12. Do Not Let Defilements Train Us
By Luang Pu Thate Desaraṅsī
June 13, 1984
We come to train and cultivate ourselves. But in this training, it is not defilements that train us. We must train the defilements. Whatever things lead to defilements, we must intentionally go against them, bring them under our control. Do not let ourselves be under their control.
Take food and eating as an example. We know it is absolutely necessary for sustenance. Without food as nourishment, the body cannot function. We could not practice the holy life in this religion either. It's called using food to alleviate suffering, decline, restlessness, and agitation. Our life depends on food. As the Buddha asked a novice: "What is that one thing that has no second?" The novice answered: "All beings subsist on food." If there were no food, they could not survive. Human beings are born with food as their foundation. Whatever they seek, it is all for food. Every kind of livelihood, whether much or little, is for the purpose of seeking food. Simply put, it's for the mouth and the belly. No matter how much we accumulate, it's all for the mouth and the belly.
Therefore, we must train ourselves in the consumption of food. It is difficult to be aware of because we are so strongly attached to it, attached since the very beginning, from time immemorial. So we are taught to understand these things. Take food as an example. It is absolutely necessary for nourishing the body. But it is also absolutely necessary to know it properly. That is, it is essential to reflect on it. If we don't reflect, we won't understand. Only when we reflect do we gradually see its drawbacks and its benefits. Its benefit is that it nourishes the body. Its drawback is that it feeds defilements. When we eat for defilements, we accumulate defilements — that means not knowing it as "defilement." If we know it properly, it becomes "Dhamma." Hence the saying: Upon reflection, "alleviating" as one thing; upon reflection, "abstaining" as one thing; upon reflection, "enduring" as one thing; upon reflection, "indulging" as one thing.
"Indulging" upon reflection — this refers to eating. If we don't reflect, food deceives and deludes us, causing attachment. Take smoking as an example. If we don't smoke, we say we're not addicted. But once addicted, that's why we smoke. From the beginning, since birth, we didn't smoke. Initially, as children, we didn't smoke. Then we took up smoking, and gradually became addicted. Once addicted, if we don't smoke, we think we're not addicted. But the moment we feel we are "abstaining," that's addiction. Because we're addicted, we then enjoy it, delight in it, take pleasure in it — that's called addiction. What harm is there in smoking addiction? There is harm. Smoking addiction has many kinds of harm. One harm is that when we don't smoke, we think about it, we get agitated, and so on.
The same applies to food, and to everything else, including clothing, shelter, and medicines. For things we are not attached to, we know why we consume them. We see their benefit and value, so we consume them accordingly. We don't consume them out of attachment. For example, taking quinine medicine, which is extremely bitter. But we take it to cure a fever. If we don't take it, we can't get better. That's not attachment. Yet even then, they have to use a lure — coating it with sugar. Sugar is sweet, and everyone likes sweetness. We coat it to mask the bitterness. That's the addictive part.
The Buddha consumed food purely as medicine. Truly as medicine. He ate without attachment, without intoxication or heedlessness, just enough to sustain life from day to day. His contemplation of food was like this. That's why he ate. That is called doing things not for the sake of defilements. If we can do that, it means we are not under the control of defilements. If we reflect and then eat as described — knowing the full picture before eating — that is called being able to control defilements. We can also choose not to eat. Whether we eat or not, we eat for benefit, not out of intoxication or heedlessness. This is the matter of cutting off defilements.
Now, in our practice, are we practicing to indulge defilements or to control them? To accumulate defilements or to subdue them? What can be subdued? Clothing is one thing. Food is one thing. Shelter is one thing. Medicines are one thing. All of these are breeding grounds for defilements. That is why the Buddha taught us to reflect constantly. When we eat, reflect. When we receive something, reflect. After receiving, reflect again. When about to eat, see it merely as elements. While eating, see it as merely sustaining the body to serve a purpose — that is, for our own benefit, for the body's benefit. Do not be intoxicated. He taught us to reflect and study repeatedly, without ever stopping.
Why reflect repeatedly? Because as long as we are alive, we must reflect. We have to constantly use these things. We might be heedless once, or even be heedless all the time. If we never reflect, we see these things as fun and enjoyable, and then we become wildly reckless. That's why he taught us to reflect. The specific point is: Do not let defilements control us. Defilements have controlled us until it has become second nature, from time immemorial. Since we gained awareness, we have been accumulating them, accumulating them within ourselves continuously. That's why it's hard to remedy. If we cannot remedy them, they remain embedded within us. But if we can remedy them, we will see the benefit. And if we reflect constantly, all the time, it will be beneficial and useful to ourselves. We will not be intoxicated or attached.
The same applies to other things. It applies to all sense objects as well. Defilements are skilled and proficient in whichever direction — they train us to go that way. That is, defilements train us to think with delight, to be infatuated, deluded, intoxicated, and heedless in many ways and matters. It's nothing far away — it's just the six sense spheres that have been born and attached to us from the very beginning, due to this very cause.
For example, the eye: when it sees a form, we delight in it, become infatuated and intoxicated with that form. We take it to be a man or a woman. We take it to be beautiful and attractive. We feel satisfied, pleased, and delighted with seeing beautiful forms. If it's not beautiful, we don't want to look. That's where defilements arise. When it's beautiful, we want to look — defilements arise again. We must reflect so as not to be deluded like that. Reflect to see it as just an element, as a mere condition that arises and passes away. Do not let it stain and cloud your mind over that object. See it as impermanent, as anicca. See it as merely an element.
Sound is the same — merely an element. It is a fleeting phenomenon, without self or substance. It arises and ceases. It comes and then disappears. There is nothing permanent or stable.
Smell, taste, touch, and mental objects are likewise. These things have existed within our own being from time immemorial. Without training and cultivation, they remain sunk in our underlying tendencies. We never truly know and see clearly. Only now are we waking up, becoming aware. Waking up to train and cultivate — that is why it is so difficult to abandon and relinquish them.
Therefore, understand that at this time we are training and cultivating so that they gradually become lighter and thinner. We must establish mindfulness steadily at all times. Then they will gradually fade away and disappear. Not disappearing instantly — we must become highly skilled and proficient. Only then will we be able to let go and uproot them. Once we become skilled and proficient, then it becomes easy. We can master them, we can train ourselves — then we are at ease. Whether standing, walking, sitting, lying down, going anywhere, we are at ease. Wherever we stay, we are at ease. No need to wander here and there. Wherever we go, we go alone. Train only this one. Train to let go, train to uproot. Whatever arises, it arises right here, not elsewhere. It arises right at our own self — established at the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. All contacts arise from body and mind — all of them.
We go seeking solitude in the forest or wilderness, thinking that defilements will disappear. Then we return, and it's the same as before. If we never let go, never release, it remains just as dense. What benefit would that be? Therefore, we should reflect. We should become skilled in our way of living, in our practice and training. Do not let defilements intimidate us.