The Buddha references specifically three defilements in his Suttas, greed, aversion, and ignorance.  I have always thought the list incomplete for in my experiences it seems that the greatest harm comes from excessive vanity (which is a better term than egoism).  Our Order also decries excessive vanity and provides examples and exercises so to decrease it–for example, the “avoiding I” exercise.  So this is our lesson for today.  The last sentence is tricky so think about it.  Love, Michael

Sixth Teaching – Vanity Is A Destroyer Of The Light

Krishna:  Father which is the greater defilement?  Greed, aversion, ignorance, or vanity.

Father:   The greater is vanity, for vanity will permanently seal off all contact with the Noble Organ and the soul seed will whither away, as it has lost all contact with the Vital Soul Force.

The man of Vanity exists,
as an inconsequential,
an infinitesimal too small to mark,
a speck upon the vast circumference of Universal Inflation.

This Vanity, vaster than the Highest God of any priest,
deadlier than the Blackest-Hearted Devil imaginable,
sees itself as the Center of all that exists.

This Vanity, no longer aware of the Sacred Individual,
seeing only what is upon the Circumferential Mirror of Infinity,
mistaking God as Its own reflected Light.

The man of Saintliness resides at the True Circle Center,
a Light radiating its all-encompassing, God-Intoxicating Love,
even onto the vast circumference of Universal Inflation.

I am just Friend, no one of consequence,
I know the Circumference and I know the Center,
I take no fight in such ideological issues,
for All is at Peace, seen as the Eternal Complements.