Inner Strength - Access to Insight

anything good while you’re under its power.Delusion is even worse. Delusion seeps into you, the way blood seepsthroughout every part of your body. When we do evil, we’re deluded. When wedo good, we’re still deluded. Even though we’re well-educated in the Dhamma,we can’t yet escape from the power of delusion. No matter who we are, it staysright on our heels. We may want to make merit, but when we’re deluded wedon’t know what’s right and what’s wrong. We simply want the merit. Weobserve the precepts because we want to be good, but we don’t know what realvirtue is. It’s the same when we practice concentration. We want to get results,but we can’t tell right concentration from wrong. We simply keep on wanting.This is called delusion, in that our knowledge isn’t in line with the truth. It’snot that we don’t know anything. We know, but what we know goes strayingaway from the truth. We’re like a person who has lost his way: He can still keepgoing; it’s just that he’s not on the right path. Suppose, for instance, that we wantto go to Bangkok but we get confused about the way and start heading toBangPuu. We’re off the path as far as Bangkok is concerned, but we’re on theright path for BangPuu—and we can keep on going. It’s not the case that whenyou’re on the wrong path you can’t go. You can, but it’s the wrong path as far asthe destination you want. You’re simply going to end up disappointed. This iswhy delusion is called a demon.The second level of demons are the forms of craving. There are three formsof craving, but they boil down to two sorts. We translate craving as “desire,” anddesire has two types. One is desire mixed with lust, in the ordinary way of theworld. The second has no lust. It’s simply a sense of inclination, affection, a likingfor objects. For example, we feel a liking for certain sights. We see certainmaterial objects and we like the way they look, so we search for them—in otherwords, we want to get them. This, too, is a type of craving. The same holds truefor the various sounds we like. We struggle to get hold of them. Our desire pullsus, yanks us, drags us along—whether or not we’ll get what we want, we haveto keep running. If we get what we want, we have at least something to showfor our efforts. If we don’t, it’s a waste of time and energy, and we suffer. Thiskind of desire is also called craving: craving for objects, for sights, sounds, smells,tastes, tactile sensations: things we like. This is desire combined, not with lust, butwith greed.So craving has these two flavors, distilled out of k›ma-ta˚h›, bhava-ta˚h›, andvibhava-ta˚h›: desire combined with lust, and desire free of lust. These, too, aredemons of defilement. Each of them prevents the mind from inclining towardright concentration. This is why desire—chanda—is classed as a hindrance. Desireon the level of a hindrance covers inclination, a sense of liking, without any lustmixed in. But there’s another type of chanda—called chanda-r›ga, or desire-andpassion—whichis heavier than chanda as a hindrance. Chanda as a hindrance islight. Chanda-r›ga is an enemy of the precepts. Chanda as a hindrance is an enemyof concentration. This is why desire in either sense of the word is classed as ademon, a demon of defilement. This is the second level.The next level of demons are the forms of mental fabrication. For example,meritorious fabrications: the mind’s thoughts of concocting or giving rise to69