I go to the defilements as my refuge.
"The practice of Dhamma, the practice of continence, mastery of this is said to be best if a person has gone forth from home to the homeless life. But if he is garrulous and, like a brute, delights in hurting others, his life is evil and his impurity increases.
"A quarrelsome Bhikkhu shrouded by delusion, does not comprehend the Dhamma taught by the Awakened One when it is revealed. Annoying those practiced in meditation, being led by ignorance, he is not aware that his defiled path leads to Niraya-hell. Falling headlong, passing from womb to womb, from darkness to (greater) darkness, such a Bhikkhu undergoes suffering hereafter for certain.
"As a cesspool filled over a number of years is difficult to clean, similarly, whoever is full of impurity is difficult to make pure. Whoever you know to be such, Bhikkhus, bent on worldliness, having wrong desires, wrong thoughts, wrong behaviour and resort, being completely united avoid him, sweep him out like dirt, remove him like rubbish. Winnow like chaff the non-recluses. Having ejected those of wrong desires, of wrong behaviour and resort, be pure and mindful, dwelling with those who are pure. Being united and prudent you will make an end to suffering."
Sn 2.6 Dhammacariya Sutta
How many people say I go to the defilements as my refuge, and how many people actually go to the defilements for their refuge? The numbers you will find will be different.
We can say I practice Buddhism, Christianity, Philosophy, Morality or any other practice which is or has been used to become better people or to transcend, but if we follow the defilements, we take the defilements as the practice, we fool ourselves that we are following a path which leads to the salvation from suffering, we think we are on the right path when we are in fact running into the extremes of greed and distress.
Some people like things to be black and white, this is right and that is wrong, but life isn’t black and white, life has gray areas and we can think part of the gray is actually the right way just as we can think the black or white is the right way, when it is the way of the Defilements, it promotes the ideas to grow which are the cause of suffering, the clinging and craving for things, for self identity.
We have to turn our backs on the defilements and fight them, the middle way is not an easy path, it goes against the normal way we do things, it is counter cultural in the sense of the culture we promote as those who go to the defilements for refuge, the culture of the defilements which cause us to cling and crave for the world.
We may think the world is for us or against us, but this is the defilements of the world telling us we are someone, we deserve something, we should get something.
So stand away from the world, Practice the setting aside of Greed and Distress in relation to the world, and watch the defilements, they may win over and over again but eventually we will win once, twice, three times in a row, and then time and time again, this is when we are on the path to the extinction of the worldly concerns, and on the path to nibbana.
Just because something is right to do, does not mean it is right for us who try to walk the path who are in training for the fulfilment of the path, The Defilements are there in us, in our hearts, and minds guiding us away from the correct training, for the extinction of clinging, and craving in regard to the world.
At the end of the day I may be right, I may be wrong, but I share this hoping I am one, the other, both, or neither.
"The practice of Dhamma, the practice of continence, mastery of this is said to be best if a person has gone forth from home to the homeless life. But if he is garrulous and, like a brute, delights in hurting others, his life is evil and his impurity increases.
"A quarrelsome Bhikkhu shrouded by delusion, does not comprehend the Dhamma taught by the Awakened One when it is revealed. Annoying those practiced in meditation, being led by ignorance, he is not aware that his defiled path leads to Niraya-hell. Falling headlong, passing from womb to womb, from darkness to (greater) darkness, such a Bhikkhu undergoes suffering hereafter for certain.
"As a cesspool filled over a number of years is difficult to clean, similarly, whoever is full of impurity is difficult to make pure. Whoever you know to be such, Bhikkhus, bent on worldliness, having wrong desires, wrong thoughts, wrong behaviour and resort, being completely united avoid him, sweep him out like dirt, remove him like rubbish. Winnow like chaff the non-recluses. Having ejected those of wrong desires, of wrong behaviour and resort, be pure and mindful, dwelling with those who are pure. Being united and prudent you will make an end to suffering."
Sn 2.6 Dhammacariya Sutta
How many people say I go to the defilements as my refuge, and how many people actually go to the defilements for their refuge? The numbers you will find will be different.
We can say I practice Buddhism, Christianity, Philosophy, Morality or any other practice which is or has been used to become better people or to transcend, but if we follow the defilements, we take the defilements as the practice, we fool ourselves that we are following a path which leads to the salvation from suffering, we think we are on the right path when we are in fact running into the extremes of greed and distress.
Some people like things to be black and white, this is right and that is wrong, but life isn’t black and white, life has gray areas and we can think part of the gray is actually the right way just as we can think the black or white is the right way, when it is the way of the Defilements, it promotes the ideas to grow which are the cause of suffering, the clinging and craving for things, for self identity.
We have to turn our backs on the defilements and fight them, the middle way is not an easy path, it goes against the normal way we do things, it is counter cultural in the sense of the culture we promote as those who go to the defilements for refuge, the culture of the defilements which cause us to cling and crave for the world.
We may think the world is for us or against us, but this is the defilements of the world telling us we are someone, we deserve something, we should get something.
So stand away from the world, Practice the setting aside of Greed and Distress in relation to the world, and watch the defilements, they may win over and over again but eventually we will win once, twice, three times in a row, and then time and time again, this is when we are on the path to the extinction of the worldly concerns, and on the path to nibbana.
Just because something is right to do, does not mean it is right for us who try to walk the path who are in training for the fulfilment of the path, The Defilements are there in us, in our hearts, and minds guiding us away from the correct training, for the extinction of clinging, and craving in regard to the world.
At the end of the day I may be right, I may be wrong, but I share this hoping I am one, the other, both, or neither.
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