The first 3 types of thoughts that should be abandoned,
are the 3 opposites of right resolve: thoughts of sensuality, ill will, harming.
What about the 4th category, that serves as a catch all?
The 3 wrong resolves correspond to the first 2 of 5 hindrances.What about the 4th category, that serves as a catch all?
So this last category represents all 5 hindrances,
as well as any other miscellaneous evil unskillful Dharma not covered by 5 hindrances.
Similar to how first line of the first jhāna formula first mentions sensuality,
and then just a category "unskillful dharmas".
[2.4 thoughts of evil un-skillful Dharmas]
uppannuppanne pāpake akusale dhamme | At the very moment a monk notices a thought of evil un-skillful Dharmas arising, |
nādhivāseti | he does not tolerate it. |
pajahati | He abandons it. |
vinodeti | He removes it. |
byantīkaroti | He destroys it. |
anabhāvaṃ gameti; | He annihilates [that thought of evil unskillful Dharma]. |
[The abandoning of the 4 categories of wrong thought] | |
Idaṃ vuccati, bhikkhave, pahānappadhānaṃ. | is called the exertion of abandoning. |
What are evil and/or unskillful Dharmas not covered by 5 hindrances?
Are they worth mentioning, if they aren't important enough to justify having their own category in 5 hindrances?
If you want to commit genocide, become dictator of the land, do those deserve their own category,
or are they simply combination platters of the hindrance of ill will and sensual desire?
If you have a thought (based on wrong view) of "my soul is eternal",
Is that evil (pāpa), or only unskillful (akusala)?
If you want to commit genocide, become dictator of the land, do those deserve their own category,
or are they simply combination platters of the hindrance of ill will and sensual desire?
If you have a thought (based on wrong view) of "my soul is eternal",
Is that evil (pāpa), or only unskillful (akusala)?
Tangent question
When people translate "pāpake akusale dhamme" as "evil unskillful dharmas",shouldn't we make a distinction between "evil" and "unskillful"?
As in the example above, I would say thoughts of "my eternal soul" are unskillful but not evil,
but thoughts of genocide and conquering the land with military force is "evil".
Comments
Post a Comment