Part 1 - Mental Defilements

When bodily and mental processes are fully realised then you dont have any mental defilements such as greed, desire, craving, attachment, hatred, ill will, anger, ignorance, jealousy, false view, and so on. These are called mental defilements because when the mind is full of these undesirable mental or emotional states the mind gets defiled. They are called kilesas in Pali, in Sanskrit kelayasas and are translated as mental defilements or mental impurities. So long as you have any of these mental defilements in your mind you are sure to suffer.

Suppose you are angry with someone or with something. That anger is mental defilement. When you get angry your mind gets defiled, and you suffer because of that anger. When you have anger you get suffering. Do you agree with me on this point? Then should you have or should you abandon it? Should you have the anger or should you welcome the anger?

Pali for anger is dosa. But dosa has two aspects, the dosa which is increasing and the dosa which is decreasing. So when you are angry with someone or something your dosa is progressive dosa. And again when you are unhappy or when you are dejected or depressed that state of mind is also called dosa. This dosa is depressive dosa. What I mean is whether you have anger or depression or unhappiness your mind is full of dosa, defilement. Then you are unhappy. You get a great deal of suffering. Thats why we called dosa a mental defilement, or mental impurity.

So then we take another mental state, lobha. Lobha is Pali. It has very wide meaning. It means desire, greed, acquiring, lust, attachment. All the senses of these words are covered by that of lobha. So when we want to say lobha we use the word attachment as the equivalent to lobha, because attachment is an English word which covers all the senses of desire, craving, lust, greed, and so on.

When you have lobha you are sure to suffer. Say when you are greedy to be wealthy then you have to do many works to earn a great deal of money and you get a great deal of dukkha suffering. That lobha, greed, is the cause of suffering. If you are attached to your wealth you would have a great deal of suffering. Because when you are attached to your wealth you try to maintain it, or you try to make it double. Then that attachment to your wealth is because of suffering, dukkha. If you are attached to your wealth youll protect yourself from thieves, or robbery, undesirable relatives, especially sons and daughters. Then you have dukkha, suffering. The cause of suffering or dukkha is attachment. Even if you are attached to your good experiences and meditation its dukkha.

Meditation is the thing which you should experience, not the thing which you are attached to. If you are attached to your good experiences you had yesterday, today if your concentration is poor you get restless because you want to re experience those good things you had yesterday. The more effort you put in and your noting, then the more distractions you have, and the more restless you become. Then the more suffering, the more dukkha you have. That is not because of meditational experience but because of attachment to it. Thats why the Buddha said attachment is samodhyasacca. Samodhya is the cause or the origin, sacca is the truth. Samodhyasacca means the truth of the cause of suffering. So attachment is the cause of suffering.

This lobha, attachment, is also one of the mental defilements which is because of suffering, dukkha. Then should you be attached to anyone or anything? If you are attached to anyone or anything, what would happen to you? Yes, you would be surrounded by a great deal of suffering. When you are attached to your beloved friend, then when he gets into any trouble you feel sorry and unhappy. That sorrow and unhappiness, is it desirable or undesirable. Then its dukkha, yes. Where does the dukkha comes from? It comes from attachment to your friend.

Then if you are attached to your son or daughter or parent then you have more dukkha. The result of the attachment is dukkha. So whatever you are attached to or whoever you are attached to, its sure you suffer, you have dukkha. Then should you have the attachment or shouldnt you have attachment? No. Yes, why? Because you are afraid of dukkha. Everyone, including me, is afraid of dukkha.

Then if we are afraid of dukkha what should we do? We should destroy the cause of dukkha, the attachment. If we are able to destroy attachment, the cause of dukkha, suffering, then there won"t arise any dukkha at all. Then we are free from dukkha. The attachment is a mental defilement which must be destroyed by one who wants to get free from all kinds of dukkha. When the attachment has been completely destroyed you wont have any dukkha at all.

Say all of you are working at home or at the office or at the company or any place. Though you come here to meditate sometimes your mind goes back to work. Why? Because you are attached to it. When you have less attachment to the work you have less dukkha. When you have a great attachment to your work you have a great deal of dukkha even though you are meditating. So attachment is the cause of suffering. The Buddha said it is the second truth, the truth of the cause of suffering, dukkha.

You know there are the Four Noble Truths. The first truth is the Noble Truth of Suffering, dukkha. The second is the Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering, attachment. The third is the Truth of the Cessation of suffering.

Do you want to destroy dukkha or not? When you have dukkha you"re suffering. You are afraid of suffering so you want to destroy dukkha. If you want to exterminate this dukkha what should you do? You have to eradicate the attachment. You have to uproot attachment, the cause of dukkha. When attachment has been destroyed then your dukkha, suffering ceases to exist. Then you have attained the state of the cessation of suffering. This State of Cessation of Suffering is called Nibbana. This is the Third Truth, the Truth of the Cessation of Suffering.

Then the fourth one is the Truth of the Way leading to the Cessation of Suffering. That means if you follow this Way then you"ll be able to destroy all kinds of mental defilement and there wont arise any dukkha at all. The Truth of the Way leading to the Cessation of Suffering is called Magga sacca, in Pali. The third one is called Nirodha sacca, the truth of the cessation of suffering.

Have you heard of the way leading to the cessation of suffering? The Noble Eight fold Path. You may not have some knowledge of this Noble Eight fold Path theoretically, but practically you have it. This noting of your bodily mental process comprises the Noble Eight fold Path. When you know rising, falling, rising, falling. When you watch, pain, pain. When you are aware of the movement of the foot, lifting, pushing, dropping, touching, and so on. When you are aware of a bending movement, stretching of the arms, sitting down and rising from the seat. All this awareness or mindfulness or noting consists of the Noble Eight fold Path.