Extinguishing the Five Defilements
“Ānanda, whoever desires heaven and Nibbāna should urgently and diligently strive to attain them while still alive, because everything is present in the mind. Nibbāna is very hard to gain. Whoever desires the happiness of Nibbāna should make himself like the earth or like one who is already dead — that is, let go of both pleasure and suffering. The essential point is to extinguish the many defilements — the one thousand and five hundred defilements — and when those are reduced, only five remain: lobha (greed), dosa (hatred), moha (delusion), māna (conceit), and diṭṭhi (wrong view).
Lobha is the craving to possess and the excessive wanting: sensual craving for rūpa, sound, smell, taste, tactile objects (phassa) and the desire for worldly possessions — wealth and goods — which are sought by the heart but cannot fully be possessed. These are called greed.
Dosa is irritation and hostility — the wish to harm or act against others — this is hatred.
Moha is delusion: being bewildered, misplaced love or hate, attachment to gain and rank, ignorance — this is delusion.
Māna is pride: arrogance and contempt toward others.
Diṭṭhi is clinging to wrong views — inability to abandon erroneous opinions. Two examples of wrong views are:
- Uccheda-diṭṭhi: the view that when living beings die, everything is utterly extinguished; there is nothing that continues or is reborn.
- Sassatā-diṭṭhi: the view that the self (ātman) is eternal and unchanging, that though the body perishes the self remains immortal and goes on to be reborn.
If these five defilements are extinguished, then the whole mass of the many (1,500) defilements is said to be extinguished. If these five are not extinguished, then the defilements are not extinguished at all.
Ānanda, laypeople find it difficult to attain Nibbāna because they do not know how to extinguish craving (taṇhā). They think, “If I do many meritorious deeds and make lots of offerings, merit will float down from the heavens and carry me into Nibbāna.” They do not really know where Nibbāna is; they merely guess. Thus it is hard for them to reach it. In truth, Nibbāna is not somewhere far off — it is in the mind itself. When lobha, dosa, moha, māna, diṭṭhi are cut off and extinguished, one attains Nibbāna. If one does not know how to extinguish craving and the defilements, merely desiring Nibbāna — “may I have Nibbāna” — is futile; even after tens of thousands of lives one will not meet it. The defilements and cravings exist within ourselves; unless we ourselves put them to rest, who else will do so? It is not appropriate to sit and wait for merit to come and extinguish our defilements for us. Merit is not some external thing: we ourselves must be the agents who extinguish our defilements. Only by our own effort will we succeed.
Ānanda, the reason ordinary people find it so difficult to reach Nibbāna is that they merely desire it without knowing it. They do not realize that Nibbāna dwells in their own minds; they think they will obtain it in the next life. They are ignorant of the fact that hell, heaven, and Nibbāna are present in this very person. Because of that ignorance they fall into great suffering and keep cycling in saṃsāra, born and dying without end in small and great existences.
When I, the Tathāgata, encourage ordination, it is for the purpose of producing merit and wholesome qualities. What is the very substance of merit and wholesomeness? It is nothing other than the extinguishing of defilements. Observing the routines and monastic discipline contributes: the more defilements you can extinguish, the greater the merit; the fewer you extinguish, the lesser the merit; if you cannot extinguish defilements at all, then no merit truly accrues. Unwholesome deed (akusala) likewise is nothing else but the defilements themselves — craving and attachment. The amount of merit is proportional to how much defilement one has extinguished. Those who do not understand merit and demerit imagine that ordination, observance, or outward discipline will automatically bring merit from the sky and transport them to heaven or Nibbāna. Such misunderstandings are the mark of delusion.
Those who do not know about demerit imagine that wrongdoing will cause a net to rise up from beneath the earth and drag them down into hell. This too is a mistaken view.
Ānanda, pleasure and pain, merit and demerit — all of these exist in us. Do not think that merit and demerit are outside of you. If you think merit will come from outside and carry you to a happy state, you will never attain it even after countless lives. Merit, demerit, happiness, and suffering are states of the mind. If you do not like suffering and seek happiness, correct your own heart. If you do not work to bring your own mind to liberation, who else will liberate you? Happiness and suffering are within us; if we cannot find them for ourselves, no one else can find them for us.
Ānanda, people who think that merit, heaven, and Nibbāna will be brought to them — and that demerit, hell, and suffering will be taken to them by others — are truly deluded. Such people, even if they give alms and perform meritorious deeds and then become ordained, will not attain true happiness; they will still experience suffering. Merit and happiness are one and the same: where there is merit, there is happiness; where there is demerit, there is suffering. If one does not know demerit, one cannot abandon it; if one does not know merit, one cannot find it. This is like someone who wishes to possess gold but does not know what gold looks like — even if gold lies before him, he cannot grasp it because he does not recognize it. So too with merit: if you do not know merit, you will not obtain its fruits.
When one gives alms but does not understand merit and happiness, the gift remains empty; one does not receive the corresponding happiness. Those who do not understand merit and expect to be borne up by it are truly deluded. Why should merit carry one to happiness if one does not understand what happiness is? To know happiness is to know merit; to see merit is to have recognized it. Who else can carry you to what you do not even recognize?
Ānanda, no one can help another with their happiness and suffering. No one can carry another person to hell, heaven, or Nibbāna — each must go by their own deeds and state of mind. If you want to escape the pit of hell, first free yourself from the “raw” hell that exists in human life now. If you have not secured even the mundane good (sukha) in this life, you will not find the higher heavenly bliss after death — absence of a proper groundwork now will lead to hell after death. Even heavenly pleasures are not free from suffering; they are pleasures mixed with some suffering, unlike Nibbāna, which is the unsurpassed and pure happiness — only happiness, without any admixture of suffering.
The “mundane heaven” in this human life is the condition of being masterful in wealth, honor, retinue, fame, and status. Those who attain such positions are said to enjoy mundane heavenly-like happiness. If you wish for happiness in the future, secure some happiness now while you are alive. Do not expect happiness to come without effort. Every heavenly state, whether mundane or celestial, is mixed with suffering — none is free from that. Even so, such states are still preferable to being in hell.
Do not doubt that the mundane heavens of this life and the celestial heavens of the next differ little; any difference is only slight. Whatever degree of happiness you seek, strive to obtain it in this life. Waiting idly for happiness to arrive is futile. Nibbāna is different: once properly attained, it brings unalloyed rest, immediate and enduring peacefulness. Nibbāna is at once both difficult and easy: difficult because most people do not know or see rightly and therefore labor in vain; easy for the wise who understand and apply themselves rightly — they need not engage in fruitless efforts. For those who see rightly and attain the proper grasp, Nibbāna can arise even while sitting or lying quietly. That is why the happiness of Nibbāna is untainted by suffering.