by Dalai Lama
5. Contempt (P. makkha) is ingratitude that denigrates those who have been kind to us. A spiritual mentor may help her student for many years, training and teaching him. But when the student becomes well-known and respected, he disregards his teacher and thinks, “She did nothing for me.”
6. Insolence (P. paḷāsa) is a sense of competitiveness that puts the other person down. We arrogantly consider ourselves to be above others who are more qualified.
7. Jealousy (P. issā) is resentment of the gain, honor, respect, esteem, veneration, and reverence shown to others.
8. Miserliness (P. macchariya) is stinginess and avarice. We cling to what we have and are unwilling to share our possessions, dwelling, food, reputation, praise, and so forth with others. We don’t want the people who praise us to meet others because they may praise them. We don’t want others to learn the Dharma because they may become as well respected as we are.
9. Pretension (P. māyā) craftily hides our faults and misdeeds. We do a nonvirtuous action and, not wanting others to know about it, pretend to be innocent.
10. Deceit (P. sāṭheyya) fraudulently claims excellent qualities, achievements, or status that are not so.35 We pretend to be a loyal and dear friend who will never let others down.
11. Obstinacy (P. thambha) is rigidity and inflexibility. Such stubbornness often arises when, being insecure, we seek to control a situation or insist that we are right.
12. Competition (P. sārambha) seeks to rival and outshine others. We see someone dressed nicely and want to get better clothes to show off; we hear someone is learned and want to demonstrate our knowledge in order to receive more praise and a better reputation. Although such competition is defiled, it is possible to “compete” in a positive way. We see someone who is generous, and with a giving heart we wish to match or surpass her gift; we meet someone who is learned in the Dharma, and with a sincere desire to learn ourselves, we aspire to learn the Dharma as well as she has.
13. Arrogance (P. māna) is being puffed up on account of our social class, education, possessions, and so forth. There are three types of arrogance: thinking (1) I am better than others, (2) I am just as good as they are, and (3) I am worse than them. In the Pāli tradition, arrogance is listed both as an underlying tendency and an auxiliary affliction.36
14. Conceit (P. atimāna) is extreme elevation of the mind. Haughty and dismissive of others, we are so wrapped up in our own greatness that others seem insignificant in comparison.
15. Haughtiness (P. mada). According to one commentary, it is similar to arrogance and conceit in that it concerns social class, clan, and so forth. The sūtras describe haughtiness as vanity in relationship to youth, health, and life. Young people are infatuated with their youth and think they will never get old, the healthy believe they will not become ill, and those who are alive think they will not die.
16. Heedlessness (P. pamāda) is the opposite of conscientiousness and allows the mind to roam among objects of sensual pleasure. Letting the mind be overwhelmed with afflictions without making any effort to restrain the mind, it leads to self-indulgent actions and ethical downfalls.
Of the sixteen auxiliary afflictions in the Pāli tradition, eight (wrath, resentment, jealousy, miserliness, deceit, pretention, haughtiness, and heedlessness) are auxiliary afflictions and one (arrogance) is a root affliction in the Compendium of Knowledge. Two (covetousness and malice) are two of the ten nonvirtues.
REFLECTION
1. Some people have difficulty identifying emotions because when they were children their parents did not name emotions or discuss them very much.
2. Some ways to learn to identify your emotions are to become aware of (a) sensations in your body, (b) the flow or “texture” of your breath, and (c) the “tone” or mood in your mind.
3. Using the above techniques, try to identify instances of each of the auxiliary afflictions in your life.
4. Examine the triggers that make the auxiliary afflictions arise. Examine the short- and long-term results of manifest auxiliary afflictions in your life.
5. Develop a strong determination to counteract the auxiliary afflictions by cultivating mental states that see the object in the opposite way.
Fetters
The ten fetters (saṃyojana) are spoken about extensively in the Pāli tradition and in the Treasury of Knowledge. They are called fetters because they keep us bound to cyclic existence and impede the attainment of liberation. The first five are lower fetters because they bind us to rebirth in the desire realm. The last five are higher fetters that prevent a nonreturner from becoming an arhat.
(1) View of a personal identity grasps a true self with respect to the aggregates — for example, thinking one of the aggregates is the self, the self is separate from the aggregates, the self is vast and the aggregates exist within it, or the self exists within the aggregates.
(2) Deluded doubt is a vacillating mind that equivocates about issues important for liberation, such as doubting that the Buddha is awakened, that the Dharma is the ultimate truth and the path out of saṃsāra, and that the Ārya Saṅgha has realized the Dharma.
(3) View of rules and practices clings to mistaken codes of ethics and mistaken practices as virtuous and as the path to awakening — for example, holding extreme ascetic practices of self-mortification, such as fasting for weeks or sitting in fire to be virtuous, or holding perfectly performed brahminic rituals to be the path.
(4) Sensual desire (kāmacchanda) is attachment to objects in the desire realm.
(5) Malice is the wish to harm another living being.
(6–7) Desire for existence in the form realm (rūparāga) and desire for existence in the formless realm (P. arūparāga) are attached to their respective realms and wish to continue to abide there. These correspond to the pollutant of craving for continued existence.
(8) Arrogance is the subtle, fundamental arrogance, the conceit of “I am” (asmimāna). This differs from view of a personal identity, which is a conceptual view holding a permanent, true self. After this view is eliminated, the thoughts “I am this” or “I am that” no longer arise, but the thought “I am” is still present. Even though a nonreturner knows this to be mistaken and does not hold on to the idea “I am,” the thought “I am” still arises spontaneously.
(9) Restlessness is present in any mind that is not liberated. This hindrance may still arise in nonreturners if they are not mindful and diligent, but they are able to overcome it quickly.
(10) Ignorance is the primordial ignorance that is the root of saṃsāra. It is blindness of the true nature, an obscuration that prevents us from seeing how things actually exist. Unlike the Prāsaṅgika, according to the Pāli tradition ignorance does not apprehend the opposite of how things exist.
The Compendium of Knowledge lists the fetters differently: attachment, anger, arrogance, ignorance, deluded doubt, afflictive views (view of a personal identity, view of extremes, and wrong views), holding wrong views as supreme, which includes the view of rules and practices, jealousy, and miserliness.
REFLECTION
1. Choose one of the fetters that is obvious in your experience. Be aware of it in its latent, manifest, and motivating forms.
2. While eliminating its latent form requires insight into selflessness, what ideas do you have to inhibit it manifesting, or once it has manifested, from motivating your deeds and speech?
Pollutants
Pollutants (āsrava, āsava) perpetuate saṃsāra. Most Pāli sūtras mention three pollutants, although a late addition to the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta and the Pāli Abhidhamma literature speak of four.
(1) The pollutant of sensuality (P. kāmāsava) is a deeply rooted tendency for sensual desire that causes us to get tangled up with sensual objects. It corresponds to the fetter of sensual desire.
(2) The pollutant of existence (P. bhavāsava) is a deep, fundamental craving to exist in some form. This pollutant is particularly insidious because it propels the mind to take rebirth repeatedly in
cyclic existence. It encapsulates the fetters of desire for existence in the form and formless realms.
(3) The pollutant of ignorance (P. avijjāsava) is a lack of knowing and understanding. Always present in saṃsāric beings, it sometimes surges and becomes very intense, inhibiting the mind from seeing reality clearly. The fetter of ignorance and the underlying tendency of ignorance are included in this pollutant.
(4) The pollutant of views (P. diṭṭhāsava) includes the fetters of view of a personal identity and view of rules and practices, and the underlying tendency to views. This pollutant is not included in the enumeration of pollutants in the early sūtras.
Pollutants are deeply rooted, primordial defilements that have kept us bound in saṃsāra without respite. Existing deep in the mind, they flow into conscious experience when provoked by contact with certain objects. For example, contact with pleasant sensory objects stimulates the pollutant of sensuality.
Āsrava was a word used by brahmins and ascetics before the Buddha. The Buddha gave the term a new meaning and delineated the first three pollutants. These are also forms of craving, each focused on its own object and functioning in its own way to keep us trapped in saṃsāra.
The Treasury of Knowledge lists three pollutants: (1) The pollutant of desire or attachment includes the afflictions and full entanglements of the desire realm, except for ignorance. These are nonvirtuous. (2) The pollutant of existence is directed inward and is interested in birth in the form or formless realm. It is ethically neutral and includes the underlying tendencies and afflictions of the form and formless realms, except for ignorance. (3) The pollutant of ignorance is the ignorance of the desire, form, and formless realms. It is listed as a separate pollutant to emphasize that it is the root of saṃsāra and that when it is eliminated, the other pollutants also cease. These are called pollutants because they establish us in cyclic existence; they are called outflows because they flow out of the mind through the six sense sources.37
Hindrances
Another group of obscurations explained in both the Pāli and Sanskrit traditions are the five hindrances: (1) sensual desire, (2) malice, (3) lethargy and sleepiness, (4) restlessness and regret, and (5) deluded doubt. They are called hindrances because they impede attaining the form- and formless-realm absorptions. These five are nonvirtuous and are found only in desire-realm beings. The five hindrances have been briefly discussed above in other classifications of defilements and will be explained in more depth when the method to gain serenity is presented.
In the above classifications of defilements, some defilements are found in multiple categories, others are present only once. Various forms of attachment, anger, and ignorance appear repeatedly, sometimes given different names or slightly different definitions. However, they still point to three strong tendencies of our minds that it behooves us to pay attention to.
When studying the defilements and observing how they function in our minds and the influence they have on our lives, it is important to remember that they are not embedded in the nature of our minds. Just as clouds in the sky obscure the clear nature of the sky but are not part of it, defilements obscure the clear light nature of the mind but are not embedded in that pure nature. Like the clouds, defilements can be removed. But unlike clouds, which can always reappear, when defilements are thoroughly cleansed from the mind, they can never return and the pure sky-like nature of the mind radiates forever unobscured.
4
Afflictions, Their Arising, and Their Antidotes
AS WE’VE SEEN, when we delve into the categories and definitions of defilements according to various Buddhist traditions and tenet schools, the discussion becomes lengthy and complex. On the other hand, when we focus on the questions “What motivates me to act in ways that harm myself and others? What keeps me and others bound in cyclic existence?” the answer is succinct — afflictions rooted in ignorance. In this chapter we will learn more about how the afflictions operate.
Eighty-Four Thousand Afflictions
We may wonder why certain disturbing emotions — such as fear, anxiety, frustration, insecurity, and depression — are not mentioned in the classifications of defilements, although they disturb our minds and interfere with Dharma practice. It could be that because of the structure of contemporary society and world events, these afflictions have become more pronounced. However, they did not go unnoticed by the Buddha, who spoke of eighty-four thousand afflictions. The groups in the previous chapter contain the most prominent afflictions that keep us revolving in cyclic existence. These other afflictions are among the eighty-four thousand and are subtypes of the prominent ones.
For example, fear, insecurity, and anxiety are related to attachment. Based on distorted conceptions that see what is impermanent as permanent and what is unsatisfactory in nature as happiness, we become attached to certain people or things. Fear arises over the possibility of being separated from the people, situations, and things we are attached to. Anxiety and insecurity manifest when we consider unknown future events, such as possibly losing our job, our marriage dissolving, or receiving an unwanted medical diagnosis. Although these events have not happened yet and may never happen, distorted conceptions and afflictions run rampant in our minds, making us miserable.
Another type of anxiety is related to doubt, but unlike the doubt that is a root affliction, this doubt does not contemplate issues important to spiritual practice. Rather, we agonize over making decisions, wishing we could follow all the options simultaneously before choosing the best one. Plagued by doubt, we avoid making a decision and spin with anxiety. This, too, is related to attachment: our world has become narrowly focused on our own happiness and what benefits ourselves and the people we cherish. Our problem is that we don’t know what will bring us the most happiness.
Depression that is not based on chemical activity in the brain or traumatic brain injury seems to be related to attachment. We want events to happen in ways that accord with our expectations and dreams, and we become despondent when they do not. That can lead to anger at ourselves and self-recrimination, both of which can contribute to depression.
Emotions such as depression, rage, and anxiety that manifests as hypervigilance may have multiple contributing factors — physical, sexual, or emotional abuse; combat trauma; poverty; prejudice and oppression; and irregularities in brain chemistry or traumatic brain injury, to name a few — so healing may require a multipronged approach. Within this, the Buddhist approach of analyzing the thoughts, mental habits, and so forth that lie behind disturbing emotions can be very helpful. If we attribute our problems only to external factors, healing can be difficult because we cannot undo past experiences. They happened and are over. Our present problems stem from unbeneficial ways of interpreting and responding to past events and present memories of them. By understanding the mistaken way in which disturbing emotions function and learning more realistic and beneficial ways of regarding situations, we can subdue these disturbing emotions and prevent the damaging behavior they can provoke.
When hearing our emotions analyzed in the above manner, we may feel piqued, thinking that the seriousness of our emotions is not being respected. As individuals we are very attached to what we term my emotions. Based on adhering to them as mine, we consider our emotions to be extremely serious, so much so that we feel hurt if others aren’t as concerned with them as we are. While our emotions are important, it may not be for the reason we think. These emotions motivate our physical, verbal, and mental actions that not only affect us spiritually but also influence others around us. Our actions also influence our future lives. For these reasons, learning how to manage them effectively is important.
Some people are attached to predictability, even though saṃsāra is unpredictable in that previously created karma is continuously ripening. They wish to control other people and situations and become frustrated when they cannot. However, we cannot make others do what we think is best, nor can we control the aging of our bodies or make the body immun
e to illness or injury. Our wish to control and the belief that we should be able to is associated with the view of a personal identity, especially the form that grasps at a self-sufficient substantially existent person. Tsongkhapa uses the analogy of a master and servant to illustrate this grasping: the self is like a master who controls and gives orders, and the body and mind, like servants, should obey. However, such a self-sufficient substantially existent person does not exist, so thinking that we should be able to control everything around us is definitely unrealistic.
When we look from a global perspective, it is evident that all these defilements are in one way or another dependent on the obscuring and misleading force of ignorance and view of a personal identity. These are the root of saṃsāra. Seeing their disadvantages, we become determined to cultivate the wisdom that will eradicate them. Knowing that all ordinary beings suffer from them, our hearts open in compassion for ourselves and others.
REFLECTION
1. When afflictions that are not specifically named in the previous chapter arise in your mind, name them and observe how they function. See which of the root afflictions they are most closely related to.
2. Identify the distorted conceptions that lie behind that emotion.
3. Observe the other afflictions that arise either before or after it.
4. Question whether these afflictive emotions serve to promote your own and others’ well-being. Think of which Dharma teachings you could contemplate that would help counteract these afflictive emotions.