The qualities of those who are deluded by the illusion of the world

Those who exhibit qualities that lead to spiritual decay are grandiose, arrogant, conceited, angry, and harsh, thus displaying their ignorance of reality. They don’t know the right path to take through life or when to refrain from acting at all. They lack truthfulness and believe that the world has no abiding truth in it. They say that there is no God or moral foundation and that life’s sole purpose is the pursuit of lust, power and greed. With such feeble thinking their distorted views destroy their very soul. They are cruel to others and ruin people’s lives, causing suffering and making enemies. Filled with insatiable desires, all their actions are motivated by selfishness and disrespect. They are burdened by one anxiety after another because they see this world as all there is, so they think that seeking physical pleasure is the only goal of life. Confident that the only way to happiness is to amass wealth, they seek their fortune through dishonest means. Tied to their earthly cares and concerns by countless fetters of selfish hopes and expectations, they stay engrossed in satisfying their desires and acquiring more wealth until the moment of death. Their vanity causes them to think that they are better than other people, so they take pride even in their charity. Blinded by pride and intoxicated by wealth, they become bound by their own greed and become trapped in their false thinking, deluded and completely out of touch with reality. They become malicious, filled with hatred and are easily angered. They sink to a deplorable state.