Vajra Sutra: Countering Greed, Anger and Stupidity

“How does one conquer greed, anger, and stupidity?” One counters them with morality, concentration and wisdom.

Greed, anger and stupidity are morality, concentration and wisdom, and vice versa. It is a matter of how one uses them. For example, one can use money to buy marijuana and get high, or he can use the money to help someone else. Relieving someone else’s suffering is a far better use of money than selfishly smoking marijuana. It is the same money; only the use differs.

So it is with greed, anger and stupidity; morality, concentration and wisdom. When one understands how to use them, they are morality, concentration and wisdom; when one is so deluded that one cannot make them function, they are greed, anger and stupidity. Ice does not differ from water, and water does not differ from ice. Just as water is ice and ice is water, so too afflictions are Bodhi and Bodhi is afflictions. Bodhi and afflictions are not two. If one cannot use it, Bodhi changes to afflictions; if one can, afflictions become Bodhi. However,

What is spoken is dharma.
What is practiced is the Way;
Even if you speak extremely well,
With no real practice, there is no real Way.

One must actually go and do it. One must honestly, truly, rely on the Buddhadharma and cultivate.

Relentlessly cultivating morality, concentration and wisdom, and putting to rest greed, anger and stupidity, are the means to subdue the mind. When one subdues the false mind, the true mind eternally dwells as a matter of course. The “eternally dwelling true mind, clear nature, bright substance” results from putting to rest the false mind, which allows the true mind to manifest.

The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p38-39