Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal: Ten Mental Defilements and Four Floods

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Ten Mental Defilements and Four Floods

Learn to surf, to "go with the flow," before the waves, before the flood (Sandra Dee/WQ).

Holy cow, the waves are coming to drown us in a flood of force we can't resist.

Fat Happy Budai loves to play through danger.

A "flood" (ogha) or taint (asava, lit. "influx") is another kind of defilement, of which there are four.

They are also referred to as "cankers, corruptions, or intoxicating biases" in Buddhism.

A list of four floods (as in DN 16, Pts.M., Vibhanga) exists, namely, the flood of:

sense-desire (kāmāsava)
[craving for eternal] existence (bhavāsava)
[wrong] views (ditthāsava)
ignorance (avijjāsava).

If waves are rolling in on us, what should we do? Run from the world or learn to surf?

Hey, I gotta get back to intensive surf training.

A list of three, omitting the "flood of views," is possibly older and is more frequent in the basket of discourses (Sutta Pitaka, e.g. in MN 2, MN 9, DN 33; A.III.59, 67; A.VI.63.

In the Vibhanga (Section 17, the Khuddakavatthu Vibhanga) both the threefold and fourfold division are mentioned. In addition to taints (asava), the fourfold division also occurs under the name of "floods" (ogha) and "yokes" (yoga).

Japanese Buddhists warned of tsunamis to come

Through the path of stream-entry -- the first stage of enlightenment (or initial phase of awakening) -- the flood of views is overcome.

Through the path of non-returning -- the third stage of enlightenment -- the third stage enlightenment -- flood of sense-desire (craving for sensual pleasures) is overcome.

Through the path of arhatship, the floods of craving for eternal existence and ignorance are overcome.

Cow-a-Bunga, I got this covered!

The "All the Taints Discourse" (Sabbasava Sutta, MN 2) shows how to overcome the floods, namely, through:

insight,
sense-control,
avoidance,
wise use of the necessities of life,
and so on.

For a commentarial exposition, see Atthasālini (Tr. I, p. 63f: II, pp. 475ff).

Who's afraid of a flood, a tainted heart/mind?

Another name for a fully enlightened person or Buddhist arhat is khīnāsava, "one whose floods are overcome," "one whose taints are destroyed," or "one who is canker-free." This is a fully awakened individual.

The state of the arahat (Pali arahant) is frequently called āsavakkhaya, "the destruction of the taints."

Sutras concluding with the attainment of full enlightenment by the listeners often end with the words: "During this utterance, the hearts [minds] of the [hearers] were freed from the floods through clinging no more" (anupādāya āsavehi cittāni vimuccimsū'ti).

What are the Ten Defilements (kilesa)?

The great Theravada commentator Buddhaghosa compiles The Path of Purification.

"Defilements" (kilesa) are heart/mind-defiling, unwholesome qualities. According to The Path of Purification (Vis.M. XXII, 49, 65):

"There are ten defilements, thus called because they are themselves defiled, and because they defile the mental factors associated with them. They are:

(1) greed (lobha),
(2) hatred (dosa),
(3) delusion (moha),
(4) conceit (māna, the habit of self-reference),
(5) speculative views (ditthi),
(6) skeptical doubt (vicikicchā),
(7) mental torpor (thīna),
(8) restlessness (uddhacca);
(9) shamelessness (ahirika),
(10) lack of moral dread (anottappa)."

For 1-3, see "roots" (mūla); 4, see māna; 5, see ditthi; 6-8, see "Five Hindrances" (nīvarana); 9 and 10, see ahirika-anottappa.

The ten are explained in Dhs. 1229f and enumerated in Vibh. XII. No classification of these Ten Defilements is found in the sutras (Sutta Pitaka), though the term occurs quite often in them. For the related term, "impurities" (upakkilesa) different lists are given (Appendix).