February 4, 2009

How to stop being greedy

By Abbot Christopher Jamison, O.S.B.

Businesses are currently the subject of conflicting popular emotions: we feel anger toward those banks that got us all into the current economic mess and sympathy for those companies that are going bust because of it. So it’s time to take a hard look at companies’ greed.

To get through this crisis to a better way of doing things, we need to recognize greed.

While most of us readily admit to faults in the areas of food and sex, we tend to see greed as a quality in other people rather than in ourselves. We see it in the mega rich with their conspicuous spending, in city executives with their huge bonuses or in corrupt politicians taking bribes. We think that all greedy people are corrupt or rich, probably both, and since we’re neither corrupt nor rich, logically, we are not greedy.

By thinking like this, we avoid facing our own greed. We fail to see that greed is not an all-or-nothing event; it is a thought that exists on a spectrum from weak to strong but it affects us all to some extent. It is a subtle influence constantly present in all the decisions that everybody makes about material things. Our communal happiness and our individual happiness depend on our ability to acknowledge and curb our greed.

It comes as a surprise to most people when they discover that greed was a problem for the first Christian monks and nuns. After all, these monks and nuns had purposely chosen to give up all material wealth and, in the case of some of them, very considerable wealth. Yet those who were poor by choice still had to wrestle with thoughts about wanting more, just as those who become rich by choice are often driven by a demonic desire for still more wealth. Greed is a part of our make up, whether we are rich or poor, whether we choose a simple life or whether we pursue a life of luxury.

Here are three steps to restrain greed:

I. Recognize how it works for you
We all have a spontaneous understanding of how gluttony and lust work but we need guidance to understand greed. Greed is about the attraction of wealth and begins with apparently harmless thoughts—“What I have at present is not good enough and needs replacing.”

Sometimes this is, of course, true: if the bucket has a hole in it, you need a new bucket; if the dress is very old, get a new one. But, so often, that’s not the case; it’s just that we really fancy the latest iPod or the latest fashion.

Fashion is the hardest one to call: we can condemn our children to misery if we make them wear old-fashioned clothes but we still need to prevent them growing up impulsively buying the hottest new thing. If children only deal with greed by getting what they want, then they grow up to be miserable adults because even when they’re wealthy, they’ll still want more.

Notice that even our language links unhappiness and avarice: the word miser is the root of miserable. Each of us needs to recognize and contain our own greed if we are to live happy and fulfilled lives.

II. Tell yourself a better story
Greed is the product of our imagination, not of our bodies. The attraction of food and sex is different from the attraction of wealth: humans are hard wired to respond physically when food and sex are attractively presented, but the same is not true of money. Once life’s basic necessities have been met, the rest is determined by each person’s description of the good life, their personal story.

Someone can leave a marriage partner to have a wealthier lifestyle, somebody can get into debt in order to keep up with their neighbors, children can fret that they don’t have the latest video game. We have to avoid the pitfalls of distorted descriptions of happiness that actually lead to frustration. We need to describe to ourselves a good life that is balanced, long-term and generous, the opposite of the consumer good life that is indulgent, short-term and self-centered.

III. Take stock of your life, literally
Once a year in Lent, English Benedictine monks have the custom of writing out “a poverty bill.” They write down an inventory of everything they have for their personal use and hand it to the abbot. It’s a very revealing exercise and enables them to ask, “Do I need all this?” An excellent rule of thumb is this: if you haven’t used an item in the last 12 months since the last poverty bill, then you probably don’t need it, so you can give it away. This is a wonderful way to heighten self-awareness about material possessions, is quite liberating, and you may be amazed to discover what you don’t need.

Abbot Christopher Jamison is from Worth Abbey in Sussex, the community of Benedictine monks that was featured in the BBC TV series “The Monastery.” He is the author of the international best-seller “Finding Sanctuary.” Find out more at findingsanctuary.org/. “Finding Happiness: Monastic Steps for a Fulfilling Life” has recently been published in the USA by Liturgical Press.