TWO KINDS OF RAPTURES AND JOYS

        In the case of praise, the Buddha prohibits his disciples not to be pleased and joyful.  But the Buddha, in some suttas, spoken in praise of rapture and joy that arise over the triple gem.  It is true; he has praised it.  But that is the rapture and joy connected with renunciation.  Here the intention is the rapture and joy that arise connected with worldliness, the kind that arises by saying; “our Buddha, our Dhamma, and our Samgha”.  For it creates an obstacle to attaining the first jhana, etc.  This rapture and joy are associated with greed, and greed is similar to anger.

 

The greedy man does not know the meaning

The greedy man does not see the Dhamma,

Only a mass of blinding gloom remains

When greed over power man.

 

Greed is an agent of harm,

Greed is a disturbance of mind

The danger produced on account of this-

 

That the people do not understand