--- ai_generation_date: '2026-08-10' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2020-06-22' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/11574/20200622-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-the_roots_1_of_5_the_roots_of_behavior.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: The Roots (1 of 5) The Roots of Behavior url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11574 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: zQUEy3d11dY imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Dharmette: The Roots (1 of 5) The Roots of Behavior' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQUEy3d11dY --- # The Roots (1 of 5) The Roots of Behavior - [Gil Fronsdal](https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1) _This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers._ ## [The Roots (1 of 5) The Roots of Behavior](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11574) Greetings. For this week, the theme of these morning talks is going to be the roots: the three unwholesome roots and the three wholesome roots. In that sense, it continues the topic of last week, where I looked at ethics from the point of view of the Buddha, our early Buddhist ethics. First, I want to say for those of you who are new, that one of the closest approximations to the English word ethics in the teachings of the Buddha is the word that's translated either as _wholesome_ or as _skillful_. If those are the words that are closest to our English word ethics, maybe that suggests we're talking about a different species of human concern than what we often think about by the English word ethics. It's still concerned with the same domain of human life, how we relate to each other and behave in relationship to each other, but perhaps it has a different orientation. The word ethics can often carry a sense of burden, obligation, and the authority of absolute commandments. But to do what is skillful or wholesome has a very different feeling. The Buddha taught that there are three roots to all unwholesome, unskillful behavior—in English we might say all unethical behavior—and those three roots are greed, hatred, and delusion. It's a phenomenal teaching that everything unethical has these roots. All wholesome things have as their roots non-greed, non-hate, and non-delusion, which I'll talk about more later. These three roots for the unwholesome are sometimes also called the three fires. What's interesting about a fire is that it burns the fuel that it depends on. In the same way, these three unwholesome, unskillful tendencies that humans have—greed, hate, and delusion—are a kind of fire that burns up and exhausts the source they're depending on: ourselves. The Buddha said that these forces are self-harming forces within us, and so he puts a lot of emphasis on seeing and understanding greed, hate, and delusion, and becoming free of them. In fact, it's probably one of the most common ways the Buddha talks about awakening: as the destruction of greed, hate, and delusion. As I said last week, it's very easy to start glossing over or ignoring when Buddhist teachers keep saying "greed, hatred, and delusion" because it's so repetitive and it becomes a platitude[^1], and so here we go again. But the repetition of this emphasis points to how important they are. It's kind of like going to architecture school and the teachers keep talking about how important the foundation of a building is. After a while, you say, "Oh, they keep talking about foundations, foundations," and so we ignore it, and then we don't learn about what we need to keep the building safe and upright. So, it's more like this is a foundation to look at. To give you a sense of how important this is in the early Buddhist tradition, there are fascinating ways in which it's referred back to. A person came to Ananda[^2], one of the Buddha's main disciples who was with him for many years and really knew all his teachings well. The person belonged to a different religion and wanted to ask Ananda: "Whose Dhamma[^3] is well proclaimed? Whose teaching is well proclaimed? Who in this world are the ones practicing the good way? Who in the world are the fortunate ones?" I guess it was kind of a test. There were all these different religions in the time of the Buddha in his area, and he wanted to know who had the best religion, the best teachings. Who are practicing the good way, living the best way, and who are the fortunate ones? Now, in Ananda's[^4] answer, he makes no explicit reference to Buddhism. He doesn't try to champion Buddhism by saying, "Well, we have it here in our dispensation, our religion. We have the best teachings, we have the people practicing the right way, we have the people who are fortunate enough to attain the goal of the practice." Instead, what he says is this: "The teaching of those who teach abandoning greed, hatred, and delusion is well proclaimed." So the reference point for teachings that are well proclaimed is not so-called religious teachings, but the reference point is in ourselves, in terms of greed, hate, and delusion—something human beings have. The teaching of those who teach abandoning greed, hate, and delusion is well proclaimed. Those practicing for the abandonment of greed, hate, and delusion are practicing the good way. Those who have abandoned, obliterated greed, hate, and delusion are the fortunate ones. In these answers, there is no metaphysical, supernatural, philosophical, or existential claim about the Buddhist religion or what's important. There is no claim about what is ultimate truth, which is what religions often do. For many people, this answer that Ananda gave is not particularly controversial. The value of not having greed, hate, and delusion seems good. And I would like to say that Ananda is[^5] pointing to basic concerns of mental health, well-being, and inner goodness. Even if there is an ultimate truth that's different than the ending of greed, hate, and delusion; even though there might be some great religious experience that's greater and more wonderful than the destruction of greed, hate, and delusion—still, the destruction of greed, hate, and delusion should be appreciated as valuable. What good is an ultimate religious experience or ultimate truth if a person is still filled with greed, hate, and delusion? From the Buddhist point of view, become free of greed, hate, and delusion, and then maybe we don't have to talk about ultimate truth so much. Maybe we don't get caught up in religious truth so much if we're free of greed, hate, and delusion. This is synonymous with the Buddhist idea that the goal of practice is to end suffering. But a common teaching—that the Buddha was teaching the end of suffering, the cessation of suffering—has no obvious ethical quality to it. In fact, it could lend itself to the idea of just going someplace in your little cave to meditate, be free of suffering, and forget about the world. The ending of greed, hate, and delusion very much has to do with our relationship to the world. We have greed about things in the world. We have hatred towards things, often greed and hatred towards people, and delusion about people. And so, the Buddha over and over again emphasized the destruction of greed, hate, and delusion. It's not just that this is the well-proclaimed teaching, not just that this is a good idea. It's really about how we live in the world in a better way. In English, we would say it's an ethical teaching, but not the ethics of rules. It is the ethics of personal transformation, where we are no longer being driven by greed, hatred, and delusion. These three terms—greed, hatred, and delusion—can be seen as umbrella terms for a wide array of emotions. They are like three families of different motivations that we have. I'll just read you a small list of these that the Buddhist tradition and some of the commentaries give. Greed includes things like lust, longing, attachment, clinging, craving, relishing, being voracious, and expectation. It's a whole long list, and you could probably come up with a much, much longer list. Greed is involved not just as intense greed, which is a strong word, but even in the smallest little movements of greed. I'm running out of time, so I won't read the other ones today, but I want to say that one of the ways greed is characterized is that it's sticky. Any place where there is desire, we get sticky with desire. We get caught in it. It's sticky like the sap of a tree; you put your hand on it, and it's really sticky. That is the metaphor that's used. Based on what I said in the meditation today, greed always diminishes us. Greed always narrows us or harms us; it burns us. Even the smallest little form of excessive desire, contracted desire, sticky desire diminishes us. That is a fascinating reference point: to be mindful enough and clear enough to notice and see that stickiness, to see how greed diminishes us. That is an exploration. So, you might want to look at that through the day. Don't make up desires, clinging, cravings, or greed for the purpose of this exercise. But as you go through your day, if it just happens—maybe accidentally you have some greed—then maybe stop and take a good look at it. See if you can see what I'm talking about. Notice that the presence of greed is a kind of suffering. The presence of greed is a kind of diminishment of who we are. And if it is, what's the opposite? What's happiness? What is it that's enhancing us, that makes us more expansive? Thank you. I'll go into this a little bit more as we go through the week. I hope that this week is wonderful for you, and I hope your study of greed will help support you to understand and value when I talk about non-greed. Thank you. --- [^1]: Original transcript said "we can't pitch you a tattoo", corrected to "it becomes a platitude" based on context. [^2]: **Ananda:** One of the Buddha's principal disciples and his attendant, known for his excellent memory and for reciting the Buddha's teachings at the First Buddhist Council. [^3]: **Dhamma:** A Pali word (Dharma in Sanskrit) referring to the teachings of the Buddha, the truth of how things are, or the path of practice. [^4]: Original transcript said "Buddha's answer", corrected to "Ananda's answer" based on context, as Ananda is the one responding to the questioning person. [^5]: Original transcript said "the men and I would like to say that none does", corrected to "And I would like to say that Ananda is" based on context.