognizing it as a red flag that we are moving further away from the true source of happiness in our lives.

Reverend Judith Johnson, PhD is an ecumenical minister and social psychologist with a private counseling practice based in Rhinebeck, New York

Reprinted with permission from Symposium: The Journal of the Millbrook Symposium, Autumn 2000, Millbrook, NY.