The Second Treatise on the Perfections – 2752
How to Be Mindful to Achieve Emancipation
How to achieve emancipation from the defilement of sense-desires (
kilesa-kāma
)
is explained in the Great Exposition (
Mahā-niddesa
):
Addasaṁ kāma te mūlaṁ, saṅkappā kāma jāyasi,
na taṁ saṅkappayissāmi, evaṁ kāma na hohisi.
Sensuality, I have seen your source; you arise from thoughts of pleasant
objects of sense (
kāma-vitakka
). No more will I think of any pleasant
object of sense. Then, Sensuality, you will arise no more.
In this connection, three kinds of wrong thought and three kinds of right
thought should be understood. The three kinds of wrong thought are:
[1603]
1. Sensuous thoughts (
kāma-vitakka
), i.e., thinking of pleasant objects as
desirable things.
2. Hateful thoughts (
byāpāda-vitakka
), i.e., thinking of harming others.
3. Cruel thoughts (
vihiṁsā-vitakka
), i.e., thinking of torturing others.
The three kinds of right thought are:
1. Thoughts of renunciation (
nekkhamma-vitakka
), i.e., thinking of
emancipating oneself from sensuous objects.
2. Thoughts of hatelessness (
avyāpāda-vitakka
), i.e., thinking of others
with loving-kindness.
3. Thoughts of non-violence (
avihiṁsā-vitakka
), i.e., thinking of others
with compassion.
The source of greed (
kilesa-kāma
), on close examination, is found to lie in
sensuous thoughts (
kāma-vitakka
), which is one of the three wrong thoughts. As
long as one keeps on thinking sensuous thoughts, greed continues to multiply
and there is no emancipation from that mental defilement of greed. Only when
one ceases to think of the pleasant objects of sense-desire, will greed not arise
and one achieves emancipation. Therefore, as stated above, one should be
mindful to be free from the mental defilements of greed. Just as freedom from
sense-desire leads to freedom from the cycle of Saṁsāra even so making efforts
to free oneself from greed results in freedom from the pleasant objects of sense-
desire.