192: Unwholesome Mental Factors (Part 2) Greed and Anger Roots

 In this episode we examine the second and third subgroups of the unwholesome mental factors — those rooted in greed and anger. Hear clear explanations and examples of: lobha (greed/attachment), diṭṭhi (wrong view), māna (conceit), and the anger-rooted states dosa (hatred/anger), issā (envy/jealousy), macchariya (not-wanting-to-share / miserliness), and kokacchāda (remorse/guilt). The talk shows how these states arise (often from unwise attention to sense-objects), how they manifest in daily life, and why mindfulness and wise effort are essential to recognize and overcome them.

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SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Namo tasambhagavato rahato samma sambudassa nammo tasambhavato rahatto samma sambudassa nammo tasambhagavato Rahatto Sama Sambudassa Tiravara Buddhism series Dhammatag number fifteen. Today's topic is unwholesome mental factors part two. In the last Tama Tang we have discussed the first subgroup of unwholesome mental factors, which consists of four out of the fourteen unwholesome mental factors. And those four arises with all unwholesome consciousness. They are common to all unwholesome consciousness. Today we are going to discuss the discuss the second subgroup, which consists of three mental factors, namely loba, deity, and manak. And these three unwholesome mentals associate with greed-rooted consciousness. They associate it with greed rooted consciousness, not with any other consciousness, only with greed-rooted consciousness. The first mental factor, loba. We have heard that word so many times. And I believe most of you know what it is. It is one of the three mental defilements. Kilesa. Three mental defilements? Loba dosa moha. Greed, anger, and delusion. Kilesa. It is one of the three. And it is commonly translated as greed. Loba greed. That is the official, most commonly translated word. Let's go a little more precise than the word greed. Lobba is wanting. Lobba is being attached to an object. It covers all shades of self-interest, such as wanting, craving, longing, missing, clinging, grasping, and attachment to someone or to something. And there's all under loba whole varieties of wanting, whole different intensity of wantings. Having loba is like putting a colour dyed onto a white cloth. Once a dye is cast onto the white cloth, the stains will be there. The stain will always be there. Just like that, loba is it casts an unwholesome character onto the plain and pure consciousness. Its characteristics is taking hold of an object, or grasping it. Through that characteristics, you know or can identify loba. As soon as there's grasping onto an object, as soon as there is taking hold of an object, that's loba. That's how one can identify lobat. It grabs and it takes hold of the mind. In other words, taking control of the mind. Lobbah. When it comes in, it takes controls and it directs the mind what to do. Its function is sticking. Sticking. Like we all know crazy glue. One of the stickiest, strongest glue. If anything touches with that glue, stick to it. That's how lobby is. Once a punch, a person wants something or someone very strongly. One cannot get rid of it from the mind. Once you want something very strongly, that object stays in your mind. You can't even get rid of it. Even if you want to forget it, you can't forget it. It sticks to the mind. The object sticks to the mind because of lobat. In the scripture, it gives an example, it's a they call it a monkey glue. There is some sort of a risen coming out of the tree, and it is really sticky, like a glue. And it's also shiny. So when a monkey goes, they are always curious creature when the monkey goes to that little sticky, shiny thing, it touches. When it touches with one hand, can't get it off. So he used another hand to unglue it, but both hands stuck to it. So it's the fourth. He used one leg to peel himself off. But can't. Second leg. Can't. So finally he uses forehead to push away. But two hands, two legs, and the heads stuck to that resin from the three. And finally, he even used the whole body to push off. But all the six points are stuck to it. Through the six senses, the six objects, five physical and one mental. When they stuck to the mind with lobat, just like that monkey, you just can't get away. That's lobat. It's the example given in this scripture. Monkey glue. And its proximate cause for the arising of Loba is sense object, five physical sense objects, and one mental sense object. That's the proximate cause. I think that would cover what law bar is. You have enough information to be walkable. The second mental factor is called Dikti. Diki. Diki means a point of view. A view in short. A point of view, a view. Or also translated as seeing, the way one sees things. Seeing and also believing or belief. Once you have a belief, that means you have a point of view. Belief is even very strong. So point of view having a belief or seeing. That is the meaning of deity. And if one's view is incorrect from the truth, deviate from the truth, it becomes a wrong view. Before it is just simply a view, date. What is that view? But if it is a wrong view, what's a wrong view? Wrong view is deviate from the reality, deviates from the truth. And if you want to precisely call what it is, it's called mitcha deity, wrong view. Deity is view. So you put the prefix wrong. So mitcha deity is wrong view. And if one's view is correct, according to the truth, according to the reality, it becomes the right view. Right in Pali, we call it Sama. Right view. Sama deiti. Right view. Wrong view maycha deti. Right view samaditi. So that's the precise word by word through language. However, the word deity is commonly used while speaking or even in writing. As soon as you hear the word deity, it is commonly used and commonly accepted as wrong view. You don't have to go and say mecha diti. As soon as you say deity, it signifies wrong view. But precisely it's called Macha Diki. But now everyone has come to accept Dikti as wrong view. So Diki by itself precisely is simply a view. Didn't say it is wrong or right. Those little things need to be known. Dikti wrong view has a specific meaning under Buddhist terms. Very specific, not just general. Believing or viewing. What is not permanent as permanent. What is unsatisfactory as satisfactory. What is non-self as a self or a soul. And also believing there is no life after this life. That's deity. And also if one believes this life goes on forever, eternity. It never ends one after the other. To eternity, that's a wrong view. And also there are no results in neither good actions or bad actions, good karma or bad karma. You do something good, you don't have to worry about the consequences because there's no result. And then the bad, the same, that's a wrong view. And there is no such thing as karma we bagga. Cause and effect, actions and its result. Believing as such is called wrong view. So those are very specific definition of what wrong view is under a Buddhist term. In Pali. There's no life after this, and life goes on to eternity. And these are very specific definitions of wrong view from the Buddhist point of view. And its characteristics. How can you identify this deity? Characteristics is how one defines something. Characteristic is giving an unwise attention to an object. Presume or pre-assume wrongly. Deity is at work. It manifests as wrong interpretation. Or wrong belief. That is its manifestation. If there is miti deity, there's a wrong interpretation with you. And a wrong belief with you. That is its manifestation. And its proximate cause is the unwillingness to see the noble ones. Because these things are not easy to see as it really is. In a reality, ultimate reality sense. It needs some guides. And the guides come from noble personage. Noble person, noble people. And you don't have a willingness to associate or see these people is the proximate cause. If you want to see them, automatically they can direct you and redirect you. That what deity is. So let's go to the third mental factor. Mana. Translate is as conceit. Mana conceit. Conceit is compared to a raised flag in the wind. That is the example they give. A raised flag on the top of the flagpole in the wind. That's how conceit looks like. Always think bigger and better than others, and always trying to get the attention, center of attention. That's conceit. Always think I'm ahead above the others. However, don't think only those people have conceit. People who have not been successful. People who are not rich are famous. People who are down and out also have conceit. They have their own conceit. Just look into this little statement. Think about this little statement deeply. The one who is down and out and a failure of life. See? Look at this person, look at that person. Somebody makes some statement to them. I don't care what he said. I don't care how rich he is, how powerful he is, how smart he thinks he is. I don't care. What does he think? He is. Who do you think I am? That kind of statement, that kind of thoughts in the person in a low down and up person. It's a conceit. In Pali it's called hina mana. Hina is small, inferior. Mana conceit. Still, small and inferior persons have still their own conceit. Conceit is with everyone. High or low, successful or failure, doesn't matter. This conceit traversed from the obvious state to the very subtle state. Some people you can tell, wow, look at his ego, look at his conceit. Some people it's even difficult to detect because it's so subtle. But if you are in tune and if you are mindful, you can detect these little behavior of conceit even in a person who looks very humble, composed. You can still detect it. How subtle it goes. We all know they are full level of noble person. The first, the lowest, second, third. That is pretty high. Above that there's only fourth. Even on the third level of noble state, a nargami. Those noble person still has conceit. They still have pride in the achievement of Dharma work. That's how conceit is so subtle. Just having little pride in their Dhamma achievement. Only the Arahat are free of conceit. The characteristics of conceit is haughtiness. Quite haughty. And if you see a person is haughty, high or low, doesn't matter. That is expressing conceit. Its function is self, exaltation. And it manifests as vain glory. These are the words I take out of the book because I'm not quite good with English language, and I just want to be as precise as possible. Directly out of the book translated words. Characteristics, haughtiness, function, self-exaltation, manifests as vainglory. And its proximate cause, immediate cause is greed associated with views. Greed associated with views. That is the proximate cause. That is the second mental factor in this subgroup. Sorry, third mental factor. This subgroup is mental factors are associated with great rooted consciousness. And they are loba wanting dosa unsatisfactor sorry lobha wanting dictit wrong view and mana conceit that is one subgroup. And the third subgroup consists of four mental factors. And they are dosa, picha, michariya, and kukucha. And these fours associated with anger rooted consciousness. Four of them. As they associate only with anger rooted consciousness, they are put into one subgroup under unwholesome mental factors. Who will go one at a time of these four? First one is Dorsha. It is translated, most commonly translated as hatred in the books. Whole range of various intensity of dissatisfactions or aversions. All those are under the term of dosat. This dosap at a higher intensity at the higher intensity level. There is another word that's used in the place of dosa. It's called battigat. It's nice to know. Sometimes you might come across that word and you don't know what it is. Patiga, you see, high intensity dosat. Patigat means striking against. Striking against batigat. High intensity dosat. And also in dosat there are two types. Outward striking, outward slashing. Anger is called dosat. You're angry and you slash out and strike out anything and everything and everyone around you. That's dosat. But there's another kind of dosat that is Doesn't strike outward, it goes inward within yourself. Inward piercing anger is called dominasa, such as sorrow, sadness, grief, depression. Excuse me. So inward piercing kind of things such as sorrow, lamentation, grief, depression, sadness. They are also dorsa, and Pali is called dormanasa. It's the mental state that just pierced inside. It's only you who's feeling it. And the characteristic of this dosa is ferocity. It's ferocious. One becomes rough, tough, and ferocious. That's the characteristics of Dorsat. And its function, its job is to spread and burn its support. Its function is to spread and burn its supports. It will burn you both physically or bodily, as well as mentally, the mind. It will burn you both body and mind. It will burn you first before it burns others. When dosa arises, it affects you, it afflicts you first before it afflicts others. When Dosa is arising, one becomes irrational, insensible, and also carry a very, very narrow viewpoint. Your options of seeing things become very limited. Only one point of view, and that's it. And anger keeps on burning. Even if it is so much and so strong, one can get illness, or even die, or go mad, crazy from great anger. See some people can have a high blood pressure raised, having heart attack. Those are the physical symptoms in terms of illness arising from anger. Or persecution. It makes self and others suffer. That's what it means by affliction and persecution. It makes yourself suffer, it makes other people suffer. That is the manifestation, suffering. The proximate cause is displeasurable object. Objects that are not pleasurable to you. There are nine grounds. Won't go too detailed, just in general. If you feel or if you see, this person harmed me. This person had harmed me in the past. And this person is harming me right now. And this person is or will be harming me in the future. Directly upon yourself, past, present, and future. Three causes will make you angry. And also the same thing, past, present, and future. This person had hum, heard and hum my loved ones. So it becomes six. And also past, present and future. The third one is this persevering this person is favoring me. Favoring or taking side to the person I hate and dislike. This person is favoring or supporting or taking side with the person I dislike. Those are called the nine crowns of annoyances. It makes you annoyed, it makes you angry. Okay. I think that should be enough for dosat. The next one is called Issa. It is translated as envy. When you are envious of others, it's called you are having issa I-S-S-A. Its characteristic is being jealous of others. You are jealous of others, other success, you are jealous of it. Others people wealth, fame, intelligence, beauty. If you are jealous of others with regard to those, and many more, whatever you can think. Success, wealth, fame, intelligence, beauty, then you are having issa. You are having an attack of an issa. Its function is to be dissatisfied with other people's success. Just we'll just use the word one sex. One word success. It covers all those things that I mentioned. Manifest as aversion towards other people's success. That's isha. And the proximate cause is other people's success. Whenever other people are doing well, great. You are having isha. When you have envy, when you have jealousy towards those things, you are having isha. Envy. The next one is michriya. This itcha and machariya, people call it in pay. It's riya. So let's see what this michriya is. Michariya is a little tricky. One need to know with precision what it means. A lot of people interpret wrongly. And in the scriptures it is interpreted or expressed in this line, this sentence. But to myself. Let not wonders onto others but to myself.

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No.

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Don't let anybody have it except me. Don't let anybody have anything what I have. Don't want other people to have what you already have. Don't let anybody have or taken from you. Its characteristic is concealing one's own success and wealth that one has obtained. The characteristic is you conceal your own success and wealth. Because by concealing, number one, you don't want anybody to know what you have. So they can't even compete with you what you already have. And or even what you can have. Okay, let's say, oh, if I go this route, I can pick up the greatest, juiciest blueberries and corn. But I shouldn't tell anybody. You don't want other people what you can have that they have. So you hide that little trail and path away from others because if you go on that trail, you will get the juiciest blueberries and the sweetest corn. That is Michria. You don't want other peoples to have what you have. You don't want other people's to have what you can have. Sometimes you don't even have it yet, but you are you can definitely get it, and you don't want other people to get it. All these things with others. You can't bear sharing. It is not that you don't share. You can't even bear the thought of sharing it. That is Michuria, not miserliness, not stinginess. It goes beyond that. When others use or have what you have, or what you will or what you can have, at that time aversion arises. When other people use what you have, or when other people can use what you can have, aversion or anger arises in you. That is due to maturia. It manifests as shrinking away from sharing with others. You shrink away from sharing with others. That's the manifestation. And its proximate cause is others' people's success. So there are five kinds if you want to put it in things that you are have machinery with in terms of dwellings, houses, in terms of followers. You don't want other people to have as many followers as you have. Offerings. You don't want other peoples to have gifts. This applies especially to monks. Okay, the monks live on offerings. One monk get monk A get offerings, and one B get offering, and he wants to have more people to come and give him more. Even monks have this maturia. In terms of beauty, in terms of fame, and in terms of know-how, knowledge, intelligence. I'm smart. I don't want anybody to be smarter than me. You don't want to part those five. Dwelling, followers, offerings, beauty and fame, and know-how. You don't want to part with them, you don't want to have anybody to have it more than you have it. That is machuria. Issa is envy, and michriya is not wanting to share with others. It's a little difficult in the short words, but you understand the meaning now. Those always go hand in hand. Icha michriya. And the fourth mental factor is called kukucha. Kukucha. Guilt or remorse after having done wrong. I think wrongly. Guilt or remorse after having done wrongly. I'm trying my best to speak as precise English as possible. Guilt or remorse on having done suffering producing actions in the past. Or having missed doing happiness producing actions in the past. You feel guilty because you did something wrong. You had done something wrong. And you feel guilty that you haven't done this one. Ah, shoot, I forgot doing it. You feel guilt. Something good. You forgot to do something good in the past. You feel guilt. That is kuku-cha. Having guilt, having remorse. For something that you have done wrong or making suffering producing actions towards others and misdoing happiness producing actions for others. The characteristic is having subsequent regret. For bad karma and has been not done for good karma. It manifests as guilt or remorse. Its proximate cause is things done wrong or not done what should be done in the past. That is its proximate cause. They sound very similar, but there's some subtle differences in these statements. It is feeling sorrowful or dissatisfied. So mental state, mental anger, domina sa. So it's anger. And all these four dosah anger is obvious of course. Envy, there's a dissatisfaction. There is definitely dissatisfaction. Guilt there's a dissatisfaction. All these four are associated with dissatisfaction. That's why these four mental factors are called or are associated with anger rooted consciousness. Three associated with greed rooted consciousness and this four associated with anger rooted consciousness. So today we will stop with these seven. See and reflect and be mindful what kind of unwholesome mental state arising in you. And that way you will really know more and more about yourself. How would you know? With and through mindfulness. May all of you be able to be mindful sharply and precisely and be able to eliminate all these unwholesome mental states as soon as possible. Sadu Sadu. Thank you very much.