I'm Afraid w/ Danny Elfman (Three Poisons)

Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Bu Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly; Danny Elfman (lyrics)

At the hub of the Wheel of Rebirth are greed, hatred, and delusion on which its turning hinges.

According to the Buddha, there are Three Poisons, mental defilements that degrade the mind/heart, and serve as the root-motivations for all unskillful karma (unwholesome actions).

What are they? Roughly speaking -- because these are ancient Pali/Sanskrit terms only approximately translatable into English -- they are:

1. Greed (attraction, passion, craving, desire, liking, or lobha)
2. Hatred (aversion, fear, revulsion, disliking, or dosa), and
3. Delusion (wrong view, distortion, perversion, ignorance, or moha).

The common English translation of "greed, hatred, and delusion" of technical Buddhist terms is misleading because it makes it seem as if only the extremes of these motives are unskillful karma.

In fact, at any intensity they lead to disappointment (dukkha, a term that extends from agitation to agony) as soon as they arise. For each term, the meaning spans the entire range of the word

1. from liking, bias, preference, and passion to greed,
2. from disliking, annoyance, fearing, and revulsion to hatred,
3. from not knowing, wrong view, misunderstanding, and distortion to delusion.

The motives (causes and conditions) for all skillful deeds, wholesome or meritorious karma, are the opposites:

• Nongreed (letting go, sharing, giving, generosity, detaching, non-clinging, or alobha).
• Nonhatred (friendliness, loving-kindness, compassion, joy in others' joy, or adosa).
• Nondelusion (wisdom, knowing-and-seeing, right view, undistorted understanding, or amoha).

They make more sense in positive terms, but each word is a category encompassing the entire range of degrees.

Reflect and examine it. When we do something unskillful, unwholesome, or wrong, what is at the root of it? We are making demeritorious karma (that will bear fruit and ripen in unpleasant, unwelcome, unwished for, disappointing, and painful results).

Entering one of the subterranean hells below Los Angeles: 6th Dimension*

They are called "bad" not because a God doesn't like them but because we will not like their karmic results (vipaka and phala) when they finally ripen, which might not be for a long time. (Some deeds are avyākata, indeterminate or neutral).

• DETAILS AND REFERENCES: The Roots of Good and Evil: Buddhist Texts translated from the Pali language with comments and introduction by Western Buddhist monk Ven. Nyanaponika (Wheel #251/252/253, BPS.lk)
• Is fear hate? Both are manifestations of aversion (dosa), so fear may be distinguished from hate, but it's only a matter of our reaction to stimuli. In fear, we want to run away, whereas in hate we want to send the repulsive object away).

Ven. Nyanatiloka (L) and Ven. Nyanaponika

What motivates an action and produces karma? One or a combination of these seven motivating our action. The kind of karma produced is based on the motive or intention (cetana) behind the deed.

Karma is like a seed that comes to fruition later. The famous Judeo-Christian expression of this karmic principle is that "We shall reap what we sow." In other words, we will later harvest what we previously planted.

The Three Poisons of the mind/heart are easy to recognize in ourselves if we reflect, except for hate. Of course we like things. This is a carnal world within the Sensual Sphere (Kama-Loka). Pleasure-seeking is the main defilement that got us here and that gets us into trouble while we're here by motivating more greedy, selfish, lustful acts. However, all craving is rooted in ignorance.

Ignorance is the fundamental root of all problems and all suffering. Ignorance gives rise to desire, to craving and clinging to things we imagine are persisting, pleasurable, and real.

The Buddha's teaching on the Three Marks of Existence tells us that they are not any of these three things. All conditioned phenomena (all "things" composed of other things that depend for their existence on constituent elements or factors) are:

1. hurtling toward destruction,
2. disappointing and incapable of fulfilling us,
3. impersonal/empty/without essence.

They are not compacts but compounds, not unconditioned (like nirvana, the sole "unconditioned element"*) but conditioned (like everything else, every element, every fabrication, every formation).

• *Asankhata: the "unformed, unoriginated, unconditioned" is a name for nirvana, the "further shore," that is beyond the beyond of all becoming (rebirth) and all conditions. See Bhikkhu Bodhi's As It Is for a textual definition of nirvana (called nibbana in Pali), which too often gets confused with "nothingness" or "annihilation" or "eternal life," when it is none of these things.

In the West we are not raised to recognize or admit our hatred. We are reluctant to show anger, instead suppressing and repressing it. This root (dosa) more often finds expression in the socially acceptable form of FEAR. It's still aversion. It's still unskillful karma that leads to unwise actions that yield painful results.

*Danny Elfman's best music was from his first movie, Forbidden Zone

Danny Elfman sings about fear

Elfman still makes music, performs

The genius ginger Danny Elfman, along with brother Dick and The Mystic Knight of the Oingo Boingo (Gong Show winners), recognized how out of control this unwholesome root could get -- odd neuroses, panic attacks, specific phobias, and general anxiety. Peace of mind will always be hard to find when it is defiled.

LYRICS: "I'm Afraid"

@volatilevulture8102 corrected by Wisdom Quarterly

Afraid of the dark/ Afraid of the light/ Don't walk in the park/ Afraid of the night/ Afraid to get stabbed/ Or hit by a car/ Afraid of the streets/ Afraid to go far/ Afraid of the sky/ Don't like to be high/ I don't want to fall/ Afraid I might die/ Afraid of my friends/ Don't like to be seen/ Afraid to be nice/ Afraid to be mean/ Afraid that the wind/ Will knock over trees/ Afraid of my dog, oh/ Afraid of his fleas!

CHORUS: Peace of mind/ Peace of mind/ Peace of mind/ Peace of mind/ Hard to keep/ Hard to keep/ Hard to find/ Hard to find/ Look ahead/ Look ahead/ Look behind/ Look behind/ Looking for/ Looking for/ Peace of mind/ Peace of mind/ Can't relax/ Can't relax/ Can't unwind/ Can't unwind/ Deep inside/ Deep inside/ Secret mind/ Secret mind/ Oh, no!

Afraid to be caught/ Afraid to be free/ Afraid to make love/ Afraid of VD/ Afraid that the rain/ Will make me get wet/ Afraid to take drugs/ That make me forget/ Afraid that the air/ Will make me get sick/ Afraid that the girls/ Will cut off my/ OH!

Someone tell me how it happened/ Why my head is so confused/ Can it be my circuits finally blew a fuse?/ Blew a fuse/ Can a human being really change into a humanoid?/ Or is it my imagination/ Paranoid!/ Paranoid/ All I need is peace and quiet/ Maybe just a little time/ Turn the channel, turn the channel!/ Peace of mind/

Peace of mind/ Peace of mind/ Peace of mind/ Peace of mind/ Hard to keep/ Hard to keep/ Hard to find/ Hard to find/ Look ahead/ Look ahead/ Look behind/ Look behind/ Looking for/ Looking for/ Peace of mind/ Peace of mind/ All creation/ All creation/ All mankind/ All mankind/ Looking for/ Looking for/ Peace of mind/ Peace of mind

Afraid of success/ Afraid to grow old/ Afraid that my brain/ Is covered with mold/ Afraid that I might/ Be put on a shelf/ But last but not least, oh!/ Afraid of myself!