Defilements

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
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Caraka
Posts: 89
Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2012 9:01 am

Defilements

Post by Caraka »

Greetings,

I'm in need for advices or resources around mental concentration to increase virtue. I believe increased virtue is needed to avoid defilements e.g. of sex and hunger?

My body is really not in need to eat to much (a classical example is to much snacks and beer while watching tv), nor do my body need sex. However sometimes Mara rides me like a horse and it always seems to be triggered by defilements in my mind.

A modern description of this, I guess, is: 'weak will'

And there is the aftermatch of feeling bad cause of giving in for a weak will. What to do with bad conscious?


Best regards,

:namaste:
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cooran
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Location: Queensland, Australia

Re: Defilements

Post by cooran »

Hello Caraka,

This might be a beginning:

The Five Mental Hindrances and Their Conquest - Selected Texts from the Pali Canon and the Commentaries
compiled and translated by Nyanaponika Thera

 1. Sensual Desire
 2. Ill-will
 3. Sloth and Torpor
 4. Restlessness and Remorse
 5. Doubt
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... el026.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

with metta
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
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Caraka
Posts: 89
Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2012 9:01 am

Re: Defilements

Post by Caraka »

Actual mental hunger is a better expression, at least for cause of actions that results into pursuit of sensual pleasures or overeating...

Where does this mental hunger come from?
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bodom
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Location: San Antonio, Texas

Re: Defilements

Post by bodom »

Caraka wrote:Where does this mental hunger come from?
Here is what the texts have to say:
The Origin of Craving

But where does this craving arise and take root? Wherever in the world there are delightful and pleasurable things, there this craving arises and takes root. Eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, are delightful and pleasurable: there this craving arises and takes root.

Visual objects, sounds, smells, tastes, bodily impressions, and mind objects, are delightful and pleasurable: there this craving arises and takes root.

Consciousness, sense impression, feeling born of sense impression, perception, will, craving, thinking, and reflecting, are delightful and pleasurable: there this craving arises and takes root.

This is called the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering. - DN 22


http://www.enabling.org/ia/vipassana/Ar ... htm#999723" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
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