This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.
Both sides previous revisionPrevious revisionNext revision | Previous revision | ||
en:lib:thai:lee:demons [2019/05/11 12:45] – Johann | en:lib:thai:lee:demons [2020/08/28 14:21] (current) – navi Johann | ||
---|---|---|---|
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
+ | <div navi> | ||
+ | <div center round todo 60%> | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====== The Demons of Defilement: (Kilesa Mara) ====== | ||
+ | <span hide>The Demons of Defilement</ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Summary: | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div #h_meta> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div navigation></ | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | It's the nature of the world that nothing is totally bad. Everything has to have at least some good to it. The same holds true with the various forms of Mara, or the demons of temptation, that get in the way of our practice. It's not the case that they always obstruct us. Sometimes they turn into our friends and companions; sometimes into our workers and supporters; sometimes into our slaves, helping us and caring for us. This is why, if you're discerning, you have to walk a middle course. On one hand, you have to focus on their bad side. On the other, you have to focus on their good. Their good and bad sides are realities that have to exist together. As for us, we have to take a stance in the middle, examining things so that we don't act out of suspicion or prejudice. Once we see the good side of these things, we can get more familiar with them. We can get intimate. When we get familiar and intimate, we develop a sense of kinship with them. As the Buddha said, //vissasa parama ñati:// familiarity is the highest form of kinship. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Even our enemies, when we become familiar with them, can become our friends. Our companions. Our servants. Our slaves. When we can look at things in this way, both sides benefit. We benefit and our Maras benefit as well. In the time of the Buddha, for instance, the Buddha got so familiar with Mara that eventually Mara got converted and felt favorably inclined to the merit and skillfulness that the Buddha had developed. Once Mara had no more power over the Buddha, he paid homage to the Buddha and found himself transported to heaven. And that's not all. He became a bodhisattva. In the future he'll gain Awakening as a fully self-awakened Buddha. So he benefited and the Buddha benefited. This is the nature of people with discernment: | ||
+ | |||
+ | As for us, we still lie under the sway of Maras of various kinds. These intimidating Maras are called Kilesa-Maras, | ||
+ | |||
+ | As for greed, aversion, and delusion, they' | ||
+ | |||
+ | <ul> | ||
+ | * meritorious fabrications: | ||
+ | * demeritorious fabrications: | ||
+ | * neutral fabrications: | ||
+ | </ul> | ||
+ | |||
+ | These forms of fabrication are also demons of defilement. They' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The mother of Mara, ignorance, lies even deeper inside. Ignorance means not being acquainted with your own mind — mistaking your thinking for your mind; mistaking your knowledge for the mind; thinking that your thoughts of the past or future are the mind; thinking that the body is the mind or the mind is the body; that feeling is the mind or the mind is feeling; that mental qualities are the mind, or that the mind is mental qualities; that the mind is the self or the self is the mind; not being able to separate these things from yourself, getting yourself all entangled: that's called ignorance. In short, ignorance means getting caught up on the present. | ||
+ | |||
+ | All of the things I've mentioned so far are called the demons of defilement. They bother us all the time, get in our way all the time, which is why they' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The same holds true for anger. Once it arises, you don't give a damn about anything. You see other people as nothing more than red or black ants: all you have to do is step on them and they' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Delusion is even worse. Delusion seeps into you, the way blood seeps throughout every part of your body. When we do evil, we're deluded. When we do good, we're still deluded. Even though we're well-educated in the Dhamma, we can't yet escape from the power of delusion. No matter who we are, it stays right on our heels. We may want to make merit, but when we're deluded we don't know what's right and what's wrong. We simply want the merit. We observe the precepts because we want to be good, but we don't know what real virtue is. It's the same when we practice concentration. We want to get results, but we can't tell right concentration from wrong. We simply keep on wanting. This is called delusion, in that our knowledge isn't in line with the truth. It's not that we don't know anything. We know, but what we know goes straying away from the truth. We're like a person who has lost his way: he can still keep going; it's just that he's not on the right path. Suppose, for instance, that we want to go to Bangkok but we get confused about the way and start heading to BangPuu. We're off the path as far as Bangkok is concerned, but we're on the right path for BangPuu — and we can keep on going. It's not the case that when you're on the wrong path you can't go. You can, but it's the wrong path as far as the destination you want. You're simply going to end up disappointed. This is why delusion is called a demon. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The second level of demons are the forms of craving. There are three forms of craving, but they boil down to two sorts. We translate craving as " | ||
+ | |||
+ | So craving has these two flavors, distilled out of // | ||
+ | |||
+ | The next level of demons are the forms of mental fabrication. For example, meritorious fabrications: | ||
+ | |||
+ | So the official returned to inform King Asoka, who got upset. "These are my funds," | ||
+ | |||
+ | The same is even more true with demeritorious fabrications, | ||
+ | |||
+ | As for the friend who went to the temple: while he was placing food in the monks' bowls, taking the precepts, and listening to the sermon, all he could think was evil thoughts: "Will my friend catch any fish for us to eat this evening, I wonder." | ||
+ | |||
+ | As for the friend who went to make merit in the temple, his thoughts were lost in eating fish with his friend, so he ended up getting hardly any merit at all. The returns on his merit weren' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The third kind of mental fabrication is thinking that's neutral, that isn't yet good or evil. This kind of thinking can also be a demon of defilement. Say, for instance, that we plan to work on our farm. "We don't have time to go to the monastery," | ||
+ | |||
+ | Finally, if we really do survive until old age, our children get worried and try to dissuade us from going. "Mom, don't go to the monastery. You're old. You'll suffer all sorts of hardships." | ||
+ | |||
+ | This is what happens to people who get all wrapped up in their work — worried about how they' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The demon of defilement on the fourth level is ignorance, not being acquainted with things. We aren't acquainted with suffering and stress; aren't acquainted with the cause of stress; aren't acquainted with the cessation of stress or with the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress. Our not being acquainted with these four noble truths is one aspect of ignorance. Another aspect is not knowing which affairs are past, which ones are future, and which ones are present. These three, plus the four noble truths, add up to seven. And then there' | ||
+ | |||
+ | What this all boils down to is not knowing the path. For instance, when we practice the four frames of reference: // | ||
+ | |||
+ | // | ||
+ | |||
+ | // | ||
+ | |||
+ | // | ||
+ | |||
+ | // | ||
+ | |||
+ | // | ||
+ | |||
+ | All four of these types of defilement are called the Maras or demons of defilement. The mother of Mara is ignorance. The children of Mara are mental fabrications; | ||
+ | |||
+ | Each of these things is an enemy, blocking off our goodness, but each can also benefit us as well. If we have any discernment, | ||
+ | |||
+ | So when dealing with the demons of defilement, you have to look for both their good and their bad points. Only when you see both sides can you be said to be discerning and wise. When you can take bad things and make them good, that's when you're really outstanding. If you take good things and make them bad, that's no good at all. Even when you take good things and make other good things out of them, that's not really special. There are three levels of goodness: good, excellent, and outstanding. A good person does good. An excellent person takes something good and makes it better. That's excellent, but not outstanding. An outstanding person takes bad things and makes them good, takes good things and makes them excellent. So these are the three levels of goodness: good, excellent, and outstanding. | ||
+ | |||
+ | So today I've talked about the demons of defilement, after the talk the other day on the demons of the aggregates // | ||
+ | |||
+ | For this reason we should develop our mental faculties // | ||
+ | |||
+ | So when we've heard this we should consider what we've heard and take it to heart, bringing it inside to see the ways things actually are inside us and then practicing accordingly, | ||
+ | |||
+ | So all of us who are developing our perfections should practice in this way. | ||
+ | |||
+ | And now that I've explained the demons of defilement, I'll end right here. | ||
+ | |||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div showmore> | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div f_zzecopy> | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | [[http:// | ||
+ | " | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # |