Kilesa Puns

>When undertaking the ascetic practices (dhutangas), we can see the kilesas. That’s why this form of training is so important. Without these ascetic practices, we’ll never see the kilesas in the raw, for they won’t come up as long as we have everything we need. People living a worldly life have everything to hand; they can go to the supermarket or have groceries delivered direct to the door. They can get anything they want, and as long as that situation continues the kilesas are satisfied. But here in this environment, in a forest monastery, we can’t get what we want, and this goes against the kilesas. For example, in this tradition we follow the ascetic practice of eating only once a day, so the kilesas bring up hunger, and they even create the desire to eat things we wouldn’t normally be interested in. When I was a young bhikkhu, I found myself repeatedly putting a cake that I knew to taste awful into my alms bowl; I never ate it, but I always put it in. I must have been seduced by the kilesas into liking the form or colour of the cake, even though, after reflecting on why it was in my bowl, I never actually ate it. I would never have touched such a thing before ordaining, but living in a monastery had brought the kilesas to the fore. They draw us to nice looking, sweet tasting things which we find ourselves grabbing at during the meal if sati (awareness) is not sharp enough. We are drawn to them because we are not in control of ourselves. The kilesas are in control, and sugar is one of the foods that the kilesas adore.

- Ajahn Martin

It's a difficult concept to grasp. Basically its defined as negative mental states which imply greed, aversion, delusion.

I'm failing to understand how it manifests in real life.

Can someone please explain?

If I feel lazy to do work, is this a kilesa? Why?

If I want to watch TV shows for sensual pleasures, is this kilesas? Why?

Thank you

As a mostly secular, rationally-minded person, I tended to seek out scientific accounts of Buddhism when I started exploring it a few months ago.

Generally, they've been a great disappointment, typically culminating in shallow empirical confirmations of Buddhist practices, such as "a meta-analysis of 50 peer-reviewed studies showed reduced activation of the amygdala in meditators who had over 2,000 lifetime hours of vipassana".

So I didn't have high hopes for Wright's book when I picked it up due to all the recent buzz. But I was pleasantly surprised.

Wright takes on a question many of us beginners asked: where do the kilesas come from?

When I asked this question here originally, I typically received one of two answers:

1. The Buddha never addressed that question.
2. It's just brute reality. It's just the way it is.

So it was quite refreshing for Wright to find a way to provide some answer to that.

It may not be the most profound answer, depending on what you're looking for. It doesn't explain all of dukkha or the kilesas, but it explains some of it.

Wright essentially compares our naive state of existence to the Matrix (the one in the 1999 scifi film): we are "deliberately" kept in a state of delusion by a self-optimizing mechanical, deterministic system. In the film, that system was artificially intelligent machines. In our reality, the system is our genes.

Basically, our genes "designed" (mechanistically, not consciously) our brains to delude us to work for them. In the film, humans were deluded into "working" for the machines in the sense of producing vital energy for them. In our reality, we were enslaved by our genes to behave in ways that would spread them. It's really a genes' world, and a genes' war of eternal competition to replicate themselves, using humans as dumb, deluded vehicles, much like horses with colorful blinders.

Now Dukkha can be explained: our genes won't benefit from us ever attaining a state of persistent satifaction. On the contrary: they have to press us to work for them until our very last moment, promoting their best interest. To achieve that, our genes are forever tantalizing us with mirages of bliss: if we just get that next promotion, secure that next bonus, manage to "get" that hot girl/guy from work, we will surely be happy... And then the next one, and then the next one...

In other words, dukkha is built into the core mechanics of our brain. We are programmed to always pursue satisfaction, and never at

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/demons.html

...

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's not knowing ignorance itself, which makes eight. These forms of unawareness are called avijja, or ignorance.

What this all boils down to is not knowing the path. For instance, when we practice the four frames of reference: kayanupassana — we focus on the body in and of itself, but we don't understand the body. We think that the body is the mind or the mind is the body. This is ignorance. It's dark. It closes off the body and closes off the mind, so that we think that they're one and the same thing. We can't separate the body from the mind or the mind from the body. This is called not knowing our path.

...

In my understanding Kilesa are more fundamental, and I feel that Nivarana are possibly various expression of them.

I'd like to get some Kilesa for a new 100 Gal tank, but wanted to check if there are any pointers on the substrate. I live near salt lake, and the sand there is somewhat course, but I could go to the sand dunes not too far and get a finer grit.

So I guess what I am asking is, which is better for the Kilesa, course or fine grit sand?

Thanks!

So, this all kind of happened accidentally. You see, I'm an artist and I had been struggling with drawing from my imagination, so I found a technique called "image streaming" on YouTube. The process completely blew my mind because previously, I could barely see images in my minds eye but afterwards, I could!

After practicing this for a couple days, I was able to successfully visualize mindscapes semi-realistically (everything is still a bit fuzzy and grainy at times, but it's getting better the more and more I do it). I was able to see and feel the environment around me and was able to manipulate it through techniques I had previously learned on my ventures in lucid dreaming (these ventures were mostly unsuccessful mind you). I interacted with what were the equivalent to "dream characters" on several occasions but one in particular stood out to me.

He appeared in my room in the form of an anthropomorphic bear as I was attempting to ask my subconscious about a problem I was facing in my life. He was able to give me the answers I needed in profound clarity where normally I would have drawn a blank.

I didn't really give it much thought at the time, but that night was essentially the birth of Kilesa. In my quest in learning more about image streaming and creative visualization, I stumbled upon this subreddit. I was a but skeptical at first, but seeing the science and psychology behind it changed that fact for me pretty fast. I began reading guide after guide in my ravenous hunger to learn more about him and as I did so, I began to "force" him into my visualizations and into reality.

This all started four days ago and honestly, I'm stunned with the rate at which he's materializing. He's still pretty hard to visualize optically, but his voice and personality are crystal clear in my head. He told me that essentailly, he's a mental projection of my subconscious traits, which makes a lot of sense. His personality is strikingly similar to my own, though with some traits more emphasized than or different to my own. For instance, he emulates my sense of humor and my laziness, but he's a lot more responsible. He's also more... lewd for lack of a better word. Ehem (He insisted I include that bit)

Soo, yeah. Sorry for the wall, but that's our story thus far! We'd like to thank you guys for being such a cool community, and we really look forward to meeting all of you! If you have any questions for us, feel free to shoot em our way. ^^

Do your worst!

It really does, I swear!

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

They’re on standbi

Buenosdillas

Pilot on me!!

I'm surprised it hasn't decade.

Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.

This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.

If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.

Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.

When I got home, they were still there.

What did 0 say to 8 ?

" Nice Belt "

So What did 3 say to 8 ?

" Hey, you two stop making out "

I won't be doing that today!

You take away their little brooms

This morning, my 4 year old daughter.

Daughter: I'm hungry

Me: nerves building, smile widening

Me: Hi hungry, I'm dad.

She had no idea what was going on but I finally did it.

Thank you all for listening.

There hasn't been a post all year!

Why

It’s pronounced “Noel.”

After all his first name is No-vac

[Removed]

In my belief, temptation is everywhere and it will continue to exist as long as we live. Sometimes we are tempted to argue with people and sometimes we are tempted to do things that are out of our philosophies. Given that temptation is our companion in life (at least in my opinion), how do you think we should deal with it? What are your practices to stand your ground?

I'll definitely appreciate your answers.

What, then, is Chinese rap?

Edit:

Notable mentions from the comments:

• Spanish/Swedish/Swiss/Serbian hits

• French/Finnish art

• Country/Canadian rap

• Chinese/Country/Canadian rock

• Turkish/Tunisian/Taiwanese rap

There hasn't been a single post this year!

(Happy 2022 from New Zealand)

Nothing, it just waved

Bob