Investigate Defilements

~ By Ajahn Jayasāro ~

The discourses of the great teachers in the Thai Forest tradition often included martial imagery. Defilements are referred to as our bitter enemies, cruel, cunning and unscrupulous. The meditator has to kill them or at least – to use a boxing metaphor – knock them right out of the ring.

This way of talking about practice is understandable given that the audiences were mostly monks in the prime of life. The image of the spiritual warrior is a potent one for young men. For some years I was one of those young men and was suitably inspired.

However, as time has passed I have come to look on defilements in a slightly different way. I now see the value of investigating the ways in which the more stubborn defilements seem to answer some deep needs within us. If we are engaged in a war, it is a civil war, and we have loved ones on both sides.

We need to identify what the need is that the defilement appears to meet. How can that need be abandoned, outflanked or replaced? This kind of investigation does not replace samādhi practice. It complements it.

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"Food for the Heart", a series of Dhamma teachings handwritten weekly is posted on the Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives page with Ajahn's kind permission.

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For other teachings by Ven. Ajahn Jayasāro, please visit the Panyaprateep Foundation website.