How to abandon the defilement totally?

Q & A
1

If angers arises , how to extinguish it ?
How then to abandon greeds and hatreds ? What is the method to end desire and unwholesomeness once and for all ?

2

The short answer is to follow the Noble Eightfold Path. If you read Sutta there are tons of advice.
Greed and hated is a result of self view. If you need a technical answer, the cessation of perception and feeling is the way to end total attachment and aversion.

3

Can you provide some sutta evidence !?

4

MN20 is a start- do you know of any suttas?

with metta

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5

The practice is the method to end all suffering once and for all.
MN 20 is a beautiful sutta with practical advice for handling a restless and busy mind.
If it is time, take refuge in the Triple Gem.
Follow and keep the precepts.
Develop your practice of sitting and walking. (I do either Vipassana or Metta depending on the current state of the mind).

Understand that there is no promise of a quick fix to any situations one may be experiencing, but developing virtue, and practicing generosity may help one to see the reality that a perceived problem is just the delusion of attachment.

I hope you and all Beings find freedom from suffering.
With Metta.

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6

Thanks for the suggestion . Not many , especially suttas directly pointing to cutting off the impure mind .
Were it all is about trainings in perfecting wholesomeness mind and concentration mind ?

But , morality , being virtuous , kind and generous can be found in other religions teachings (e.g. Hinduism) .

As for Mn20 , this is my understanding , by directing focus point of our mind from unwholesomeness to wholesomeness won’t be able to really get rid of the defiled mind which is similar to other spiritual teachings from different religions .
This is same by practising stilling of the mind or concentration does not permanently removes all taints .

Or do you think , Practice makes perfect at the end ?!

7

Dear Raaj,

This is my view: Just because something is found in another religious tradition ( or philisophical or ethical system…) doesn’t mean it can be discarded as inessential to the Buddhist path. Dana and Sila alone probably won’t get you to Nibbana, but you won’t get there without them either.

I wish there was a single quick and easy thing you could do to become fully enlightened, but in my experience, it doesn’t work that way (I have tried, and tried!!). The Buddha’s path has 8 integral factors, and all of them must be cultivated - this is a process of gradually eroding the strength of the defilements. When they are sufficiently weak, and concentration and wisdom sufficiently strong, you can have a breakthrough (an irreversible weakening of defilements/cutting off of fetters).

Be well,

Brad

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8

Ok . Thanks .

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9

Good luck and I hope you will continue to stop by and add to the community.

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10

Its a combination approach:

"And what, monks, is right effort?
[i] "There is the case where a monk generates desire, endeavors, activates persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the sake of the non-arising of evil, unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen.
.
[ii] "He generates desire, endeavors, activates persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the sake of the abandonment of evil, unskillful qualities that have arisen.
.
[iii] "He generates desire, endeavors, activates persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen.
.
[iv] “He generates desire, endeavors, activates persistence, upholds & exerts his intent for the maintenance, non-confusion, increase, plenitude, development, & culmination of skillful qualities that have arisen: This, monks, is called right effort.” SN 45.8

with metta

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11

Insight also removes defilements:

“If, bhikkhu, you understand that the Dhamma has not been taught by me for the sake of purification of virtue, then for what purpose do you understand the Dhamma to have been taught by me?”
.
“Venerable sir, I understand the Dhamma to have been taught by the Blessed One for the sake of the fading away of lust.”
.
“Good, good, bhikkhu! It is good that you understand the Dhamma to have been taught by me for the sake of the fading away of lust. For the Dhamma is taught by me for the sake of the fading away of lust.
.
“What do you think, bhikkhu, is the eye permanent or impermanent?”—“Impermanent, venerable sir.”… “Is the ear … the mind permanent or impermanent?”—“Impermanent, venerable sir.”—“Is what is impermanent suffering or happiness?”—“Suffering, venerable sir.”—“Is what is impermanent, suffering, and subject to change fit to be regarded thus: ‘This is mine, this I am, this is my self’?”—“No, venerable sir.”
.
“Seeing thus … He understands: ‘… there is no more for this state of being.’”
.
This is what the Blessed One said. Elated, that bhikkhu delighted in the Blessed One’s statement. And while this discourse was being spoken, there arose in that bhikkhu the dust-free, stainless vision of the Dhamma: “Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation.” SN35.74

"Thus, monks, any form whatsoever…
"Any feeling whatsoever…
"Any perception whatsoever…
"Any fabrications whatsoever…
"Any consciousness whatsoever that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: every consciousness is to be seen as it actually is with right discernment as: ‘This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am.’
.
“Seeing thus, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones grows disenchanted with form, disenchanted with feeling, disenchanted with perception, disenchanted with fabrications, disenchanted with consciousness. Disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion, he is fully released. With full release, there is the knowledge, ‘Fully released.’ He discerns that ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.’” SN22.59

To put it in another way
Samatha removes defilements but insight removes ignorance and latent defilements (anusaya).

OR

suffering of change (viparinama dukkha) - removed by samatha
suffering of fabrications (sankhara dukkha) - removed by insight
suffering of suffering (dukkhe dukkha) - removed by both samatha in combination with vipassana

with metta

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12

Samatha Suppresses defilements ?!

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13

That’s a way of looking at it:

Dhp 283-285
.
Cut down
the forest of desire,
not the forest of trees.
From the forest of desire
come danger & fear.
Having cut down this forest
& its underbrush, monks,
be deforested.
.
For as long as the least
bit of underbrush
of a man for women
is not cleared away,
the heart is fixated
like a suckling calf
on its mother.

The forest trees are the coarse defilements which are removed by samatha (suppressed, if you like), and undergrowth is subtle defilements as well as ignorance which is removed by insight. The undergrowth, if not cleared, will grow up again and become big trees.

Mindfulness alone, is samatha. It clears the coarse defilements. Mindfulness with tilakkhana, is insight practice and goes deeper: to the root of the Dependant origination, ignorance and removes it at the deepest level of germination.

With metta

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14

By just let everything pass right through you, like when you are out driving in a car - there you can see with your eyes open that the world is coming closer and closer until it disappear behind you and are gone. Let nothing land in you, and let everything be where it is!

not me, not mine, and absolutly not who I am

best! :slight_smile:

15

Well , theoretically . Practicality , my money is still mine !

16

What about if your money is worth zero tomorrow, still belive they are worth to be yours then?

17

“Having killed what
do you sleep in ease?
Having killed what
do you not grieve?
Of the slaying
of what one thing
does Gotama approve?
_
[The Buddha:]
Having killed anger
you sleep in ease.
Having killed anger
you do not grieve.
The noble ones praise
the slaying of anger
— with its honeyed crest
& poison root —
for having killed it
you do not grieve”. SN1.71

with metta,

18

Dealing with insults:

"In the same way, brahman, that with which you have insulted me, who is not insulting; that with which you have taunted me, who is not taunting; that with which you have berated me, who is not berating: that I don’t accept from you. It’s all yours, brahman. It’s all yours. SN7.2

Stopping anger from bouncing off of each other:

"You make things worse
when you flare up
at someone who’s angry.
Whoever doesn’t flare up
at someone who’s angry
wins a battle
hard to win.
_
You live for the good of both
— your own, the other’s —
when, knowing the other’s provoked,
you mindfully grow calm.
_
When you work the cure of both
— your own, the other’s —
those who think you a fool
know nothing of Dhamma.
_
If anger arises,
reflect on the saw simile. [1]
If craving for savor,
remember the son’s-flesh simile. [2]
_
If your mind runs loose
after sensual pleasures
& states of becoming,
quickly restrain it with mindfulness
as you would a bad ox
eating grain.

Carrying a grudge leads to future angry situations:

‘He insulted me,
hit me,
beat me,
robbed me’
— for those who brood on this,
hostility isn’t stilled. Dhp 3

Attachment is at the root of anger, conceit is at the root of anger, and so on for all the 10 fetter:

"Abandon anger,
be done with conceit,
get beyond every fetter.
When for name & form
you have no attachment
— have nothing at all —
no sufferings, no stresses, invade. Dhp 7

with metta,

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