How to systematically become aware of (secondary) defilements?
If you'll forgive some AI guided content here - I think it did a good job.
I asked Gemini to give me a list of the secondary defilements, literal translation, and synonyms. Since it has "background" knowledge of me it gave me examples from my life that are very real. I'll show the response down below.
My question is actually this though - has anybody been given a teaching for recognizing them? I am thinking perhaps I will focus on one a week. There are so many that it would be hard to try to be aware of them all the time. ("Self knowledge is seldom good news")
Where I feel called out (and my notes)
- Upanāha
- Literal: To tie up, to bind together.
- Translation: Enmity / Bearing a grudge.
- Synonyms/Context: Simmering frustration, resentment, holding onto a slight. This is Kodha (anger) that hasn't been allowed to discharge. It binds to the body, often manifesting as chronic upper chest breathing or stomach knots during a stand-up meeting with a difficult colleague.
NOTES: I carry a lot of this around physically with work and when my wife is frustrated with me (I have ADHD, so that's...frequent)
Interestingly that lately, with lots of practice I'm able to feel the physical feeling but identify with it less. I'm actually "totally stressed out" at work right now, but mentally I'm sorta ok. Interesting how that works.
- Issā
- Literal: To look at with an evil eye.
- Translation: Envy / Jealousy.
- Synonyms/Context: Resenting another's success, status anxiety. A painful sympathetic contraction when a peer gets a promotion or credit you wanted.
NOTES: I get just a tiny bit of this. I work in the sort of place where the people that do the work are usually not mentioned much in conversations compared to the people that do the selling. Functionally speaking I am used to this but it still creeps in now and again. I'm not super ambitious.
- Macchariya
- Literal: The state of a stingy person.
- Translation: Avarice / Stinginess.
- Synonyms/Context: Scarcity mindset, hoarding. In a corporate environment, this often manifests as knowledge-hoarding or gatekeeping to protect one's indispensability.
NOTE: I actually don't indulge in this behavior at work, though I've seen others do it. However I do have a scarcity mindset sometimes when it comes to money. I make good money now, but have debt, and am used to being broke for most of my life. When my wife says "Christmas is coming" I feel a chill!
- Māna
- Literal: Measuring.
- Translation: Conceit / Pride.
- Synonyms/Context: The constant background comparator: "Am I better than, worse than, or equal to them?" It is a highly exhausting, constant calculation running in the background.
NOTE: If this had just stoped at conceit/pride I'd say I have very little of this, but the context version hits hard for me. I work with a lot of insanely smart and education people (lie 60% of the people I work with have PhDs or master's degrees). I'd say "imposter syndrome" fits here.
- Mada
- Literal: Intoxication.
- Translation: Vanity / Intoxication (with youth, health, or life).
- Synonyms/Context: Complacency born of current success or physical capability. Forgetting the fragility of the body or the impermanence of your current standing.
NOTE: Funny thing about defilements is that contradictory ones can co-exist. I get "stingy" because I feel like I'm behind financially with debt, but at the same time I also get very complacent with my current job situation (good pay, work from home) and sometimes with my family.
Anyway, here's the full list:
Note also that my AI likes to talk to me in terms of neurobiology and software engineering.
The Aversion / Friction Family (Rooted in Dosa)
These are variations of sympathetic nervous system arousal—the body interpreting the environment or other people as threats, leading to tension, rigidity, and the need to defend or attack.
- Vyāpāda
- Literal: To go bad, to spoil.
- Translation: Ill will / Malevolence.
- Synonyms/Context: Generalized hostility, wishing someone would fail, a baseline state of aggressive reactivity.
- Kodha
- Literal: Boiling over.
- Translation: Anger.
- Synonyms/Context: Acute rage, the sudden spike of adrenaline when a server crashes or a driver cuts you off. Short-lived but highly disruptive to vagal tone.
- Upanāha (The one you noticed)
- Literal: To tie up, to bind together.
- Translation: Enmity / Bearing a grudge.
- Synonyms/Context: Simmering frustration, resentment, holding onto a slight. This is Kodha (anger) that hasn't been allowed to discharge. It binds to the body, often manifesting as chronic upper chest breathing or stomach knots during a stand-up meeting with a difficult colleague.
- Makkha
- Literal: Smearing over, concealing.
- Translation: Contempt / Detraction / Denigration.
- Synonyms/Context: Dismissiveness, rolling your eyes, actively minimizing someone else's contribution or worth to protect your own ego.
- Paḷāsa
- Literal: To strike against, to clash.
- Translation: Domineering / Presumption / Insolence.
- Synonyms/Context: Asserting dominance, talking over people, refusing to yield in an argument purely out of pride, pulling rank.
The Greed / Clinging Family (Rooted in Lobha)
These involve dopaminergic fixation—the organism perceiving a scarcity of resources, status, or comfort, and tightening its grip to secure them.
- Abhijjhā-visamalobha
- Literal: Directing the gaze toward (Abhijjhā) + Uneven/unjust desire (Visamalobha).
- Translation: Covetousness / Unrighteous Greed.
- Synonyms/Context: Fixation on acquiring what isn't yours or what you don't need; hyper-focusing on an outcome at the expense of ethics or baseline calm.
- Issā
- Literal: To look at with an evil eye.
- Translation: Envy / Jealousy.
- Synonyms/Context: Resenting another's success, status anxiety. A painful sympathetic contraction when a peer gets a promotion or credit you wanted.
- Macchariya
- Literal: The state of a stingy person.
- Translation: Avarice / Stinginess.
- Synonyms/Context: Scarcity mindset, hoarding. In a corporate environment, this often manifests as knowledge-hoarding or gatekeeping to protect one's indispensability.
The Delusion / Ego-Preservation Family (Rooted in Moha)
These represent cognitive distortion and rigidity. They are failures of objective self-monitoring, where the brain prioritizes protecting a fabricated self-image over seeing reality accurately.
- Māyā
- Literal: Magic, illusion.
- Translation: Deceit / Hypocrisy.
- Synonyms/Context: Masking, presenting a false front, faking competence or alignment to avoid vulnerability.
- Sāṭheyya
- Literal: Craftiness, trickery.
- Translation: Fraud.
- Synonyms/Context: Active manipulation, office politics, framing data to look better than it is rather than admitting a fault.
- Thambha
- Literal: A pillar, a post.
- Translation: Obstinacy / Stubbornness.
- Synonyms/Context: Cognitive rigidity. The refusal to down-regulate or change course when presented with new data. The absolute physical inability to say "I was wrong."
- Sārambha
- Literal: Accompanying noise, rush, or impetuosity.
- Translation: Rivalry / Contention / Competitiveness.
- Synonyms/Context: Turning collaborative environments into zero-sum games. The need to "win" the conversation rather than solve the problem.
- Māna
- Literal: Measuring.
- Translation: Conceit / Pride.
- Synonyms/Context: The constant background comparator: "Am I better than, worse than, or equal to them?" It is a highly exhausting, constant calculation running in the background.
- Atimāna
- Literal: Beyond measuring (Excessive Māna).
- Translation: Arrogance.
- Synonyms/Context: Extreme superiority complex, complete blindness to one's own limitations, leading to inevitable structural failure (both in software and in life).
- Mada
- Literal: Intoxication.
- Translation: Vanity / Intoxication (with youth, health, or life).
- Synonyms/Context: Complacency born of current success or physical capability. Forgetting the fragility of the body or the impermanence of your current standing.
- Pamāda
- Literal: Without gladness/care (from letting go of attention).
- Translation: Heedlessness / Negligence.
- Synonyms/Context: Operating entirely on autopilot. The complete absence of sati (mindfulness). Letting the mind drift into the default mode network without any anchor.