Greed for Success

 The title of this blog comes from an excerpt from a book I picked up , Hans Wolfgang Schumann's classic Buddhism: An outline of its teaching and schools.  It reads: "This is the Buddhist way to liberation: to act but without greed for success, free from the wish to harm anybody and with reason." (p.54). I found this sentence intriguing because I wonder, what would it be like to work without 'greed for success.' It somehow reminds me of the concept of the Puritan ethic, where diligence and productivity are consecrated before God rather than being considered intended for human glorification. Now, what would it like to act without greed for success?
  One idea that comes to mind is the notion of not striving for a particular grade or affirmation. If I am really serious and sincere in the content of what I am doing, then I don't work just for the sake of completing a roster of stated goals. There is almost a sense of doing something for its own sake rather than using it to create a marker for success. But, simultaneously, the idea of acting without greed for success might also be taking a more playful approach toward projects: not over-identifying with projects but rather seeing them as one of many possible forms of expression.
   I find it might be helpful to sometimes take an as-if approach, rather than looking at things as final. What I mean by this is: rather than seeing myself as wholeheartedly 'in' a project (which causes all kinds of vexations and over-identification with a perceived self or role) to actually stand a little bit beside the endeavor, remembering that it's really subject to available conditions. When I think this way, I feel less pressured to 'finish' a project in a way that I preconceive it to finish. And I am more free to see this as an activity rather than as a kind of final project representing 'who I am'.

Schumann, Hans Wolfgang, (trans. Fenerstein, Georg). (1973). Buddhism: an outline of its teaching and schools. London: Rider and Company