12
votes
Accepted
What are the "defilements"?
In simple words, defilements are like little clouds that descend on the head -- and when you look around through one of them, you see everything in a different color or blurry or distorted.
That's ...
- 55.2k
6
votes
Accepted
Are there different types of craving?
Indeed, there are four levels of craving.
Craving for one's life - Highest level
Craving for one's organs
Craving for loved ones
Craving for external objects - Lowest level
Chathurarya Sathya (Four ...
- 4,203
6
votes
How is it possible to change habits cultivated over lifetimes
Easy. Well, easy in theory :) -- you need to get fed up! You need to get really sick and tired of your conditions, so sick that you cannot live like that anymore. You are so fed up that you are either ...
- 55.2k
5
votes
How is it possible to change habits cultivated over lifetimes
It is not at all a simple task to reverse the habits cultivated over umpteenth lifetimes. It is next to impossible without gaining a good knowledge of the Dhamma and putting it to practice diligently. ...
- 9,517
5
votes
Accepted
Sankharas, once eliminated. Do they have a chance of coming back?
There are ten fetters eliminated in Vipassana meditation. Elimination does not occur before you reach the Sothapanna(stream enterer) state. Until then, fetters are only subdued. Once a fetter is ...
- 25.6k
5
votes
Accepted
Which of the following statements about Nibbana/Nirvana are true?
Nibbana is actually best understood as the cessation of suffering. The lakkhanadicatuka for nibbana is as follows (minus proximate cause because it is uncaused):
It has peace as its characteristic. ...
- 23.8k
4
votes
What are the "defilements"?
The term is used differently in different places in Theravada literature. In the 27th Samyutta of the Samyutta Nikaya, there are ten Suttas that talk about the kilesas, and the term is equated with ...
- 7,366
4
votes
Accepted
Power Struggles in a Buddhist Group
The initial instinct will be to assign blame, or to approach the issue from a victim perspective.
As meditators, we must know better and let go of these views.
Powerful emotions can be very good ...
- 7,383
4
votes
How is it possible to change habits cultivated over lifetimes
If a yard has lots of weeds, just by getting rid of the weeds alone won't be effective. One will also need to overseed their yard with strong grass so that they will overwhelm the weeds and grow into ...
- 9,568
4
votes
Accepted
Can anger be acceptable?
There is no place for anger in Buddhism for any reason.
Right effort is what is required.
- 5,568
3
votes
How is it possible to change habits cultivated over lifetimes
Paying conscious attention to whatever you are doing now fully, whatever the activity may be. Life is happening right now, right this moment as you read.
Any actions have consequences, even thoughts....
- 2,224
3
votes
Anger management - How to manage bad temper?
Loving kindness or Metta meditation is the one recommended to counter anger. What you are talking about is a Vipassana meditation. Both work! But you need to keep practicing. The more you practice, ...
- 25.6k
2
votes
Are there different types of craving?
There's an analysis on Wikipedia:
The Buddha identified three types of taṇhā:[1][4][5][6][7][a]
Kama-tanha (sense-craving): craving for sense objects which provide pleasant feeling, or ...
- 43.2k
2
votes
Are there different types of craving?
If you look at dependent origination and the Nidānas closely, craving arises due to feeling. You analyze the feeling and classify it as something desirable or undesirable or neither desirable or ...
2
votes
Accepted
How to get rid of hate?
There is a solution given in Buddhism for the exact matter.
I think you may have heard about the meditation called "Maithree / Meththa" (Metta). There is a certain variation of that to prevent such ...
- 3,933
2
votes
What are the "defilements"?
You might want to bookmark the following site that gives excellent definitions for common Buddhist terms: http://www.budsas.org/ebud/bud-dict/dic_idx.htm or download the PDF of this dictionary from: ...
- 1,368
2
votes
Do we indulge or take pleasure in jealousy or the feeling and sensations associated with jealousy?
The Dhammapada says,
Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is a law eternal.
If or because that's so, I'm not sure that you can even want ...
- 43.2k
2
votes
Seeking scriptural source for "all defilements temporarily suppressed when in jhana"
AN 9.36 Jhana Sutta:
"'I tell you, the ending of the mental fermentations depends on the first jhana.' Thus it has been said. In reference to what was it said? There is the case where a monk, ...
- 55.2k
2
votes
How is it possible to change habits cultivated over lifetimes
Each experience can trigger your habitual response which might be followed by and intention to act. What triggers your habitual or reflexive response is and external stimuli coming in contact with ...
2
votes
Can anger be acceptable?
All passions including anger are to be removed but until you achieve perfection don't cut too deep, don’t remove the passion against ignorance.
Quoted below is from Shantideva's Bodhichryavatara / ...
- 21
2
votes
Can anger be acceptable?
Anger is unskillful and destructive. Anger gains its power from a lack of restraint--we explode at a problem and obliterate/kill it. Strong anger leads to killing. Given that the first precept is &...
- 8,712
2
votes
How can we use the triple round model to understand dependent origination?
As explained in oral Mahayana tradition, the twelve Nidanas schematically describe gradual process of emerging subjective experience of the world and a sense of self.
The actual process is not linear ...
- 55.2k
1
vote
Defilements or misperceptions that arise because of correct insight attainment
Defilements or misperceptions do not arise because of correct insight attainment. There might be some left. Maybe defiled insights, or "Gecko - Samadhi [vipassanupakkilesa]"
...To practice ...
1
vote
Seeking scriptural source for "all defilements temporarily suppressed when in jhana"
The closest that I can find so far, from the Piti Sutta (AN 5.176):
[The Blessed One said:] "Excellent, Sariputta. Excellent. When a
disciple of the noble ones enters & remains in seclusion &...
- 33.7k
1
vote
Drowsiness / Sloth & Torpor
Does drowsiness as a defilement only refer to a psychological state of mind? I know that emotions manifest also as physical phenomena, but how do I distinguish between physical exhaustion and ...
- 3,875
1
vote
Vitakkasanthana Sutta
When you watch a sad movie, you may feel sad at some points. But you won't carry the sadness with you and become depressed, would you? When you stop watching the movie, you immediately forget about it....
- 33.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible