Starving Defilements
Those just beginning often wonder what practice is. Practice occurs when you try opposing the defilements, not feeding old habits. where friction and difficulty arise, that is the place to work. When you pick mushrooms to eat, you do not do so blindly, you have to know which kind and what. So too with our practice, we must know the dangers, the snakes bite of defilements, in order to free ourselves from them. The defilements - greed, hatred and delusion are at the root of our suffering and our selfishness. We must learn to overcome them, to conquer and go beyond their control, to become masters of our minds. Of course it seems hard. It is like having the Buddha tell you to split up a friend you have known since childhood. The defilements are like a tiger. We should imprison the tiger in a good strong cage made of mindfulness, energy, patience and endurance. Then we can let it starve to death by not feeding its habitual desires. We do not have to take a knife and butcher it. ...