Meditation

Meditation for Beginners

The Harm of Mental Defilements

They turn us into unwholesome people by exacerbating anger and hatred within.

The Lord Buddha stresses that the three categories of defilement: greed, hatred and delusion are like usurpers in the mind. They darken our minds and obstruct us from enlightenment. They turn us into unwholesome people by exacerbating anger and hatred within. We will be overcome by evil intentions that weaken our minds. As defilements penetrate our minds, we may find that we commit unwholesome acts without awareness because our wisdom us darkened and obscured.

Why doesn’t such a person think to kick the drug habit as a way to solve the problem

False Friends are those whose minds are habitually contaminated with defilements. When faced with problems, they do not know how to get to the root of the problem. They tend to worsen their troubles by reacting to the outcomes of deeds with hatred, anger, and ignorance. For example, a drug addict with financial difficulties tends to become a drug dealer himself in order to support his continued use of drugs. Why doesn’t such a person think to kick the drug habit as a way to solve the problem? Why do troublemakers always seem to choose the solutions that exacerbate the troubles to themselves and the other members of the society? Buddhists would answer that troublemakers behave in such a way because their sense of judgement has been impaired by the defilements in their mind, just as the sum or the moon can be obscured by the clouds in the sky.

We will be overcome by evil intentions that weaken our minds.

Defilements are so harmful because they inhibit one’s proper discretion. Therefore, troublemakers fail to consider the right and wrong of whatever that comes into their lives. As a consequence, they have selfish motives, lying speech, and unscrupulous actions. Realizing the danger of the defilements and recognizing the ‘fool’ lurking in all of the is necessary for us to make an effort to lessen existing defilement within our minds and protect ourselves from any new defilements that might threaten to brush off on us. Otherwise, our world will continue to fill up with troubles on every level from individual to communities, and religions until eventually another World war will be inevitable.